After the fall of Charleston, the Revolutionary War explodes into the Carolina backcountry, touching off a brutal civil war, and Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton's dragoons spread terror throughout the region. The Americans, under General Horatio Gates, suffer a humiliating defeat at Camden forcing Congress to send Nathanael Greene to lead the southern forces. In an unconventional strategy, Greene and General Daniel Morgan split the army between them, leading British General Cornwallis on a harrowing chase, which culminates in the Battle of Guildford Courthouse.

In this hour, Washington faces two mutinies in the Continental Army. Congress is broke, and the army desperately needs more help from the French. In England, the opposition to the war grows as Henry Clinton and Lord Cornwallis argue over the British strategy in the South. The French are tired of supporting the war, but Franklin continues to beg for aid. The French finally send their fleet to America, under the command of Admiral DeGrasse. Cornwallis moves his army to Yorktown, Virginia, and the Allied forces close in for the last major battle of the war. Experience the drama that surrounded the founding of the United States in this 13-part series that covers the years between the Boston Tea Party in 1773 to the ratification of the Constitution in 1787.

The news of the American victory at Yorktown spreads like wildfire around the globe. Patriots celebrate, and loyalists begin evacuating, as Washington awaits the next British move. Parliament's growing anti-war faction forces the king to sue for peace and agree to American independence. John Adams joins Benjamin Franklin in France to negotiate the treaty of 1783. But the new nation is broke and confused, as Washington resigns his commission and Congress disbands the standing Continental Army. The 13 American states convene a Constitutional Convention to hammer out a new form of government, and urge a reluctant Washington to become the United State's first president.

After leading the rebellious British colonies in America to a most unlikely victory in the War for Independence, George Washington is called into service again. This time, he must lead the newly born nation he helped create as its first president. Setting out on an 8-day trip from his home at Mount Vernon, Virginia to his inauguration in New York City, Washington's journey has him not only looking forward to the future but back on the events of the American Revolution.

George Washington completes his 8-day trip from his home at Mount Vernon, Virginia to New York City where he is inaugurated as the first president of the newly created United States of America. The former Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army now becomes simply "Mr. President.

In August 1777 on the New York frontier, an 800-strong column of patriot militia was marching to relieve Fort Stanwix, under siege by the British.

A key moment in the Revolutionary War between Great Britain and her 13 rebellious colonies, the Battle of Monmouth took place on June 28, 1778, in rural New Jersey. The British assumed that the American Army was weak, ill-disciplined, and incapable of facing up to seasoned British regulars. But at Monmouth, things turned out differently. Washington used his artillery so effectively that the cowed British were pinned down, took significant casualties, and left their dead unburied. In this hour, historians, archaeologists, meteorologists, physiologists, and munitions experts examine the evidence of what took place at Monmouth. In modern laboratory conditions, they test what happens when men in heavy woolen uniforms fight on one of the hottest days in New Jersey history, and investigate the effects of a new intensive training regime on the colonial forces.

As the American Revolution unfolded, English King George III sought to put down the rebellious colonies by sending one of his most talented and respected generals to fight and conquer the insurrectionists--General William Howe.