Over a year before the Declaration of Independence, America is born at Bunker Hill; the first major battle of the revolution is also its bloodiest.
As British warships fill the New York harbor, George Washington rallies his Continental Army for the biggest battle of the revolution; with his men backed into a corner on Brooklyn Heights, it takes a miracle to survive.
After six years of war and with the fate of American independence in the balance, Patriot and French forces make a daring attempt to defeat the world's most powerful army and finally turn the course of the American Revolution at Yorktown.
In 1836, American settlers in Mexican Texas take over a former mission in defiance of the government, and for weeks endure a siege by Mexican forces; a nighttime assault earns these vastly outnumbered rebels a spot in American lore.
The brutal fight for the soul of America begins at the Battle of Bull Run, the first major battle of the Civil War; as the Virginia hills run red with blood, hopes of a swift end to the war -- and the illusions of a young nation -- come to an end.
Two years into the Civil War, the Union is losing the fight and desperately needs a victory to stop Robert E. Lee's push north; near Sharpsburg, Md., Union troops take a stand in a battle that could save America or end it for good.
In the spring of 1863, the Civil War enters its third bloody year; for the North, the clearest path to victory runs through the last Confederate holdout, Vicksburg, but taking the fortified city amid unforgiving terrain may require a miracle.
America's push west forces conflicts with Native tribes; driven by ego, George Custer launches a doomed assault against a large band of Indigenous warriors, now enshrined as "Custer's Last Stand."