Original subtitles

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] 1776,

America was a land divided against itself,

torn between dreams of independence

and loyalty to a distant king.

Is this a patriotic uprising against tyranny, or treason?

- The stakes are high

for every member of the Continental Congress,

for every soldier and militiaman who picks up arms.

If the Revolutionary War does not work out for them,

they could be hanged.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] 250 years

after the Declaration of Independence,

the stories of revolutionary veterans,

some recently transcribed

from pension applications in the National Archives,

reveal what the war was like

for the common soldier and their families.

- When William French enlisted,

he could not possibly have known

this is the beginning of a war.

- Susanna Chandler learns the British Army is coming.

She hides her children

and then she watches what happens.

- [Michael Graham] Our men running in almost every direction

made it truly a day of distress to the Americans.

- [Narrator] Is this resistance against tyranny, or treason?

What exactly are they fighting for?

(dramatic music)

(dramatic rhythmic music)

Spring, 1775, Massachusetts simmers

with resentment against British Royal authority.

In the eyes of the crown,

the colony is a hotbed of sedition,

teetering on the brink of open insurrection.

Rebellion is in the air.

But are they traitors or patriots?

Britain, ruler of the largest maritime empire in history,

has long governed the 13 colonies with a light touch.

The British parliament keeps taxes low

and allows the colonists

to control many of their own affairs

so long as they remain loyal to the mother country,

but the costs of fighting wars

to build and maintain this empire

start to spiral.

- And then all of a sudden

parliament says, "No, we're changing the rules.

We need money, we're gonna tax you."

- The taxes were on every product imaginable,

day-to-day products

like glass, and paper, and playing cards,

even on their favorite beverage, tea.

- It's not that they're necessarily unwilling to pay taxes,

but as most people know,

they don't have representation in parliament in England.

Of course, everybody knows the famous phrase,

"No taxation without representation."

- The anger over the taxes motivates the colonists

to start to organize.

- [Narrator] As British troops patrol colonial streets,

whispers of rebellion echo from Boston to Charleston.

(dramatic rhythmic music)

In Massachusetts,

John Hancock and Samuel Adams form a shadow government.

Rebellious colonists

start stockpiling weapons and ammunition.

They call themselves patriots. Others disagree.

In a pension application

submitted nearly 50 years after the war,

Jonathan Brigham of Marlborough, Massachusetts,

describes the tension.

- [Jonathan] In the year 1774,

the British troops were in Boston

and their fleets lying off and blocking the harbor.

Excitement was high,

and the moments of actual hostilities

constantly anticipated by the inhabitants.

(lively rhythmic music)

- [Narrator] In the sleepy farming town

of Dunstable, Massachusetts,

William French is about to be drawn into a conflict

that will change his life and the world forever.

- William French is a young man in his early 20s.

His family has been in this country since the 1500s.

His father died when he was a little boy,

he was raised by his mother, who was just a teenager,

and he signs up for his town militia in 1775,

on the eve of the revolution.

- [Narrator] The colonies have no standing army.

They rely on militia for local defense,

often fighting alongside the British troops,

who could now become their enemy.

The youngest and strongest form rapid response units

called minutemen.

- On his pension application,

William French lists himself as a minuteman.

These are farmers, blacksmiths, carpenters,

who, when the enemy's at hand,

simply grabs a musket, grabs some powder,

a few musket balls,

and is on the field of battle in a minute.

(men shouting)

- [Narrator] In April, 1775,

tension between the colonists and the crown rises

from a simmer to a boil.

- General Thomas Gage,

the British commander in charge of the colonies,

is under pressure to do something,

so in the evening of April 18th, 1775,

a British force of 1,500 men marches under cover of darkness

to Lexington and Concord.

In Lexington, they want to arrest the leaders

of the Sons of Liberty and the revolutionary fervor,

Sam Adams, John Hancock.

