Making Teddy

Washington confronts the reality of fighting the world’s greatest military power with a patchwork volunteer army. But his clever tactics take the British by surprise.

Washington’s outrage grows as his Virginia farm struggles under the weight of British taxation.  At the same time, the Continental Congress is looking for the man who will lead the Revolutionary army.

As a young man, George Washington’s greatest ambition is to become an officer in the British Army. Sent to lead a diplomatic mission on the Western Frontier, Washington’s early mistakes in battle lead to assassination charges and help spark the French and Indian War.

Making Washington unpacks the founding father that has become more myth than man. This season, leading historians, authors and journalists explore the man whose first military command sparked a European war, whose impatience and arrogance on the battlefield led to tragedy, but who grew amid the chaos of war and became the leader he is remembered as today. Making Washington premieres Thursday, May 25th.

Fighting to uphold the promises of Reconstruction, Grant wins the presidency but finds politics is a very different game from war. His turbulent time in office will call Grant’s character into question and reshape his legacy for generations to come.

Grant’s final victory brings Lee’s army to defeat and the Civil War to a close at last. But when President Lincoln is assassinated, Grant is charged not only with ending the war but with keeping the peace.

Facing the infamous Robert E. Lee for the first time on Lee’s home turf, Grant must use every talent to take on the Confederate Army in the brutal Battle of The Wilderness.

A surprise attack at the Battle of Shiloh galvanizes Grant’s combat instincts.  His grit and dogged determination  leads President Lincoln to appoint Grant general of the entire Union Army.

No one expected Ulysses S. Grant to grow up to be the Union general who would end the Civil War and eventually win the presidency. A string of early failures trains Grant to become one of America’s greatest and most unlikely heroes. 

Few presidents inspire such wildly different views of their legacy as our 18th President, Ulysses S. Grant.

Hosted by Broadway legend André de Shields “Making Grant” brings together leading historians, authors and journalists to understand the journey of this remarkable, unlikely hero to Civil War general and president.

From The HISTORY® Channel, a new five-part season about a man history still struggles to understand.