Joining the American Revolution prior to France's formal entrance into the war, the Marquis de Lafayette served as one of George Washington's most trusted generals.

William Prescott led colonial forces at the Battle of Bunker Hill, where his strategic defense and command helped inflict heavy British casualties, despite ultimately being forced to retreat.

After the siege of Yorktown, Laurens returned to his home state of South Carolina where Nathanael Greene appointed Laurens to lead Lee’s Legion and his light troops. Along with this command, Laurens’s new responsibilities included the gathering and analysis of intelligence for Greene.

At the Battle of Camden, British General Lord Cornwallis routed Gates’s army and captured nearly 1,000 men, including their supplies, baggage, and artillery. There was no organized retreat, and Gates rode near 170 miles north in three days to flee. It destroyed his reputation and his new southern army.