"The story of how thirteen diverse colonies were able to defeat an invading army of the best soldiers in the world serves to inspire people around the globe more than two hundred years later," writes Daniel W. Barefoot.

No colony played a greater role than North Carolina. In 1766, Cape Fear Patriots offered the first armed resistance to Royal authority in the colonies. In Alamance County in 1771, Regulators clashed with the governor's troops in what some consider the Revolution's first battle. At Charlotte in 1775, citizens crafted what was perhaps the colonies' first declaration of independence. In 1776, the enactment of the Halifax Resolves made North Carolina the first colony to instruct its Continental Congress delegates to vote for independence. And the list goes on.

The fourteen tours in this book tell the story of Revolutionary War North Carolina at the places where events occurred—at the homes of participants, on the ground where battles were fought, at the graves of men and women who sacrificed for freedom.

From the coast to the frontier, travelers will meet both the august—men like Nathanael Greene, William R. Davie, and William Hooper—and the colorful—people like Banastre Tarleton, Ben Cleveland, and "Jennie Bahn" McNeill.