All language subtitles for The.American.Revolution.Series.1.2of3.The.Empire.Fights.Back.720p.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org

A ragtag band of brothers takes
on the largest empire in history.

Among them, not just founding
fathers and future presidents,

but the unsung heroes
who also played their part.

Ordinary men and women whose
extraordinary acts of courage and sacrifice

are the real story of
the American Revolution.

It's been 14 months
since the first major battle

of the American
Revolution at Bunker Hill.

Seven weeks ago, the founding fathers
signed the Declaration of Independence,

announcing the birth of a new nation.

But with the Continental
Army on the brink of defeat,

the future of that nation
seems likely to be short-lived.

The war has moved south
from Boston to New York,

where George Washington
and his 19,000 soldiers

are being decimated by 32,000
redcoats of the British army,

the largest invasion force
ever assembled by the empire.

Washington's men are no match
for the king's experienced soldiers.

The British regarded the Americans
as groups, as farmers, as mechanics,

people with no experience
or training in war,

and for the most part, they were right.

America's Continental Army is an
undisciplined force of volunteers.

Each soldier's term of
enlistment lasts for one year

and few will serve for the
entire duration of the war.

But 100,000 men will fight under Washington's
command before the revolution is over.

Another 200,000 bear arms as
militiamen defending local home fronts

and sometimes fighting
alongside the Continentals.

But in the war's earliest years, the
patriots are far from a unified force.

They're an outgunned, disorderly rabble.

In a week of furious
fighting at Long Island,

nearly a thousand
patriots have been killed or

wounded and another
thousand taken prisoner.

Washington and half of
his army, some 9,000 men,

are now cornered in Brooklyn
with their backs to the East River.

The British are digging a patchwork of
trenches toward the American position.

They're preparing for an assault.

Washington's only possible
escape route is across the water.

But the British fleet stationed
off the southern tip of Manhattan

is preparing to sail
upriver and cut them off.

Washington knows it's only a matter of time

before he and his men are
either captured or annihilated.

This is a critical moment.

If Washington and the
main army stay in fight,

they'll be destroyed, and they know that.

So it's really important that they
rejoin with the rest of their forces

so that they can go
on to fight another day.

If Washington were to lose his army,
it would mean the war would be over.

That's really the problem
that Washington is

facing, and it seems
to be insurmountable.

What Washington desperately needs is time

to safely retreat
before the British attack.

And miraculously, it is provided
by a fierce, southerly wind

that prevents the British fleet
from sailing up the East River.

If the British Navy had been
able to make it up the East River,

they would have blocked their escape.

The winds and luck were against them.

We need to act aggressively.
We need to go forward.

Washington immediately seizes
on this stroke of good fortune.

We evacuate tonight.

His plan is to ferry his
9,000 men, their horses,

arms and equipment across
the East River to Manhattan.

From there, they will head north
to escape the Redcoats' advance.

The retreat must be made in a single night,

and in silence, so that the
British are caught by surprise.

We must begin immediately.

Well, there you have it, gentlemen.

The Americans and the British
are only 600 yards apart at this point,

and if the British catch on to
what Washington is planning to do,

they could catch the Americans with
their pants down and wipe them out.

For Washington's forces to retreat across
the river undetected seems a long shot,

and failure will pitch
them against a British

force that outnumbers
them almost three to one.

But Washington has a secret weapon,

in the form of Colonel John Glover,

an officer described as a
tough little terrier of a man.

Glover is a tenacious
Massachusetts shipping merchant

who's known to carry two silver pistols
and a Scottish broadsword into battle.

John Glover was a master mariner.

He was a no-nonsense kind of guy.

He demanded discipline and hard
work from his men to keep his ship afloat.

John Glover is the leader of one of the
Continental Army's most unusual units

in that it's very disciplined
and very effective.

It's made up of fishermen from Marblehead,

and they know exactly what they're doing.

Glover and his 1,200 New England mariners

have a keen understanding
of tides and currents,

making them the perfect choice
to spearhead the operation.