- [Narrator] Concord has an armory

with muskets and powder that the colonists would need

if they're going to fight back against the British.

If Gage's plan works, rebellion can be nipped in the bud

before before it ever has a chance to bloom.

- The Americans in Boston

have got an extensive intelligence network.

Gage has a very tough time keeping his plans secret.

- [Narrator] The colonists use a predetermined signal

to warn which route the British are taking.

- They'll hang one lantern

in the steeple of the Old North Church.

If the British decide to march out of Boston

down the Shama Peninsula,

two lanterns if they decide to cross by boat

and land on the north shore of the Charles River.

"One if by land, two if by sea."

- [Narrator] At the sight of two lanterns,

a group of riders, including Paul Revere, set out

to alert the militias,

and on the morning of April 19th, 1775,

an exhausted messenger arrives in Dunstable

with news

that the British army is marching towards the munition store

at nearby Concord.

(bells chiming)

Church bells summon the minutemen,

including William French.

Without delay, they set off for Concord.

- William French ventures off,

into what, he doesn't know.

He's never been in combat before.

Probably, like most other young folks,

he's never been very far away from his home.

- When William French says goodbye

to his mother, that morning,

he expects to be gone for a couple of days,

to have an adventure with his friends from the town,

and to walk back to his hometown very soon.

- He's not thinking this is the beginning of a war.

(ominous music)

- [Narrator] When French and his unit arrive at Concord

in the mid-afternoon,

they find the grim signs of a battle that is already over.

- Burning military supplies, panicked people,

perhaps he sees some of the dead lying on the ground,

he's being introduced to war

in one of the most dramatic ways possible.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] French and his company learn

that the local militia not only prevented British forces

from seizing the armory, they force them

into a fighting retreat.

This is incredible news.

(dramatic rhythmic music)

French's unit hurries on to Lexington.

There, the scale of the route becomes clear.

More than 270 British soldiers have been killed or wounded,

and the militias have chased British regular forces

all the way back to Boston.

- For the colonists,

this conflict is off to a surprisingly good start,

but this decisive victory doesn't mean

that French and his comrades get to go home.

Instead, they're sent to Boston.

They're joined by hundreds, and then thousands

of volunteers from neighboring colonies

like New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.

French doesn't know it yet,

but the American Revolution has just begun.

- [Narrator] The militiamen

place the British forces in Boston under siege.

As they do, political delegates from the 13 colonies

race to Philadelphia.

- The Second Continental Congress arrives in Philadelphia.

You've got Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson,

blood has been shed,

and they've kind of got two options:

to declare independence or to back down.

Instead of choosing either,

the Second Continental Congress kind of hedges.

- [Narrator] Congress signs two contradictory documents.

The first is a justification

for the violence at Concord and Lexington.

The second offers an olive branch to Great Britain

by affirming the colonies' loyalty to the king.

- It says let's negotiate, let's do something,

let's compromise so that this doesn't go any further.

- Neither of these documents mentions

the important word, independence,

and King George

is not interested in the olive branch petition whatsoever.

In fact, he refuses to even read it.

- He says, "You're in rebellion."

He's the one who declared the war, not the Americans.

The Americans are still saying

let's see if we can avoid war.

(ominous music)

- [Narrator] For many on both sides of the Atlantic,

the king's reasoning is sound.

A monarch has ruled Britain for hundreds of years.

Challenging their authority

has always been a dangerously radical, even immoral act.

Only about half of the colonists support the uprising.

- It's important to remember

that not only for every member of the Continental Congress,

but for every soldier and militiaman who picks up arms,

in the eyes of the British, they're committing treason.

This is punishable by death.

They could be hanged.

(ominous music)

- [Narrator] The king's response leaves Congress

with two stark choices,

submit completely to the crown or be in open rebellion.

Still, they resist declaring independence.

But on June 14th, 1775, representatives vote

to establish the first American Continental Army,

which will incorporate the New England forces outside Boston

along with units to be raised in the other colonies.

