Prologue : France, February-April 1777

Part one. The march of annihilation : Fort Ticonderoga, New York, July-August 1777

This cursed, cut-up land : New York, July 1777

Fellows willing to go to Heaven : Little Neshaminy Creek, Pennsylvania, August 1777

Thine arrows stick fast in me : Oriskany, New York, and Bennington, Vermont, August 1777

A barbarous business in a barbarous country : Brandywine, Pennsylvania, September 1777

These are dreadful times : Philadelphia and Paoli, Pennsylvania, September 1777

Born under a fiery planet : Germantown, Pennsylvania, October 1777

To risk all upon one rash stroke : Saratoga, New York, September 1777

How art thou fallen : Saratoga, New York, October 1777

The elements in flames : Philadelphia, October-December 1777

Part two. The King's War : London, November 1777-February 1778

Blessed be he that expects nothing : Paris, December 1777-March 1778

The vortex of small fortunes : Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, January-June 1778

I would rather lose the crown : London and Portsmouth, England, April-June 1778

The French flag in all its glory : Paris and the English Channel, February-July 1778

Flying from a shadow : Monmouth Court House, New Jersey, June 1778

Fortune is a fickle jade : New York and Newport, Rhode Island, July-August 1778

A star and a stripe from the rebel flag : New York and Savannah, Georgia, October 1778-February 1779

The uncertainty of human prospects : Philadelphia, December 1778-February 1779

Part three. A Summons to Queens House : London, January-July 1779

I detest that sort of war : Hampton Roads, Virginia, and Stony Point, New York, March-July 1779

The valley of bones : The American Frontier, June-September 1779

Everything is now at stake : British Home Waters, July-September 1779

The greatest event that has happened : Savannah, Georgia, September-October 1779

Eternity is nearer every day : Morristown, New Jersey, December 1779-February 1780

She stoops to conquer : Charleston, South Carolina, February-June 1780

Epilogue : Britain and America, 1780.