All language subtitles for The.American.Revolution.Series.1.1of3.Rise.of.the.Patriots.720p.HDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org

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

Among them are not just founding
fathers and future presidents,

but also the unsung heroes
of America's revolution.

Men and women who will risk
everything to fight for independence,

seize their destiny,

and forge a nation.

Boston, 1770.

A divided city.

Every day new clashes erupt
between those who are loyal to the king

and others who see the ruling
British empire as the enemy.

But today we'll see the first death
in America's fight for independence.

Loyalist Ebenezer Richardson
has been defending his

neighbor's shop against
a mob of colonial rebels.

Now they've turned their anger on him.

Boston is the tinderbox where the
American Revolution will get its start.

It's there that all the
resentments and anger between

the British and the colonists
is beginning to gather,

but it's also there where
anger between Americans,

those who want to remain loyal to the
king and those who want to break free,

will finally strike the spark
that starts the revolution.

Richardson's bullet strikes
11-year-old Christopher Cider.

Get Dr.

Ward! Someone please!

Quickly, get Dr.

Ward! Dr. Joseph Warren may
not be a familiar name today,

but he will play as
pivotal a role in helping to

shape America's future
as any founding father.

The American Revolution
has thousands of heroes,

many of whom we've never heard of.

These are everyday people.

These are common people that
have done unbelievable things.

Joseph Warren is the
founding father that nobody's

ever heard of, and
that's a huge injustice.

Without him, there might not
have even been a revolution.

Born in Massachusetts
and a Harvard graduate,

Warren is the most popular
and successful doctor in Boston.

At just 28 years of age, he's
become a passionate advocate

for the rights of the American colonists
and a fierce critic of British rule.

In spite of Warren's efforts,

Christopher Cider dies of his wounds.

And with his death, the
growing hostility between the king

and his American
subjects reaches fever pitch.

But this violence is a recent development.

The relationship
between Britain and the

American colonies had
been a relatively happy one

since the founding of Jamestown
more than 150 years earlier.

American colonies produced
tobacco, cotton and sugar,

which were shipped to
England for manufacture

before being exported
back to America for sale.

In exchange, British soldiers offered
the colonists security and protection.

But when it came to the rule of law,

the king largely left his
American subjects to govern

themselves through
their colonial legislatures.

The striking thing about
the relationship between the

American colonies and the
British government in England

was the loose rein that the
British held over the Americans.

Americans could live
most of their daily lives,

not even aware of
the British government.

But in 1754, this relationship
became more complicated

when the French, assisted
by their Indian allies,

tried to secure a territory of
their own within North America.

After nine years of war,

the British and colonists
defeated the French and their allies.

But the victory cost a staggering
$22 billion in today's currency.

With Britain teetering on
the edge of bankruptcy,

Parliament decided
it was only fair for the

colonists to pay their
fair share of the war debt.

In 1764, they passed the
first law imposing taxes directly

on the two million colonists
and set off a firestorm of protests.

The American colonists felt independent
without knowing that they felt independent.

And the reins of the British
government rested very lightly on them.

The problem was going to
rise when the British government

tried to tighten the reins a little bit and
then the Americans would start screaming

because they hadn't
felt the reins before now.

All of a sudden they did.

Year after year, Parliament imposed
new taxes to pay for the cost of the war.

Leaders like John Hancock,
John Adams and Joseph Warren

believed that the colonists
should have the same

rights as their fellow
countrymen back in England.

But with no say in the new taxes, they
felt exploited by their mother country.

Dr. Joseph Warren senses this deeply.

Especially after watching
young Christopher

Cider become a casualty
of the growing conflict.

The father of four is
willing to risk arrest,

imprisonment and even death as he becomes
one of America's most vocal agitators.

Who is with me?

Who is with me?

Who is with me?

Stand today, my friends.

He was extremely warm, extremely likable.

He was able to cross between political
camps even though he was an extremist.

Warren wins the support of
Boston's most radical voices

an alliance of local street gangs that
call themselves the Sons of Liberty.

Royal officials regard
them as traitors and thugs,

but the men they accuse
insist their cause is just.

The Sons of Liberty consider
themselves loyal Englishmen.

They spoke continuously
that all they were doing

was defending the rights
of free-born Englishmen.

So the Sons of Liberty didn't
think of themselves as traitors,

they thought of themselves
as English patriots.