(dramatic rhythmic music)

The unanimous choice to lead the new army

is a 43-year-old Virginia plantation owner

named George Washington.

- Washington has a remarkable reputation.

He's stoic, he's honorable, he's calm under fire.

Washington is one of the few men

who's actually served in combat,

he's led men in combat.

On the other hand, it's been over a decade,

and he's never led an army larger than about a thousand men.

Now he's gonna lead thousands and thousands

against the world's most powerful military?

(dramatic rhythmic music)

- [Narrator] While Washington prepares to assume command

of the Continental Army,

the British reinforce Boston by sea.

In mid-June, General Gage makes plans

to seize the strategically important heights

surrounding the city.

Any American artillery there

could fire down on his troops in Boston.

The colonists learn of Gage's plan,

and at midnight on June 16th,

they rush a detachment of 2,000 soldiers

to defend the Charlestown Peninsula at Breed's hill.

For William French, the battle will be a family affair.

- French's family is well represented at the coming battle.

His 18-year-old brother, Jonas, and cousins

are there with him.

- [Narrator] The British assault begins

with a naval bombardment.

For two hours, heavy guns pummel the American positions.

It is French's first terrifying taste of battle.

(drums beating)

Once the bombardment ceases,

Gage prepares an infantry attack.

2,000 men, who were farmers a month ago,

are about to face 3,000 professional British soldiers.

For French, this moment is the true test

of his courage and conviction.

- As the Americans are holding their positions

on Breed's Hill, better known as Bunker Hill,

the command goes out,

"Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes."

That's meant to tell the soldiers to hold their fire

until the British are close enough

that you won't miss when you fire.

(soldier shouting) (guns blasting)

- [Narrator] French's captain, Ebenezer Bancroft,

describes the devastating effect of the patriot volley

in an account given to his grandson.

(dramatic music)

- [Ebenezer] Our first fire was shockingly fatal.

The enemy were thrown into confusion,

their lines were broken,

and it was some minutes

before they had conveyed their dead and wounded

into the rear.

(dramatic rhythmic music)

- [Narrator] But the battle has only just begun.

After successfully driving back two assaults

by the British infantry,

the Americans are tired, frightened,

and running low on ammunition.

On the third attack,

the British punch through their defenses.

French and his comrades have no choice but to fall back.

- Dunstable's town history records

that William French was a hero at Breed's Hill.

He was one of the last soldiers

to flee the scene of the fighting,

and he even helped a wounded officer escape

from the British army,

but it was not without cost.

Cousin Samuel was shot through the ear in the fighting.

While Cousin Eleazar loses an arm.

It's blown off by a cannon ball at Breed's Hill.

(solemn music)

- [Narrator] As the smoke clears

on what will be called the Battle of Bunker Hill,

the Americans count 115 killed,

and over 300 wounded, missing, or captured,

but British casualties number more than 1,000.

- This is shocking the British.

They are expecting to run the Americans off.

Instead, the British are finding

the Americans are willing to fight.

The Americans find,

hey, we can stand up against the British.

- [Narrator] British losses are so severe

that despite the victory,

they abandon further plans to break out of Boston.

Both sides settle into a state of siege.

The Battle of Bunker Hill claims one more casualty.

General Gage is replaced by General William Howe

as commander-in-chief of the British forces.

- William Howe comes from an aristocratic family.

His elder brother, Richard,

is an admiral in the Royal Navy.

Howe has extensive experience fighting in North America.

As a tactician,

William Howe is one of the best the British Army has.

- [Narrator] Howe understands

the dilemma the colonists are facing,

but he has no doubt about whose side he's on.

- A great irony of General Howe is he's kind of Pro-American

he's supportive of the colonists.

However, he is the British officer in command,

who took an oath to the crown,

so despite his personal views,

he's gonna support the British cause

and put down the revolution.

- [Narrator] While the British shuffle their leadership,

Washington arrives at Boston to take stock of his new army.

