TURNING THE TIDE - After three years of defeats, the tide turns and the British start to tighten the noose on the outnumbered French forces. Although British Major-General James Abercromby is defeated by the Marquis de Montcalm at Fort Ticonderoga, France is no longer supplying the resources for victory, and the war is taking a terrible toll on their allied Indian tribes decimated by disease and hunger. The British dispatch General John Forbes to conquer Fort Duquesne at the Forks of the Ohio, where the French have been entrenched since Braddock's defeat. Forbes determined to carve a road through the wilderness, protected by a series of forts. An Eastern Delaware chief named Teedyuscung proves instrumental in securing victory for Forbes. Washington, at the center of action once again, is almost killed in a "friendly fire" incident, and wonders if Providence spared him for a higher purpose. UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES - British troops push north into Canada and lay siege to the impregnable hilltop fort at Quebec. In a daring strategic maneuver, British General Wolfe orders his troops to scale the cliffs at night, and the surprise attack defeats the French at last. Wolfe is mortally wounded, but General Jeffrey Amherst continues the British pressure on Canada. Decisively aided by the Iroquois, he brings the war, and French influence in Canada, to an end. But in the aftermath of victory, the British treasury is drained, and tensions between the colonies and the Britain escalate as Parliament seeks to impose taxes on the colonies to help recover the costs of the long war. Struggling to control a vast North American empire, they also make a treaty with the Indian nations, which were attacking frontier settlements, to prevent further colonial encroachment. Along with many other Americans George Washington, now a civilian planter and member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, chafes at these British actions. They feel betrayed and disrespected as partners in the victory and loyal British subjects, and their economic interests in the western territories are at stake. With the Stamp Act and the Tea tax, the time arrives to declare independence from the Crown that they had been so willing to serve just 20 years before. Washington puts on his military uniform once more to lead the Continental Army.