And now it's the Crown and it's tyranny.

Never!

With hostilities in Boston mounting daily,

the Sons of Liberty and their supporters

lash out at the Crown's tax
collectors and customs officials.

Boston is soon at war with itself.

A third of its citizens
are loyal to the King

while the majority are neutral,
wanting no part of the fight.

But a growing number are calling
for open rebellion against the Crown.

The American Revolution was
a war not only between nations,

it was a war between neighbors.

The most bitter of the fighting took
place not between Americans and British,

but between Americans and Americans.

When does a King's reign become tyranny?

Now!

As the Sons of Liberty and their
supporters become more aggressive,

Britain responds by sending
4,000 additional troops to Boston.

By 1770, one in five
inhabitants of the city is

a redcoat and Boston
feels like a garrison town.

This show of military
muscle is designed to

intimidate the rebels
and deter a rebellion.

But the new wave of soldiers
only serves to infuriate Bostonians

and persuade more of them to
join the rebels' patriotic cause.

To found the flames of Boston's outrage,

the Sons of Liberty
stage one of the city's

largest funerals for
11-year-old Christopher Cider.

But even though tempers are running high,

most patriots still
consider the idea of taking

up arms against their
mother country unthinkable.

But over the next few months,

a chain of events will trigger a
fresh wave of hostility and violence,

bringing the British and the
Americans to the brink of open war.

Two weeks after an
11-year-old boy was killed

in a standoff between
colonists and British officials,

the soaring tensions
in Boston threatened to

explode into open violence
at the slightest spark.

On the 5th of March 1770,

an angry mob gathers
to hurl snowballs at

nervous sentries guarding
the customs house.

Suddenly, the blast of a musket rings out.

More shots follow.

As the smoke clears,
five colonists lie dead.

In what the Sons of Liberty
will dub, the Boston Massacre.

With the Boston Massacre,
tensions escalated dramatically.

Because until this point,

it still had been largely
a political argument.

Now, it's a matter of a show of force.

Now, people have died.

There is much more at stake
than there had been before.

Boston's colonial leaders put the
Redcoat soldiers on trial for murder.

The lawyer defending the
soldiers is a surprising choice.

John Adams, one of the
leading voices of discontent.

These men, loyal servants of the Crown.

He thought that it was
critical to uphold the rights of

the accused as a sacred,
traditional British liberty.

And also to prove to the mother country

that the American people
was not one big lynch mob.

Besides seeing their
acquittal as a matter of justice,

it's hoped it will also
calm the friction in Boston.

John Adams made a very plausible argument

that the British soldiers who fired in
the crowd were firing in self-defense.

Adams tips the odds in his favour
by packing the jury with loyalists.

The verdict is handed down.

Grace, we find the defendants not guilty.

The verdict enrages many patriots,

but it does the trick of
pacifying British officials.

Parliament even repeals
some of the new taxes

and America and Britain step back
from the brink of the escalating conflict.

But British authority continues
to collide with colonial protests.

In Narragansett Bay, the British
customs vessel, the Gaspay,

is in pursuit of a colonial
ship suspected of smuggling.

The Gaspay's commander is
Lieutenant William Dud Kingston.

His job is to enforce
Britain's commerce laws,

making him Rhode Island's
most detested imperial agent.

William Dud Kingston is a great object
lesson in overreach in law enforcement.

He decided to stop just
about any ship for any reason.

Americans were offended by
this, in particular Rhode Islanders.

Before Parliament started
levying their slew of new taxes,

Rhode Island's merchants had
been importing many goods duty-free

and Lieutenant Dud Kingston had
made it his personal crusade to stop them.

But he's about to make a crucial mistake.

In his zeal to capture another
smuggler for the Crown,

he runs the Gaspay aground
off the coast of Rhode Island.

The crew now face a nine-hour wait
for the tide to come in and free the ship.

That evening, the news reaches
wealthy merchant John Brown,

who sees an opportunity to even the score.

He has a fleet of ships.

The British are infringing
upon his right to trade.

Dud Kingston has made it
his crusade to go after Brown,

and he's hurting Brown's business.
Brown's looking for a little payback.

He knew that high tide wasn't
until about three in the morning.

They had an opportunity to
take matters into their own hands

and stop the Gaspay from causing
any more trouble in Narragansett Bay.