- By Washington's standards,

these militiamen from New England are slovenly,

they are undisciplined.

He's not terribly impressed by them.

He's also got to face the fact

that there's no logistical system,

and so Washington is now desperately looking for supplies,

ammunition, gunpowder, artillery.

He needs shoes, he needs uniforms for his soldiers,

he needs everything.

- [Narrator] But Washington faces a challenge

even greater than logistics.

- French, like most American soldiers

enlisted from outside Boston,

expected to be going home January 1st, 1776,

but the siege of Boston hasn't ended,

and the American army still needs soldiers.

- Congress has not yet figured out a way

to adequately fund the war,

so those soldiers outside of Boston,

in the winter, they're freezing, they're hungry,

many have not been paid,

and when they are paid, it's a little over $6 a month.

Who would reenlist?

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] Some are also starting to question

why they are fighting.

They are still British subjects

fighting against their own king.

What does that make them,

and where will it leave them when the fighting stops?

(ominous music)

The answer, for many,

comes in the form of a 47-page pamphlet

entitled "Common Sense."

Written by 39-year-old magazine editor, Thomas Paine,

and published in January, 1776,

the essay lays out a forceful case

for American independence from Britain.

- "Common sense will tell us

that the power which hath endeavored to subdue us

is the most improper to defend us.

We have every opportunity and every encouragement

before us

to form the noblest, purest constitution

on the face of the earth.

We have it in our power to begin the world over again."

- [Narrator] "Common Sense" draws on radical new ideas

from the European Enlightenment,

an intellectual movement

that espouses reason, science, and individual freedom.

- So Paine, here, is building

on European Enlightenment ideas,

ideas that have then come to America

and been filtered through American lenses.

Paine's pamphlet aims to break Americans away

from their attachment to Britain and to kingly government.

Paine wants Americans

to look to the universal rights of man,

relying on reason and relying on experience

to devise their own government.

- [Narrator] "Common Sense" argues

rebellion against the crown isn't an act of treason,

but a legitimate struggle against tyranny.

It electrifies Americans from all walks of life.

- People buy it, people read it,

people take it to taverns and town squares

and read it out loud

to people who can't read for themselves.

- Washington himself actually has it read to his soldiers

to remind them why they're fighting,

why they've left their homes,

why they're risking death.

- They're fighting for a new country,

maybe a country that is run by men like them.

- [Narrator] "Common Sense"

convinces men like William French to reenlist,

but it doesn't help pry the British out of Boston.

The stalemate continues throughout the winter.

Colonial forces are too strong

for the British to confront directly,

but they're too weak to capture the city.

- Washington has the men,

he has the high ground, he has the advantage,

but he's missing one thing to complete the siege: artillery.

- [Narrator] In March, 1776,

cannons captured from the British Fort at Ticonderoga

finally arrived in the continental camp outside Boston.

Washington positions the cannons on Dorchester Heights

and aims them at Boston.

- Imagine the British waking up,

and they see, ringing the hills around the city,

the artillery, now, that Washington needs to do the job.

- [Narrator] The Continentals can now shell them

into submission.

Howe has no choice.

On March 17th, 11,000 soldiers sail out of Boston Harbor,

headed for the British port

of Halifax, Nova Scotia. (men cheering)

- One can only imagine what French is thinking.

In a year, he and his comrades have done the unthinkable:

they've defeated the British, at least for now.

- [Narrator] But Washington knows

the British are not done with the American rebels.

He predicts that after they regroup,

they will turn their attention

to another critical port city, New York.

Control of New York City will allow the British

to isolate rebellious northern colonies, like Massachusetts,

from the more loyalist-leaning middle and southern colonies

To stop them, Washington has to reach New York first.

Less than three weeks after the capture of Boston,

French and 19,000 soldiers begin the 200-mile march south.

- William French joins this war as a militiaman.