Glover wastes no time
marshalling the resources he'll need

to undertake the daring
mission in just one night.

We will commandeer every boat, every canoe,

every skiff, every raft that we can find.

We will effect this evacuation
in relay teams of ten.

We will gather here on this
southern shore around midnight.

He is really a tough guy and doesn't
care what obstacles he has to face.

The Patriots' evacuation
plan is a desperate gamble.

But it appears to be their only
chance of avoiding a disastrous defeat.

Hurry, lads! Hurry! Let's go!

At a site near the present
day Brooklyn Bridge,

Glover and his team begin the
evacuation in dozens of small boats.

And as soon as men are in boats,

they're as vulnerable
as they're going to get,

because there's nowhere to hide,
there's only so fast you can go,

long boats are sitting ducks.

But on this night, the Patriots once
again receive a valuable slice of luck.

It was overcast and it kept it really dark,

and so the Americans were
able to fake still being at their post

and being human there, and
keeping the campfires burning.

Glover has to ferry the
troops across the river,

but he also has to ferry their cannon
and their weapons, also their horses.

Try to load horses onto
boats and have them keep

quiet when you're
trying to do this silently.

The boats are so heavily loaded
that they are at risk of being swamped.

The fact that none of the
boats capsize upon loading

when you have those kinds
of shifting and nervous cargoes

is not a good thing.

To avoid detection by the British,

Glover has ordered that the
oars be muffled with canvas,

and he forbids anyone to speak.

The only noise heard from the
Patriot camp during the retreat

is deliberate, made by Washington's
men in front of their fortifications.

It's partly so the British will think
that they're digging entrenchments

also to cover the noise of the men getting
into boats and rowing across the river.

For nine hours, with
rigid order and precision,

Glover's Armada sails back
and forth across the East River.

Hurry, lads! Hurry! Hurry!

Some boats make as many
as 11 separate crossings.

But as the sun begins
to rise over New York,

Washington and more than a thousand
soldiers are still stranded in Brooklyn.

Disaster still seems inevitable.

Until another huge
stroke of luck materializes.

By some miracle, a really
thick, heavy fog rolls in.

One soldier says that he couldn't
even see 20 feet in front of him.

That's how thick the fog was.

The fog allows the last of Glover's
boats to retreat from Brooklyn.

But they do not pass completely undetected.

As Washington and his
remaining men board the last boats,

a British patrol spots the
Patriots and opens fire.

Four of the rebels are hit, but
Washington and the Revolution survive.

The plan hatched by Washington
and executed by John Glover

had successfully used the cover of night
and fog to execute a near-perfect retreat.

Washington's escape
at this situation is a

combination of bold
thinking and blind luck.

The end result being that they
will be able to fight again and again.

Defeat after defeat followed
the retreat from Long Island

as Washington's forces
were driven out of New York,

down the length of New Jersey,
and to the brink of collapse.

Down, but not yet out, the
future of the Patriots' ragged and

retreating army will soon rest
on another audacious gamble.

Three days before Christmas,
the Revolution is all but lost

for George Washington
and his Patriot forces.

In the five months since his
miraculous escape from Long Island,

he's lost every battle,

and 75% of his army.

The British have driven him from New York
and deep into the farmland of Pennsylvania.

Only 2,400 Continental soldiers
are now under his command.

His army is melting away.

Men are just deserting,

and it seems as though he's not going to
have an army left to fight in the spring.

As patriotic as those who
joined the Continental Army were,

not many of them were inclined to
stay indefinitely with a lost cause.

So with one-year enlistments
coming up at the end of the year,

Washington was literally within
days of having his army disappear.

Washington knows he now needs a
decisive victory to rescue the Revolution.

But the idea seems virtually hopeless.

General, he's a Tory spy.
We found him by the river.

No spy!
I was just looking for a stray calf.

Leave us. I will question him.

Mr Honeyman.

A pleasure again, sir.

A little-known cattle farmer and
butcher named John Honeyman

is about to give Washington
a golden opportunity

to wrestle the initiative
away from the British.