Brown leads 65 men in eight
whaling boats on a daring raid.

The person who pulled the trigger was
a young man named Joseph Buckland.

He certainly didn't have orders to shoot
the commander of a British navy ship,

but he did so in the spur of the moment.

Brown's raiders capture the Gaspay's crew.

A Patriot doctor stops Dud
Kingston's bleeding, saving his life.

But after evacuating the
sailors, Brown torches the ship.

And as the fire reaches the powder
magazine, the Gaspay blows it.

It's the closest any colonist has
come to an act of open rebellion.

If you seize a navy ship,

kidnap the entire crew,
shoot and wound the

commanding officer,
and then destroy the ship,

that's probably going to get
the government's attention.

They looked on it as an act of treason,
as an act of war against His Majesty.

The British Parliament demands that Brown
and his crew are captured and punished.

Rumours reach the colonies
that the people responsible

for sinking the Gaspay
will be tried in England.

The colonists are furious.

This is outrageous!

They belong and deserve a
fair trial here with their peers.

They will be found guilty otherwise!

This is a colonial government.

We've had self-rule for
over a hundred years.

All of a sudden you think you can take
men away and try them in a foreign country?

In the end, neither Brown nor any of the
crew who attacked the Gaspay were caught.

But the very idea of
trying colonial men back

in England adds
fuel to the Patriots' fire

and inspires them to find new
ways to provoke the Empire.

In 1773, the British pass a new law
cutting the price of imported British tea.

It's a serious blow for American
tea sellers whose profits will be hit.

The Patriots seize this as an
opportunity for a wave of protests

staging tea parties in Boston,
New York and other harbours.

The Sons of Liberty, the folks
behind the Boston Tea Party,

realised that they were
going to provoke the British

government into doing
something really harsh.

That was precisely the point.

What they hoped to do and what they succeeded
in doing was to convince more Americans

that those British government
officials really are bad guys.

More than a hundred rebels board three
ships and throw 45 tons of tea overboard.

The ploy works.

A furious British parliament
clamps down on Boston.

New laws strip the citizens of
their right to elect their own officials,

ban town meetings unless
approved by the royal

governor and close
Boston's economic lifeline.

It's harbour.

That actually means that all
merchants are going to go out of business

and what the king is doing is
putting a stranglehold on the economy.

The whole point from the British standpoint
was to show those Americans who was boss.

To ram the point home, 4,000
more troops are sent to Boston

to join the thousands already
there and act as imperial enforcers.

Think about that.

All of a sudden, you've
got about 6 or 7,000 soldiers

in a town where the population
is 14 or 15,000 people.

So this is sending a very
strong message to us.

You're now under full military rule.

The British tactics
play right into the hands

of Joseph Warren
and the Sons of Liberty,

who want the colonists to see the
British as tyrannical foreign rulers

rather than their fellow countrymen.

As long as the Americans thought
of themselves as Englishmen,

then there was no fundamental
problem between the two sides.

And then there came a
critical point at which they

realized were not really
Englishmen, were Americans.

And once the Americans began
thinking themselves as Americans

rather than English, then the die was
cast and the revolution became another.

In less than a year, what began as a dispute
over taxes will erupt into all-out war.

Nine months after the Boston Tea Party,

a courier races from Boston to Philadelphia

to a meeting of the First
Continental Congress,

an assembly of America's colonial leaders

who are committed to resisting
Britain's increasingly autocratic rule.

The rider is Paul Revere,
a silversmith by trade

and what he's carrying will
take hostilities to a new level.

It's a document known
as the Suffolk Resolves

and it demands a
boycott of all British goods,

a refusal to pay taxes and for
each colony to raise its own militia.

In other words, it's a call to arms.

The representatives
from the other 12 colonies

are well aware of the
military occupation of Boston.

They had the capacity to blow
up the whole town in an afternoon,

so it's absolutely terrifying.

It's a time of dread and fear and at
the same time determination and anger.

The Continental Congress
realizes that the only way

to fight Britain's oppressive
new laws is to unite

the colonies and they
adopt the Suffolk Resolves.

It was really a political tour de force

for the pro-revolutionary
group, for the anti-British group,

to get the other colonies to believe

that their cause was also
the cause of Massachusetts.

Because what they said was,

if the British can do
this in Massachusetts,

they can do it to New
York, they can do it to

Philadelphia, they can
do it to Charlestown.