He participates in the siege of Boston,

protecting the capital of his colony,

but now he's being asked, as part of the Continental Army,

to go to a different colony.

There's no idea yet of being fellow Americans.

- [Narrator] The high-minded ideals of "Common Sense"

are one thing;

asking the soldiers to abandon their homes and families

is another.

- It's very common for bad writers to say,

"and the women kept the home fires burning,"

but in fact, what women did

was take over the jobs of their husbands.

- When the men of military age leave,

women have to run the farms,

and women in colonial America worked very hard on the farms,

they were an essential part of farming,

but on top of their own substantial work

and the extra work they had to do,

there was also new work required because of the war.

(solemn music)

- [Narrator] When colonial troops march through their town,

they're expected to feed and shelter them,

and if the British arrive on their doorstep,

they have no protection.

- The British Army has traveled across the ocean

and don't have a supply line that's reliable.

They take any crops that have been stored or preserved,

they take the crops from the fields.

It's like locusts have come through.

(boots thudding)

- This was a war and for some women, for some towns,

the war came to them.

- [Narrator] In her application for a war widow's pension,

Deborah Brownell writes about the hardships

she and many women faced.

- [Deborah] I do well remember my husband's service

during said war.

We had small children to provide for and protect,

and how we got along with the small means we then had,

I am unable how to tell.

Our sufferings were many and great.

- [Narrator] Throughout the coming war,

Americans on the home front will face

disease, starvation, and displacement

on a scale they have never faced before.

- Deborah's experience is so similar

to countless women all across the colonies,

just trying to get through every day,

making sure she and her kids made it through

to try surviving again the next day.

(dramatic rhythmic music)

- Meanwhile, French arrives with the Continental Army

outside New York City, on April 14th, 1776,

but the political situation here is a stark contrast

to the revolutionary hotbed of Massachusetts.

New York City is a business hub

with strong commercial ties to Britain,

and the large Anglican congregation

feels a keen sense of loyalty

to England and to King George III.

- The king is not only the king,

he's also the head of the Church of England,

so he is your king, but also the high priest,

so you're not just rebelling against your political leader,

you're rebelling against God's representative on earth.

- [Narrator] The American Continental Army

has to tread lightly and carefully in New York.

On June 29th, 1776,

45 British warships arrive in lower New York Bay.

- There's panic in New York City, not surprisingly,

amongst civilians and soldiers,

at the sight of the Armada headed their way.

The British start disembarking soldiers in Staten Island.

The numbers are so overwhelming

that several patriot militias on the island

quickly switch sides.

- There will eventually be 32,000 to 35,000

British and German auxiliaries.

- French is from Dunstable,

he's a shoemaker,

he's never seen this many people.

35,000 soldiers.

That is now the largest city in British North America.

(dramatic music) (boots thudding)

- [Narrator] The British troops,

still under the command of General William Howe,

make camp on Staten Island.

Although Britain has the largest navy on earth,

it still supplements its regular forces

with tens of thousands of German soldiers.

- German princes of varying ranks

would hire out their armies to another power.

- They are arguably, at the time,

the most feared soldiers on earth,

and that's what's coming for the Continental Army.

(ominous music)

- [Narrator] While Washington tries to rally

his men to defend New York City,

the Second Continental Congress meets 100 miles away

in Philadelphia,

to discuss the future of the revolution itself.

- By 1776, things are much different

than they had been a year earlier.

Blood has been spilt, American lives have been lost,

and ideas now begin to coalesce

around notions of independence,

something that looked unlikely only a year earlier.

- [Narrator] Independence isn't just a philosophical goal,

it has practical and political implications.

- The Americans understand

that to have any chance, they need allies,

and France is really the only game in town

in terms of the next ally

that could potentially take on the British, at this point.

- [Narrator] But to France,

the Americans are a problematic ally.

