Jerry Drummer #11

During the summer of 1776, as General Howe's British forces threatened the American cause from New York and General Carleton advanced from Canada with thousands of trained troops, a desperate force of sickly and depleted soldiers had to hold the line at Lake Champlain. When General Horatio Gates takes command, he rallies these ragged men by putting them to work constructing a fortification at Ticonderoga, and as the fort rises, so does their morale and strength. With Benedict Arnold marshaling an unlikely naval force from makeshift ships, the Americans face down Carleton's formidable army at one of the Revolution's crucial turning points.

When untrained colonial militia take position on Breed's Hill in June 1775, young Jerry Drummer slips through enemy lines to gather intelligence and supplies for the Revolutionary cause. As the British launch their assault with disciplined regularity, Jerry helps his fellow minute men hold the line through sheer grit and resourcefulness, even as powder runs dangerously low.

During the desperate winter of 1775 at Valley Forge, young Jerry Drummer discovers he can slip undetected across the Delaware River to find supplies for Washington's starving troops—and when he stumbles upon British powder stores, he seizes the chance to strike back. With his friend Andy at his side, Jerry sets out to gather the ammunition and provisions that might give the ragged Continental Army the edge it desperately needs. As General Washington prepares a bold Christmas Day assault on Trenton, Jerry finds himself at the heart of a turning point for the fledgling nation.

In 1777 Philadelphia, occupied by British forces, young patriot Jerry Drummer tends to wounded comrade Andy Huff while secretly aiding the American cause—until he witnesses a chance encounter with Captain James Fiske, a British officer who reveals himself as a Son of Liberty. Together, Jerry and Fiske engineer a daring escape, assembling a crew of prisoners to commandeer a sloop laden with supplies desperately needed by General Washington's army. The pair must outwit British sentries and artillery fire to slip past enemy lines and deliver their cargo to the Continental forces.

Captured during street fighting in Boston, Jonas Blake—dubbed "Lightnin'" by his British captors—becomes a fixture in the officers' barracks, enduring their mockery while keeping his wits sharp. When rebel forces sweep down the valley and the British scramble to retreat, Lightnin' sees his chance to turn the tables on the men who've treated him as little more than a servant. This 1957 adventure shows what happens when a prisoner decides he's finally had enough.

When cabin boy Pat Flynn strikes back against the tyrannical Captain Nelby aboard the H.M.S. Swallow, he finds himself a fugitive—and surprisingly, a rebel. Pat's knowledge of the British ship becomes invaluable when American freedom fighters recruit him to help turn the vessel against its masters in a daring raid up a Virginia river. As the plan unfolds with Pat leading the charge, Captain Nelby makes one final, desperate move that threatens to destroy everything they've fought to seize.

A portrait of the ragged soldiers who sustained the American Revolution through seven grueling years—the 2,700 underfed, untrained men who followed General Washington from Lexington to Yorktown, learning warfare on the battlefield itself. Promised cash pay they rarely received, many Continental soldiers instead claimed land bounties in unexplored wilderness, where they built farms and a new nation with equal parts plow and rifle.