Saratoga

After Ticonderoga, the crawl: a wilderness supply line, a disaster at Bennington, the murder of Jane McCrea exploding into propaganda, and the Native scouts going home. Then Burgoyne crossed the Hudson on a bridge of boats and deliberately cut his own line of retreat, while ahead of him a Polish engineer fortified the one place the road to Albany could be stopped.

Morgan's riflemen empty the first clearing of officers; a seesaw afternoon leaves Burgoyne holding a field that cost twice what it paid. Then a poisoned month, a feud at headquarters, and the reconnaissance of October 7 that collapsed in an hour, with a general who had no command leading the charge that broke the line.

A retreat in cold rain, a trap that closed at Saratoga, and a negotiating coup: Burgoyne refused to sign a "capitulation," and the army that marched into captivity was promised a ride home it never got. A boot on a monument with no name on it, and news that crossed an ocean and brought France into the war.