Technically, the colonies are British subjects

in rebellion against their king,

not a policy King Louis XVI wants to endorse,

and the French are reluctant

to risk a war with their greatest enemy

over what is still a domestic revolt.

- How is France going to support and fund a country

that hasn't even declared its independence?

(solemn rhythmic music)

- [Narrator] On June 17th, 1776,

congressional delegate Richard Henry Lee of Virginia

introduces a resolution.

- He says that the colonies are,

and of right, ought to be,

free and independent colonies,

and that's what starts the process.

- [Narrator] Congress forms a committee of five men

to draft a declaration

explaining the reasons behind Lee's resolution.

- They need to put forth a clear argument

on why they're challenging Britain,

why they want their independence.

- [Narrator] Benjamin Franklin and John Adams,

the committee's unofficial co-chairs,

turn to a third member to draft the declaration,

33-year-old Thomas Jefferson.

(dramatic music)

Jefferson writes his first draft in two weeks,

drawing on Thomas Paine's "Common Sense,"

along with Enlightenment ideals,

to argue that Americans have

both the right and the moral duty

to declare independence from a tyrannical king.

(solemn music)

After declaring that all men

the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,

Jefferson says that when abuses and usurpations

reduce these rights under absolute despotism,

it is their right, it is their duty

to throw off such government.

- Thomas Jefferson references self-evident truths

He references the notion

of self-governance for a population.

All of that very much comes out of an Enlightenment setting.

Without the American Enlightenment,

there couldn't be an American Revolution.

The two are intermingled

in a way that one's not possible without the other.

- [Narrator] The committee edits Jefferson's draft

to simplify the language and soften the tone,

even deleting a clause condemning slavery

to appease the Southern colonies,

before presenting it to Congress on June 28th.

Then, on July 4th, 1776,

Congress ratifies the Declaration of Independence.

- I'm sure most of the people

who signed the Declaration of Independence

had very shaky hands when they did it, you know (chuckles),

just not confident that this was gonna work.

- The stakes are high.

In signing the Declaration,

the founders are signing their own death warrants.

The British see this as treason.

- [Narrator] On Washington's orders,

the Declaration of Independence is read out loud

to the troops.

After more than a year of service and hardship,

French and his comrades finally know

what they're being asked to fight and possibly die for.

(dramatic music)

There's no turning back now.

For Washington, for Congress, and for soldiers like French,

there are only two ways forward: liberty or death.

Following the signing of the Declaration,

an attack on New York City is inevitable,

and in late August, Howe makes the opening move

by landing 20,000 men on Long Island.

- Long Island matters,

because from the heights at Brooklyn,

that will enable the British to fire down

upon New York, the southern tip of Manhattan.

(dramatic rhythmic music)

- [Narrator] French and 9,000 other men

prepare to defend Long Island.

They are outnumbered more than two to one.

Early in the morning of August 27th,

Howe attacks the American position on the Gowanus Heights,

but the attack is a ruse.

While the Americans are distracted,

Howe personally leads 10,000 men

through an unguarded pass to the east,

outflanking them.

In his pension application 56 years later,

18-year-old Michael Graham

of Paxton Township, Pennsylvania,

vividly recalls the fear and chaos of the ensuing battle.

- [Michael] It is impossible for me to describe

the confusion and horror of the scene that ensued.

Our men running in almost every direction,

and the enemy huzzahing when they took prisoners,

made it truly a day of distress to the Americans.

Every man was intent on his own safety,

and no assistance was rendered.

(solemn music)

- [Narrator] After a bloody and exhausting day of fighting,

nearly 2,300 Americans

have been killed, wounded, or captured,

seven times the number of British casualties.

The Declaration's idealism now looks like folly,

and the cause lost just as it has begun.

- As it happens, Washington is lucky.

A storm brews up, deep fog settles in,

and Washington uses the opportunity

to extricate his army from Brooklyn.

- [Narrator] French and the others retreat to Manhattan,

but on September 15th,

Howe forces the Americans to move north to White Plains,

where Washington prepares to face the British Army again.