John Honeyman is one of
the Revolution's best mysteries.

It's said that he was a spy who was
only known to George Washington.

But some doubt that because there
isn't much in the way of a paper trail.

But a lot of people say,

well, maybe there isn't a
paper trail because they

didn't write anything down
to keep his identity a secret.

John Honeyman is born in Ireland.
At 29, he enlists in the British army.

He fights nobly in the French and Indian
War and receives an honorable discharge.

He's well-liked by the British.

This allows him to move freely between
the British camps and the American camps.

He's a classic spy.

Honeyman has allowed
himself to be captured

because he has vital
information to deliver.

You are Trenton.

The Hessians.

Yes, sir.

Trenton, New Jersey, is 10 miles
away across the Delaware River.

1,400 German mercenaries
are stationed there.

Like the rest of the British
army, they've dug in for the winter

following the European military tradition
of ceasing all fighting until the spring.

War was a little bit
different in those days.

War wasn't this constant,
total kind of thing.

War was a very seasonal operation.

There were very few in
the way of winter battles.

The armies get to rest during the winter.

Honeyman believes Washington
can pull off an unlikely victory

by breaking this cardinal rule.

The Hessians are off their guard, sir.

Half of them are asleep or
drunk, dreaming for Christmas.

A precisely timed attack
could devastate the British.

Washington approves a bold surprise attack.

He'll lead his army on
Christmas Day across

the ice clogged river
and march on to Trenton.

An aide reports seeing Washington
scrolling on a piece of paper

as he's talking, as
he's outlining the plan,

and later he looks
at this piece of paper

and on that Washington
has written, victory or death.

But Honeyman's work isn't finished.

On the eve of the attack, he reports to
the Hessian commander, Johann Raal.

For the past year, Honeyman
has duped the British forces

into believing he's a
loyalist spy on their side.

Honeyman informs Raal that
he's been to the American camp.

He tells Raal the
Americans are in disarray.

They're lacking food, they're lacking
material, they're on the edge of mutiny.

While the information
is at least partially true,

Honeyman's real purpose is to give
Washington's men the best possible chance

by lulling the Hessians
into a false sense of security.

On Christmas Day, at 4pm, Washington's
forces begin crossing the river

in several locations, several miles apart.

The largest force of 2,400 men
is led by Washington himself.

The second force of 1,500 militia
men begin crossing downriver,

while a smaller force of 700 men will
cross the river directly opposite Trenton.

Washington and his detachment
must land on the other side

by midnight if they are to
reach Trenton by daybreak.

It's essential to the whole operation
that the German soldiers be surprised

that they not see this
coming, that they don't

have any advance word
that an attack is coming.

The best time to do that is at dawn.

The iconic painting by
Emmanuel Lutz is often

criticized for depicting
Washington standing up.

But in truth, he really did
stand during the crossing,

along with his soldiers,
as the boats they used

were different from those
depicted in the painting.

These are big barge-like boats that
they're using to get across the river.

And the men would have been standing.
There weren't seats.

They're actually transporting
men the same way an LST would

be transporting men to the
shores of Omaha Beach in 1944.

By the time Washington's troops
complete the grueling crossing, it's 4am.

Four hours behind schedule, there's no
way for them to reach Trenton by dawn.

So time has gotten away from him.

And he also learns
that the other two prongs

of the attack weren't
able to cross at all.

He has a much smaller force.
So he has to make this choice.

Do we call it off and go back because
chances are we could very well get beaten?

Or do we press on and try
to win with what we have?

And Washington makes
the decision to continue with

what he has and make
the best of the situation.

But Washington doesn't
know that any hope of

surprising the Hessians
may be about to vanish.

A loyalist spy has witnessed the crossing.

It's sort of unforgivable
for a commander not

to at least look at the
message in this moment.

And I think that comes
from the overconfidence

and frankly contempt
of the Americans.

Raul never reads the note. If he
had, he could have laid a trap for

Washington and the Continental Army
and ended the war right then and there.

