The Spirit of '76

Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army

Reserved and granite-willed; leads by endurance, not brilliance, and rarely shows what the burden costs him

Wants: Keep the army whole and win a free republic — then lay down the sword and go home

Could make himself a king and knows it; his whole greatness is the refusal — yet he fears the cause cannot outlast him

The Fighting Quaker — Washington's Striking Corps

Tireless and adaptable; the general who loses the battle and wins the campaign

Wants: Carry the fight to the enemy everywhere at once and never let the line be pinned

A man raised to peace who became the war's most relentless hand — he wins by retreating and hates that it works

The Continental Artillery, Western Guns

Slow to move and ruinous when it speaks; the noble train hauled over frozen roads

Wants: Anchor the western line and rake the field with iron

The Mariners of Marblehead, Eastern Flank

Salt-stiff and unshakable; fishermen who can row an army across a black river in the dark

Wants: Hold the eastern flank and keep the way of retreat open

Commander of the Left Wing

Brave and headstrong, quick to advance and quicker to be flanked

Wants: Hold the wooded left and guard the passes

Commander of the Right Wing

Steady and stubborn; the American 'lord' who fights like a lion at bay

Wants: Hold the right at any cost and buy the army its time

Claims a Scottish earldom the crown denied him — and fights the king's army to become the lord America will make him

The Boy General, Light Division

Gallant and idealistic; crossed an ocean for an idea and is brave to a fault

Wants: Prove the cause is worth a nobleman's blood

A French aristocrat risking everything to abolish the very privilege he was born to

Partisan Horse, the Lowcountry Raiders

Lean and silent, everywhere and nowhere; strikes from the swamp and is gone before the smoke clears

Wants: Bleed the enemy a cut at a time and never be where they swing

Wins by refusing the stand-up fight his honor was raised to crave

Commander-in-Chief of His Majesty's Forces

Cautious and comfort-loving; wins the battles and never the war, and is half in sympathy with the men he fights

Wants: Crush the rebellion and restore the colonies to the King's peace with as little blood as may be

Doubts the war is just and prosecutes it anyway — his hesitation will cost an empire he could have kept

The Brigade of Guards — the King's Striking Corps

Imperious and contemptuous; boasts he could march from one end of the continent to the other with five thousand men

Wants: Smash the rebel army in a single open-field blow

His contempt is his blindness — he cannot conceive the farmers will stand, and they do

His Majesty's Artillery, Western Guns

Methodical and overwhelming; the best-drilled guns in the world

Wants: Pound the rebel works to splinters

The Admiral's Flagship, Eastern Bombardment

A floating fortress of sixty-four guns that turns the shoreline to surf and smoke

Wants: Rake the coast and command the water the rebels cannot

The Hessian Division, Center Column

Iron-disciplined mercenaries, far from the Rhine, paid in another king's coin

Wants: Earn the wage and break the center with the bayonet

Commander of the Flanking Column

Prickly, able, and quarrelsome; the planner who finds the road around the flank

Wants: Turn the rebel line where it least expects it

The cleverest general in America, forever certain his betters are squandering his genius

The Earl — Vanguard of the Flank March

Relentless and capable; the genuine soldier in the King's coat

Wants: Run the rebels down and end the matter in the field

The best soldier on the board, fated to be undone not by the enemy but by a fleet that does not come

The British Legion, Light Horse

Young, fast, and merciless; 'Tarleton's quarter' means none

Wants: Ride down every rebel band and leave a name they dread

Hunts a Swamp Fox he can never catch, and the chase is making him the very villain the rebels need