On October 28th,

7,500 British soldiers attack 3,100 Americans.

- Once again, his army is outflanked.

Now, normally, this is where armies are destroyed

if men run in an unorderly fashion,

but Washington, by experience,

has become a master of organizing retreats.

- [Narrator] Howe expects Washington to move further north

to protect the important supply and communication routes

along the Hudson River.

- George Washington is crafty, and what he does is,

instead of continuing to flee north,

he turns and cuts south,

and races the whole way across New Jersey,

thus throwing the British off the scent.

- [Narrator] Instead of pursuing,

Howe returns to Manhattan Island

to mop up the resistance,

capturing nearly 3,000 American soldiers left behind.

New York is in British hands.

- Now, Howe and the British believe

that the revolution is going to last just a few weeks more,

so why build prisons?

So they come up with an idea,

they're going to hulk warships.

You take the masts, rudder, steerhouse off,

leaving just the coffin, if you will,

and you fill them with prisoners,

so floating prison ships.

- [Narrator] Thousands of prisoners

are crammed into the dark, disease-ridden hulks.

- To the British, these soldiers are not prisoners of war.

They are criminals, they're rebels,

and would be treated as such.

- [Narrator] By the war's end,

more than 8,500 soldiers will die in captivity,

as many as perish on the battlefield.

(solemn music)

With all of the colonies now united in revolt

by the Declaration,

the contempt of the British Army extends

towards civilians as well.

As British forces move

through American-controlled territory,

they gain a fearsome reputation for looting and violence.

- They really do operate on the idea

that to the victor belong all the spoils,

and these young boys,

who were far away from home,

and far away from any moral compass

that might have been applied,

went wild.

- [Narrator] Years after the war,

Susanna Chandler of Virginia

details a harrowing encounter with British soldiers

in an application for her husband's pension.

- She describes how she hears

that the British army is coming,

she seizes her children,

she runs to neighboring farmhouses and warns other women,

she puts her babies into tobacco barrels,

she packs them with straw to muffle the cries,

and then she heads into the swamp,

and from the swamp, she watches what happens.

The British not only steal

what she had planned to use to feed her family,

they also start to burn the house.

This is the kind of story that happened over and over

during this war.

We can't really understand the American Revolution

without knowing stories like that of Susanna Chandler, too.

- [Narrator] The mistreatment of prisoners and civilians

outrages Americans.

Rather than crush their morale,

it has the opposite effect.

- Part of what converts a lot of Americans

to support the Revolution and to support Washington

is the behavior of the British Army.

- [Narrator] But after the defeat in New York,

there may be no army left to support.

In December, Washington withdraws his forces,

including William French,

across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania.

- Unfortunately for him,

the Germans set up camp just across the river

in Trenton, on the New Jersey side.

The Continental Army is not gonna get a good night's sleep,

knowing that just across the river is this powerful army.

- [Narrator] Of the original American Continental Army

of 19,000,

that arrived in New York eight months earlier,

only 6,000 soldiers remain.

The rest have been killed, captured,

deserted, or died of disease.

From both the British and American perspective,

the war looks close to ending,

but Washington knows

an even greater setback is fast approaching.

Just like one year before,

army enlistments end on January 1st, 1777.

- Unless Washington can do something bold and decisive

to turn the war around,

his army's gonna simply resign.

- [Narrator] For French, who has been away from home

for nearly two years,

a stark choice lies ahead.

- French's enlistment is up at the end of the year,

and he and his comrades are going to have to decide,

do they reenlist and stick with this cause,

or do they go back home to their families,

to their businesses,

to their farms that need them?

- They're getting letters from home.

A wife says, "Winter is coming.

We have no wood, and we will freeze.

We have no food, and we will starve.

Pray, come home."

And men got these letters and they left.

They felt their first obligation was to their family.

- [Narrator] Even Washington falls into a dark depression.