The following morning, Washington
and his 2,400 troops launch the attack.

The Hessians are caught
completely off guard.

Colonel Raul is among
the first of the casualties.

Those who survive are captured.

A scrappy Continental Army
with few resources and fewer men

had dealt a punishing blow to
the world's most powerful empire.

It was a stunning victory
for Washington and a

huge morale boost for
the faltering colonial cause.

The victory at Trenton is an astonishing
thing. It's like a lightning bolt.

And that victory at the very, very end
of the year gave just enough of a positive

ending to the year to keep the revolution,
literally keep the revolution alive.

So if John Honeyman was
all that we suspect he was,

his contribution to the
American Revolution is immense.

He changed the course of the battle at
Trenton and changed the outcome of the war and

turned what really could have been an absolutely
crushing defeat into a stunning victory.

Honeyman continued his work
as a spy for four more years,

remaining undetected by the
British and unknown to the Patriots.

But the victory he helped
to achieve at Trenton was

already enough to cement
his name in American history.

The shocking upset
ignites the fury of Britain's

imperial forces. The response
is swift and devastating.

America's fate now rests on the
shoulders of ordinary men and women

willing to make extraordinary
sacrifices to keep the revolution alive.

After their humiliating
defeat at Trenton, the British

vowed to crush the colonial
rebellion once and for all.

In 1777, they launch a new
strategy to divide the colonies in two

by seizing centrally located New
York and its all-important harbor.

The British strategy at this point in the war
was to cut off New England. And if Britain

could cut off New England, the heart of the
rebellion, maybe they could end the revolution.

One of Britain's
targets is a store of

Continental Army supplies
at Danbury, Connecticut.

As British soldiers search the
town and set it ablaze, a Patriot

messenger is dispatched to
Fredericksburg, New York, for help.

The nearest militia must be
alerted to the British assault.

Colonel Luddington!
Danbury! It's in flames!

Henry Luddington is the leader of 400
militiamen in New York's Duchess County.

His is the only force in
the area that can stop the

sacking of Danbury and
save the rebels' supplies.

Luddington has to try to get troops together
from local militias and local posts,

so he has to get the word out to as many
men as possible as quickly as possible.

And this messenger himself had ridden
through the night and was exhausted.

Luddington himself
cannot be spared.

He will need to organize the
militia as soon as they arrive.

There's no one else. You must do this now.

I can't make it.

Father.

I'll go.

Father, Luddington can't bear the idea
of his daughter riding out into the night.

But he realizes he has no other choice.

16-year-old Sybil
knows the area well,

including the homes of
her father's militiamen.

And she can ride like the wind.

She knew exactly where to go
and how to get from place to place.

She was the perfect
person for that job.

Sybil isn't willing to just sit back
and watch things happen around her.

She's full of foxy. She
wants to be a part of it.

And when she sees the
opportunity, she grabs it.

Heroism and the fight for freedom knows
no age. Sybil is young, strong-willed.

She's going to do what
she thinks she needs to do.

Sybil Luddington rides across
the New York countryside

throughout the night to rally
the patriots to save Danbury.

Sybil undertakes her daring
mission alone, covering 40 miles.

24 more than Paul Revere
did on his famous ride.

Revere's mission was to get from
Boston to conquer, to warn the people there

that the British were coming to
confiscate the weapons. He never made it.

Sybil Luddington, on the other hand,
dodged the British, managed to complete

the full 40-mile ride and collect
this militia without being caught.

Much more successful mission.

Monster of Luddington! Danbury's burning!

Boys!

Sybil's heroism may seem
remarkable for one so young, but half the

population of colonial America
was just 16 years old or younger.

And in the course
of the revolution, they

also had their part
to play in the struggle.

Colonial Americans didn't have the idea of
the teenage years that we have. You move

from childhood into learning how to be an
adult into adulthood at a much earlier age.

Sybil's mother Abigail was wed just four
days after she turned 15. Today that would

raise eyebrows. Back then, children had
to mature a lot sooner than they do now.