There's no end to this British tyranny.

The author of this radical call to action

is none other than Boston
revolutionary Dr. Joseph Warren.

His rebellious rhetoric has
now become colonial policy.

To liberty and freedom.

To liberty and freedom.

But Warren knows the British
are in no mood to back down.

And to challenge the authority of
the Empire means spoiling for a fight.

Warren is probably as
important to revolutionary

theorists as Jefferson
or Adams or Franklin,

but more than that he's willing
to put his theories into action,

getting down into the trenches
and getting his hands dirty.

Warren helps to create
a force of militia fighters

trained to respond
rapidly to any British threat.

They become known as the Minutemen.

He also organizes a vast spy network

to gather a steady supply of intelligence
about British troop movements.

When did he start complaining?

About two weeks ago.

By being a prominent physician in Boston,
he just had connections all over the city,

so we know that he definitely
was taking advantage of that.

There's some names in his
medical books of shadowy

characters that he doesn't
record by their first name,

and they very likely could have been
visits of people providing information.

Are we sitting out tonight?

No, we won't dispatch
our regiment until daybreak.

On April the 18th, 1775,

Warren's spies uncover a secret plan by the
British army to attack a rebel position,

an operation that would strike a
devastating blow to the rebellion.

The British command in
Boston got word that the

Massachusetts militia was
gathering weapons outside the city

in the western suburbs
of Lexington and Concord.

So British soldiers began marching out

where they heard the
weapons were being stockpiled.

Warren learns that the hundreds of redcoats

headed for Concord are not
only intending to seize the arms,

but also to find and capture
patriot leaders Sam Adams

and John Hancock who
are hiding in Lexington.

The atrocities have grown and grown.

If we do not act now,
we are slaves forever.

We have to act.

Warren realizes the
patriot militia outside

Boston must be ready
to confront the British,

an act of defiance that could
finally trigger a full-scale war.

But the British army has Boston
sealed off and raising the alarm is risky,

so he deploys his secret
network of messengers.

Warren decides to just send
a couple of men on horseback

so he can be sure that
the message gets through

and the militia is raised
to defend those two towns.

Among Warren's messengers
are William Dawes and Paul Revere.

The reason they sent two
riders out is the likelihood

of either or both of them
being captured was very high.

There's redcoats
everywhere and they're armed.

The riders travel in opposite directions

to increase their chances of
reaching Lexington and Concord.

Revere crosses the Charles
River to begin his historic ride,

while Dawes loops south and
takes the land route to Lexington.

But as they spread the
word of the redcoats' advance,

Revere and Dawes will
be joined by a third rider,

a man who didn't set out that night
to become a hero of the revolution,

Dr Samuel Prescott.

Prescott is in Lexington
to visit his fiancé, Lydia.

So conquered, and more importantly,

the fate of the entire revolution is
suddenly in the hands of this young,

24-year-old doctor that's
just out on a hot date.

At one o'clock that morning,
Prescott bids Lydia goodnight.

But as he rides home to Concord,

he runs into Revere and Dawes,

who have already delivered
their message to Lexington.

He's from Concord, he's a part
of the militia, and so he thinks,

oh, we'll be able to spread
the word a lot faster if

I'm with you, because everyone
knows me, it's my home.

So he joins the trio,
and then they take off.

But within minutes, they
gallop into serious trouble.

Paul Revere's a little bit ahead,

and he sees two men,

and realizes that they're British sentries.

And then as he tries to alert his friends,

the two men become four men,

and then all of a sudden they're circled.

Revere is captured.

Dawes and Prescott break free.

But Dawes is thrown from his horse,

forcing him to limp home.

The only rider to make it
to Concord to deliver the

message about the British
plan is Samuel Prescott.

The regulars are out!

Two arms!

Alerted to the British advance,

the colonists seize their weapons and
prepare for their first direct confrontation.

While Patriot leaders John Hancock
and Sam Adams make good their escape.

If the British had gotten to Lexington
without any advance warning,

they could have captured
a couple of key members

of Congress, Samuel
Adams and John Hancock,

and if they had gotten to Concord,

they would have been able
to capture the ammunition

and powder that the Americans
so desperately needed.

In the early hours of April 19, 1775,

dozens of colonial militia stand
ready to confront the Redcoats.