- So in the heart of this conflict, at the end of 1776,

Thomas Paine makes another contribution

to the American revolutionary experience.

"These are the times that try men's souls.

The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot

will, in this crisis, shrink

from the service of their country."

- [Narrator] With these words,

Paine calls out those whose commitment is wavering.

Then he reminds them their fight has a higher purpose.

- "But he that stands by it now

deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered,

yet we have this consolation with us,

that the harder the conflict,

the more glorious the triumph."

And these are words that soldiers listen to

and it inspires them to fight through.

- [Narrator] But the words will ring hollow

without results on the battlefield.

Defying all conventional wisdom,

Washington decides to go on the offensive.

He selects a bold and risky target,

the German garrison on the far side of the Delaware River.

Washington plans an ambitious three-pronged assault

across the ice-choked Delaware,

under cover of darkness,

on December 25th, Christmas night.

- A lot of these soldiers, like French,

are a week away from mustering out of the army.

Do they really wanna go on a suicide mission

at the last moment?

- [Narrator] French's pension records

don't record his doubts,

but in the past 18 months,

he's gone from being a part-time militiaman

to a full-time soldier.

He follows orders and forms up.

- As the Continental Army sets out

to cross the Delaware River,

the weather takes effect.

It's miserable,

cold, snow, sleet,

huge cakes of ice floating down the Delaware River.

- They need to bring cannons,

they need to bring horses and small boats across the river,

and everything goes wrong.

Two of the three prongs that are supposed to cross the river

can't do it.

Washington crosses, not knowing

that the other two prongs are out of the field of combat.

- As Washington sets out south,

leading his troops on the march to Trenton,

he's got a much smaller force than he anticipated.

The approach march that French is on,

along with his fellow soldiers,

is a miserable affair.

Many of the soldiers have rawhide around their feet

rather than proper shoes,

a couple of soldiers die from the effects of the cold,

yet they continue on.

- The commander in Trenton is Colonel Rall.

Now, he doesn't believe Washington's going to attack.

The weather is horrific,

it's in the middle of winter.

Moreover, it's Christmas.

They're not expecting the attack.

- [Narrator] Under cover of the storm,

the American troops attack the garrison

and begin pushing the German troops back through the town.

In his pension application,

William Hutchinson of Pennsylvania

describes the slaughter of the Germans.

- "Their dead bodies

lay thicker and closer together

than I ever beheld sheaves of wheat

lying in a field over which the reapers had just passed."

Now, that's a colorful description.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] 1,000 Germans are killed, wounded, or captured.

The only recorded American casualties

are the two who froze during the march to Trenton.

(energetic music)

In the days following the victory,

Washington wins a series of small battles,

including at Princeton, New Jersey.

- It cannot be understated

just how important it is on American morale.

It helps give Americans who are independence-minded

the boost that they need.

- It basically saves the war.

The soldiers reenlist,

and Washington's reputation is revived.

- [Narrator] Victories at Trenton and Princeton

renew American commitment to the cause of independence.

New soldiers enlist,

or, like William French, extend their service,

while Washington rebuilds the Continental Army.

- "I was urged to stay longer,

and did continue to do duty in said company

a month or six weeks longer,

and came home in the months of February or March, 1777."

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] After nearly two years,

French goes home a changed man.

He's seen hardship, death, and defeat.

He's fought in some of the toughest and most crucial battles

of the first years of the Revolution,

when many questioned

the wisdom and the morality of the cause.

He lived the rest of his life in Dunstable, Massachusetts,

known as Deacon William for his sobriety and upright ways.

He never married, and died at age 77.

Without everyday Americans like French,

there would've been no Continental Army,

no victory in Boston,

no victory at Trenton,

no Revolution.

French's war is finished,

but others are now ready to join the cause.

Independence will mean different things to each of them,

but they have all chosen to fight for it.

(lively music)

(lively music continues)