During the war, the
Patriot militias recruited

thousands of teenagers,
even boys as young as 10.

The most renowned name
among these young militia

men is America's seventh
president, Andrew Jackson.

He joined the Patriot cause
at the age of 13, but was

captured by the British
in South Carolina in 1781.

This officer orders Jackson to shine
his boots. And Jackson was a sassy

kid from the time he was young. He
always had this sassy streak in him.

And apparently he told this officer
what he could do with his boots.

And the officer outraged, pulls out
his saber and takes a swipe at Jackson.

Jackson did his best
to ward off the blow,

but the saber slashed
his left hand and scalp.

And because Jackson was still relatively young, it left a crease in his
skull. And for the rest of his life, until he died in 1845, his hand

would sort of unconsciously go to his forehead and he would feel this
crease in his skull and he would remember how much he despised the British.

Patriot children like Jackson
not only served in the American

militias, but also in the
shadowy world of espionage.

They made for good spies because people didn't pay
attention to them. One of the ways that you could

smuggle a message out on a kid was write a message
on a piece of paper and then sew it into a button.

No one can say how many children lost their
lives during the war. And the harshness of

life in colonial America had certainly made
them a generation all too familiar with death.

Many, many mothers died in childbirth. Many infants died. About a
third of children died before reaching the age of five. You were very

unlikely to live in a family where nobody had died early. That
doesn't mean you're ready for war. War is a different kind of killing.

But death didn't
surprise colonial children.

Risking her own capture and
possibly her life, Sybil's night ride

succeeds in rallying 470 local
militiamen at Ludington's farm.

The next morning, they join more
than 2,000 other American soldiers and

militia fighters and attack the Redcoat
invaders in Ridgefield, Connecticut.

The British forces prevail, but the
Americans' rapid and fierce response

ensures that they never invade
the interior of Connecticut again.

But the King's army still outnumbers and
outguns the Patriot fighters on every front.

And in their hearts, the revolution's
leaders believe they will lose the war.

But that doesn't mean the
rebels are ready to stop trying.

A single bullet can't win a war.

But no one will come closer to challenging
that idea than 26-year-old Timothy Murphy.

In the autumn of 1777, 500 riflemen
are helping to level the playing field

against the superior British army
advancing through upstate New York.

Pennsylvania woodsman
Timothy Murphy is among them.

In the backcountry, along the Appalachian
Mountains, it was said that boys would

learn to use a rifled musket as soon
as they were strong enough to lift one.

So his boyhood would have consisted
a great deal of hunting in the woods,

and that's where he got his early
training using the rifled musket.

Murphy and his fellow
riflemen are such deadly shots

that the British have nicknamed
them the Widowmakers.

The secret of their success
is not only down to raw skill.

The accuracy of their Kentucky
long rifles is far superior to

that of the muskets wielded by
most Patriot and British soldiers.

The inside of a musket's barrel is smooth.
As the ball fired from it is smaller in

diameter, it moves erratically as it travels
down its length and towards its target.

It's like throwing a knuckleball. It
goes, but you can't direct where it goes.

So muskets are meant to be fired
by men standing in a line, and all of

them fire a volley, and all of this
lead is going to go and hit something.

If you're shooting at a large group of
people, that ball is going to hit somebody.

I mean, I hit the guy you're
aiming at, but it's going to

hit the guy next to him or the
guy on the other side of him.

And this is why, to our eye, it seems
silly to see these troops line up in ranks

and fire at each other, but that was the
only way to hit anything, to do any damage.

But the ingenious
technology of a rifle brings

a revolutionary new
precision to warfare.

A rifle has a groove inside the
barrel that will make the bullets spin.

So this is like throwing a fastball that
has a spin to it, much more accurate.

The new, more accurate
rifles allow a skilled sniper

to do something never
before possible in warfare.

To hit a specific enemy soldier
from a distance of 100 to 300 meters.

And the Americans' most valued
targets are the British officers.

British battle tactics require
them to be in the thick of the action,

directing the Redcoats' highly
disciplined firepower and field movements.