As the British army advances,

a showdown is brewing
that could see the movement

for independence
explode into full-blown war.

Their route takes them
through the town of Monotamy

and past the home of 78-year-old
retired soldier Samuel Whitmore.

Twice married and the father of eight,

Whitmore served for five decades
as a soldier in the King's Army,

fighting in several colonial wars.

His French saber is testament
to his 40 years of service.

People would ask Whitmore,
how did you get this French saber?

He would respond by saying,

the gentleman that had it died suddenly.

Now, like most of Massachusetts colonists,

Whitmore opposes Britain's heavy-handed
tactics and growing military presence.

But when he sees the British
regulars marching through the town,

he knows that the inexperienced patriot
militia could find themselves in trouble.

British leaders think the
American soldiers are weak.

This dates back to the
French and Indian War,

when the Americans would
line up in the thick of battle,

the Americans would turn and run.

The colonial soldiers are
about to meet their first test.

In a field outside Lexington,

77 militiamen have gathered to block
the Redcoat advance towards Concord.

John Parker, leader of the Minutemen,

knows the British outnumber
his forces ten to one.

He doesn't expect to defeat them,

he just wants to send a message,

we're here, we have guns,

and we're going to resist.

The commander of the British
troops, Major John Pitcairn,

doesn't want to be distracted
by a fight in Lexington.

Running behind schedule, his goal is to
secure a bridge further west in Concord.

But Pitcairn is forced to respond
to the Minutemen's blockade.

Neither side wanted a war to start,

and so they stand there
face to face for a while.

Hundreds of professional
soldiers confront dozens of

militiamen armed with
squirrel rifles and buckshot.

Both Parker and Pitcairn
issue orders not to shoot.

And...

somebody fired.

And to this day, nobody
knows exactly who fired.

Was it a British soldier?
Was it an American soldier?

Was it a bystander who knew?

The shot triggers a
hail of British bullets.

The militiamen are
overwhelmed and quickly retreat,

some racing into the nearby woods.

It takes just 15 minutes for the
redcoats to rout the colonists.

When the smoke clears,
eight patriots lie dead

and the British soldiers
continue on their way to Concord.

The Battle of Lexington
seems to confirm to the

British that Americans
had no appetite for battle.

But when they reach Concord,
it's suddenly a very different story.

Two thousand Minutemen
from 40 different towns

are waiting to confront
the 700 army regulars.

And this time, it's the
colonists who control the field.

Among the most common and deadly
weapons at their disposal was the musket.

Not terribly accurate,
but effective.

Musket balls are slow and heavy,

and so if you got hit by a musket ball,

it was not a clean wound.

And so if it hit bone,

that means you're going
to have an amputation.

The musket ball did horrific damage.

If it hit an arm or a leg,

amputation would surely follow.

If it hit your torso, you're a goner.

The British are forced
to abandon their position.

They first withdraw to
the center of Concord

and then begin a hasty
retreat back to Boston.

But their escape route is
lined by 1,600 patriot militia.

The Americans fought dirty.

They hid in houses, they hid
in trees, they hid behind walls,

and they were also
circling around the British

column the entire way from
Concord back to Boston.

As the Redcoats break rank
and race for safety in Boston,

they once again pass
Samuel Whitmore's farm.

Whitmore's military
experience served the British

well when he fought for
them against the French.

But he now turns his
warrior spirit against

the Empire and towards
the cause of revolution.

Whitmore waits until the
British are right on top of him.

Then he whips out his dueling pistols

and drops two more.

The Redcoats come at him

and he grabs his old French
saber and starts hacking at them.

One of them shoots
him at point-blank range.

Then they bayonet him
more than a dozen times.

How dare this old man attack them?

The Redcoats leave Whitmore for dead.

Only he doesn't die.

He recovers and he
lives to be well into his

nineties before he
actually finally passes away.

The Day of Bloodshed leaves 73
British soldiers dead and 174 wounded.

The Americans have lost 49 men.

America and Great Britain
are now officially at war.

And though Concord is not
a decisive military victory,

the military governor of
Massachusetts, Thomas Gage,

who sent the troops to Concord,

receives a very clear message.

The lesson that Gage came away from
is that we were a lot more determined

and a lot more effective
fighters than he thought we were.

When the fighting
began, both sides had the

misconception that both
sides had them near every war.

