While serving as a drummer in the Revolutionary War, young Stephen Tainter witnessed Burgoyne’s surrender and the failed Newport siege.

Regarded as the first martyr of the American Revolution, Crispus Attucks was the first to fall in the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770. Of African and Native American descent, he became a powerful symbol of the fight for liberty, later embraced by abolitionists as a hero of both American independence and the struggle for equality.

Colonel Samuel Griffin, a Virginia lawyer and officer in the Continental Army, played a key role in the 1776 campaign, leading militia units in New Jersey and engaging the Hessians near Mount Holly. Stricken by illness during critical battles, he later served as mayor of Williamsburg and a U.S. congressman after the war.

Washington's enslaved huntsman and valet, William Lee was tasked with following Washington throughout the war where he witnessed events such as the encampment at Valley Forge and the victory at Yorktown.