With a British fleet on its way to attack New York, a 33-year-old member of the Continental Congress, Thomas Jefferson, works on a writing assignment in the seclusion of his rooms in a bricklayer's house in Philadelphia. The resulting document undergoes strenuous debate and is eventually adopted as the United States Declaration of Independence. Visit www.ageofrevolution.net for access to entire series.

Upon the departure of British forces from Boston in March 1776, General Washington leads the Continental Army to New York and prepares for an attack there. Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, evidence that King George has contracted with various German princes for 18,000 mercenaries for American service. The implication of this latest affront to their civil liberties compels members of the Continental Congress to order the drafting of an official document stating the case for independence. Visit www.ageofrevolution.net for access to entire series.

While Patriot forces besiege Boston, a British attempt to seize Charleston, South Carolina, meets surprisingly strong resistance. When an amphibious assault goes forward against American defenses on Sullivan's Island, a number of British warships are badly damaged and their land forces are completely stymied. The blow to British pride is exemplified by the fate of Sir Peter Parker, commander of the Bristol, who has his pants blown off by the explosive force of American cannon fire. Visit www.ageofrevolution.net for access to entire series.

Patriot general Benedict Arnold and an army comprised of rugged frontiersmen take ship from Newburyport, Massachusetts on an ill-fated mission to seize the fortress city of Quebec. Following a harrowing journey through untracked wilderness, part of the desperate force wins through to the banks of the St. Lawrence River only to suffer defeat in front of the city walls. Visit www.ageofrevolution.net for access to entire series.

George Washington's long road to leadership of the Continental Army lands him in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he conducts a prolonged siege of Boston. Visit www.ageofrevolution.net for access to entire series.

In the first light of dawn on 17 June 1775, British ships open fire on a newly-constructed redoubt atop Breed's Hill in Charlestown, and by noon a force of some 2000 Regulars are on their way from Boston by boat to seize the enemy's makeshift fortification. Under a similarly makeshift command structure, additional Patriot forces gravitate to the hill, and their tenacity in defense of the fort will require three concerted attacks and substantially greater losses to the British than to their own. Visit www.ageofrevolution.net for access to entire series.

In the aftermath of the skirmishing at Lexington and Concord, both sides prepare for a wider war. As militia forces grow in the outskirts of Boston, a makeshift command structure takes shape with General Artemas Ward assuming overall authority. By the middle of June, a strategy to threaten the British presence in Boston emerges, and General Prescott is ordered to fortify Bunker Hill in Charlestown. Visit www.ageofrevolution.net for access to entire series.

From Lexington, a British search-and-destroy mission proceeds to Concord, where its countermarch to Boston quickly becomes a bloody ordeal on Battle Road. Visit www.ageofrevolution.net for access to entire series.

Episode 2 of Born in Battle: the American Revolution details events leading up to the action on Lexington Green. Visit www.ageofrevolution.net for access to entire series.

A British search-and-destroy mission encounters the residents of Salem, Massachusetts, at the Northfield Bridge in what might have been an alternative opening to the American Revolution.