They thought it was going to be short.

They kind of stumbled their way into it,

and then they thought, okay,
a couple of good victories,

we win, we go home.

That's not the way it turned out.

By the end of April 1775,

20,000 militia fighters from across
New England surround Boston.

The stage is now set for the bloodiest
battle of the American Revolution.

Enraged by the Patriots'
aggression at Lexington and Concord,

Britain vows to crush the
rebellious Americans once and for all.

Boston has become a city under siege.

9,000 British troops occupy the town,

which is surrounded by
20,000 rebel militiamen

stationed in nearby
Roxbury and Cambridge.

Both sides know a deadly
battle could soon erupt.

It looks worse than it is.

Sound doesn't pound.

Patriot figurehead Joseph Warren

is now president of the
Massachusetts Provincial

Congress and Major
General of the militia.

Dr. Warren, you're needed, sir.

On June 16, 1775,

word reaches Warren
that 2,000 British soldiers

are preparing to come ashore in Charlestown
near Bunker Hill just north of Boston.

That night, Warren sends 1,000
men to dig fortifications into the hill.

But instead of Bunker Hill,

they build them on nearby Breeds Hill,

which looks out over
the harbor and the city.

Colonel Prescott, one of the
commanders of the operation,

claims that he got the
order to set up on Breeds Hill.

That put the American and British
cannons within range of each other.

The artillery on Breeds Hill
is a huge threat to the British.

From Breeds Hill, they could easily
bombard the ships from their position.

This is really an act of aggression,

and the British respond.

As dawn breaks, the British
are astonished to see the

extensive defenses the
colonists have built overnight.

But it doesn't deter them
from landing their forces,

and by early afternoon, 3,000 British
troops have arrived in Charlestown,

which they've burned to the ground.

The Americans have
orders to hold their fire

until the enemy has
closed to within 50 yards.

The close-packed British
troops fall in clumps.

Driven back, they are forced
down the hill to regroup.

But the Americans'
gunpowder is running out fast.

Bunker Hill is the first full-scale battle
of the Revolution, and the bloodiest.

Among the colonial fighters is a
little-known hero of the Revolution,

named Salem Poor.

A former New England slave who
purchased his freedom in 1769 for £27,

now he was fighting to keep it.

Salem Poor's remarkable
performance on the battlefield

clearly demonstrated to the British
that even men who were born into slavery

understood that this was an
opportunity to fight for liberty.

They want blood?

The children, they're old!

Poor is married with an infant son,

but he's still prepared to rally
with the Minutemen at Concord

and to fight for the Patriot
cause at Bunker Hill.

He is one of about 100
African Americans at this battle

and one of 5,000 who will take up arms
against Britain in the course of the war.

After the battle, he's
commended by 14 officers

to the Provincial Congress
for the way that he

fought that he fought
with exceptional valor.

Leading the Patriot defence,

Doctor, now Major General Joseph Warren,

leaps into the teeth of battle.

Give him hell!

Right there on the front line saying,

I am a private and the
service of American rights is Dr.

Joseph Warren.

So we need to build up
there as much as here.

He famously said, speaking of the British,

these fellows say we won't fight.

By heaven, I hope I shall
die up to my knees in blood.

During the first two
assaults on Green's Hill,

Warren helps hold the line,

rallying the Patriots
to stand their ground.

Reload! Reload!

But the British Army's third
wave overwhelms them.

Redcoats by the hundreds
swarm across their defences.

Many Patriots scatter when
their gunpowder runs out.

At that moment, the young revolution
receives its heaviest blow yet.

According to legend,
Dr. Warren's last words were,

it is sweet and fitting
to die for your country.

In the first great conflict of the
revolution he helped to launch,

the 34-year-old Patriot becomes a
martyr for American independence.

Warren is one of 115
Americans killed at Bunker Hill.

But the British victory has
been ten times as costly.

1,054 soldiers, half their fighting force,

have been killed or wounded.

This was a devastating
blow for the British forces.

It was a complete slaughter.

Two days after the battle, a
wealthy Virginia plantation owner,

George Washington, becomes commander
in chief of America's new Continental Army.

There was no possible way of turning back,

and what the outcome of that
was going to be really was unknown.

The only certainty is
that the struggle ahead

will be full of
sacrifice for both sides

and that the fate of America
now hangs in the balance.