But that also puts them in harm's way.

Even at Bunker Hill, the
Americans are targeting the officers,

because if you take out the command,
these men won't know what to do.

When you pick off the British officers,
they're used to fighting in formations.

It created just the kind of chaos
that the Americans needed to win.

Under the 18th century rules
of war that European armies

recognized, you were not
supposed to fire at officers.

It was considered something of a
war crime, a violation of the rules,

an ungentlemanly act for one
gentleman to shoot at another gentleman.

But this is what these
backcountry riflemen specialized in.

This is where they could really make
a difference in the outcome of a battle.

The British army relied
heavily on such tradition, but

they realized they must
adapt to counter this new threat.

So they have deployed their
own unit of sharpshooters.

Led by Captain Patrick Ferguson.

Before Murphy gets his chance
to change the course of the war

with one bullet, Ferguson will
be granted the same opportunity.

Ferguson was one of a number of British soldiers
who liked the idea of light infantry, of troops who

were trained to fight, not in close order, but
rather self-reliantly and emphasizing marksmanship.

Ferguson's golden opportunity
comes in Pennsylvania, as he and his

patrol move ahead of the main
British force, advancing on Philadelphia.

Through the trees, Ferguson
glimpses an American general

on a routine reconnaissance
mission, George Washington.

Ferguson had Washington in his
sights. Washington's back was turned,

and because Ferguson was a man
of honor, he wouldn't take the shot.

Ferguson chooses instead
to take Washington prisoner.

Dismount! But fails.

His legacy as a sharpshooter will
be defined by the shot he didn't take.

If Ferguson had pulled the trigger, he might have
killed the revolution right there. Who else but

Washington could have led the Americans to victory?
That's a great unanswered question of history.

A month later, at the Battle of
Saratoga in New York, the British are

closer than ever to achieving
their goal of splitting America in two.

Their 7,000-strong invasion
force has the upper hand against

America's 6,000 Continental
soldiers and another 6,000 militiamen.

If the British win this
battle, the war will be over.

The war will be over.

Leading his troops to
almost certain victory

is the brilliant British
general, Simon Fraser.

Marksman, Timothy Murphy, has
been ordered to target the general.

But Fraser is almost
300 meters away.

Murphy was a good shot, but
that was a challenge even for him.

In the chaos of this battle, which took
place largely in forests around farms,

he realized that the best view he could
get would be from the branch of a tree.

The very public death
of Fraser, as he's rallying

his troops, was a huge
blow to British morale.

Once Fraser fell, the relentless
attack of his troops faltered

and the British troops had to
fall back to defensive position.

By the end of the day, the American
victory is sealed. A week later, 6,000

red coats surrendered, nearly a
quarter of the British forces in America.

This stunning victory at Saratoga
is a turning point in the war.

Not only was Saratoga a major
military victory, it convinced

France that the rebels might win
this war, that Britain might lose.

So the King of France then
welcomed Benjamin Franklin to court

and they began work on an
alliance between France and America.

And now you're going to have this major
European power that's going to step up to

bat, join your team and give a good whack
to the British whom they don't like anyway.

France will shower the
Patriots with soldiers,

supplies and the modern
equivalent of $13 billion.

The Battle of Saratoga paved the way
to this breakthrough and at the heart of

this vital victory for the Patriots was
Timothy Murphy's precisely aimed bullet.

But as 1777 comes to a close, a bitter
winter in a place called Valley Forge

will threaten to stop the Patriots'
renewed hope of victory in its tracks.

The victory at Saratoga
had given the Patriot

forces a renewed
hope of winning the war.

But as 1777 comes to a
close, a wave of shocking

setbacks appear to have
doomed their cause once again.

America's capital, Philadelphia,
has fallen to the British and

George Washington's Continental
Army is unraveling before his eyes.

20 miles northwest of Philadelphia,
11,000 men are fighting to

survive a perilous winter at a
remote village called Valley Forge.

The supply system simply broke
down. They're short on supplies, they're

short on medicine, they're short
on blankets. It's an awful situation.

