This is the first volume of a two-part story of the American Revolution, as told from the points of view of several of the key participants. This book follows the time line from the first bloodshed in Boston, in March 1770, through the summer of 1776. While the events and the people are real and true to history, this is not what you may have read in high school history class.

By definition, this is a novel. As painstaking as I try to be in telling you this story through the voices of the characters themselves, in their own words and through their own experiences, the dialogue and thoughts must be read as fiction.

I'm often asked about the source material, the research itself. Few subjects in American history are as well chronicled as the American Revolution. More specifically, some of these characters have been so focused upon that their names fill entire shelves in libraries. Wherever possible, my research takes me through their letters and memoirs, their diaries, their own written histories, or the accounts written by the people who were there. In telling you their stories from their points of view, it is essential that the research take me into their minds. It then becomes my task to bring those voices to you.

One immediate observation about this time in American history is the unique language of the era. As my father, Michael Shaara, noted in his introduction to The Killer Angels, in the 1860s "men spoke in windy phrases." Going back to the 1770s, the style of speech is windier still. Occasionally I have toned down some of the more complex language of the time, with significant exceptions: I have not changed any direct quote, nor have I altered the wording of any written document. I have made every effort not to pollute the characterizations by including any anachronistic words or inappropriately modern references.

This is primarily the story of this time as told through the eyes of Benjamin Franklin, John and Abigail Adams, General Thomas Gage, and George Washington. While I do not attempt to convey or explain every event, every important incident, every factor that carried America to the point of revolution, I have tried to show how each of these characters responded to his or her time, how they witnessed and experienced and impacted the enormous changes unfolding around them.

It has become fashionable in our modern, more cynical time to re- examine our history, to throw a supposedly new light on those who are famous for their accomplishments, to instead expose their faults, to topple the statue of the hero, to replace the honor and respect with the sensational and the shameful, as though it were the only meaningful way these characters can be relevant to today's world. I most adamantly disagree. That we know so much about these characters today is a testament to their accomplishments, their extraordinary achievements, and, yes, their astounding heroism. That they can so easily become targets is a testament to their humanity. They are, after all, so very much like us. Measuring their behavior with the crystal clarity of hindsight, with twenty-first-century standards and judgments, is a con- venient and cynical shortcut to learning history, but it does little to help us understand their character and why they deserve to be not only remembered, but revered.

The American Revolution is not merely a story about great battles. The Revolution itself was about not just the power of armies, but the power of a people to decide their own future. This story allows you, the reader, to witness the very birth of our nation through the eyes of the wonderful men and women who by their integrity, sacrifice, and astounding courage caused it to happen. It is a story that belongs to every American.

Jeff Shaara
October, 2000