Whenever food runs short, the death
toll spikes. Foraging parties in search of

provisions constantly move in and out
of camp, but often return empty-handed.

The food supply is constantly being exhausted.
So the men are eating tree bark, they're

melting snow to drink. So it's a desperate time
for this army without shoes, clothing or food.

Horses were dying for lack of food, for fodder,
for feed. And the ground's frozen, they can't bury

the horses, so they got a problem with the carcasses,
so it smells awful on top of everything else.

Valley Forge is remembered
as an icy graveyard

where legions of Washington
soldiers froze to death.

But an onslaught of
disease kills many patriots

before the bitter
cold can even set in.

Typhus, dysentery and
smallpox ravage the camp.

As many as 2,500 of the 11,000 soldiers
stationed at Valley Forge would die.

With the camp's food stocks dwindling,
Washington fears for the future of his army.

Congress has promised to fix
the army's crippled supply system,

but that will take time. His
starving troops need food now.

But Washington has no idea that a
daring rescue party is already on the way.

Han Yeri is a warchief of the
Oneida, a tribe from New York

that prides itself on being
an ally of the colonial cause.

Han Yeri is a warrior who is as tough
as they come. In one battle in New

York, he and his fellow warriors of
the Oneida fought alongside the patriots.

And he single-handedly kills nine redcoats,
and then even after he's shot in the wrist and

can't shoot anymore, he takes his hatchet and
starts hacking away at the British with that.

The Oneida are among the few
Native American allies the patriots have.

When the Native American tribes
realized that the Americans were fighting

against the British, they had to make
a decision. Which side did we join?

It was a fraught decision
either way, because they

were sort of gambling on
which side is going to win.

Most Indians who
fought in the American

Revolution fought on
the side of the British.

The colonists, after all,
were the very people that

Indians who lived near
them worried about most.

They were the people moving on to
Indian lands, and the British Empire

was who had promised Indians
that they would protect their lands.

Han Yeri chooses to side with
the patriots, because he really

thinks that that's going to
be the best for his nation.

The Oneida's support of the
rebels has divided a powerful

league of Indian nations
called the Iroquois Confederacy.

Like the patriots and loyalists, Native
Americans have turned on one another.

Hearing of the Continental Army's
distress, Yeri and his warriors are

now carrying 600 bushels of white
corn, 400 miles to Valley Forge.

Slipping past both the
British and their Indian

allies, the Oneida finally
arrive at Valley Forge.

The Oneida corn is a lifeline,
helping Washington's starving

soldiers hang on until the
army's supply lines are restored.

Washington's troops
not only survive Valley

Forge, but also learn
something new, discipline.

Their teacher is a Prussian
officer, Friedrich von Steuben.

The plump, 47-year-old
drill master, is an

unemployed soldier of
fortune in search of a cause.

And he finds one, as
he whips the motley

patriots into a well-oiled
fighting machine.

The army that comes out of
Valley Forge is a professional army.

It can go toe-to-toe with the British.
Prior to Valley Forge, it really can.

But the revamped Continental Army is more
than the product of von Steuben's drills.

During their ordeal at
Valley Forge, the men

have drawn strength
from their stoic commander.

It was almost as though
Washington, by force

of his personality,
held the army together.

That was a bit of an exaggeration,
but it did demonstrate that Washington

had quite a hold on the emotions
of the soldiers who fought for him.

Washington was more than
old enough to be their father,

and he really was a father
figure to many of them.

Thousands and thousands
of these guys stayed.

They didn't have to. They
couldn't be forced to stay.

They could have just given up, put
down their guns and left, but they didn't.

There are critical times in which
ordinary people really make the difference.

For Washington and his
soldiers, the challenge ahead

is daunting, and the
odds are still against them.

As the war moves to the American south,
the outnumbered patriots must somehow

resist a new wave of British invaders,
as well as enemies closer to home.

They don't dare dream of
victory, but they have made their

choice and will continue
to fight until the bitter end.