The Mitchell family left Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1762 for North Carolina. Their story is chronicled by Mitchell descendant David Bowles, beginning when 17-year-old Adam Mitchell arrives in North Carolina with his family.

The Mitchells just wanted to be left alone to farm their land, practice their faith in the Presbyterian Church, and raise their family. But the way they responded to the extraordinary circumstances of life on the new frontier, politics, and war made heroes of these ordinary citizens.

Adam fought the British in the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, while his mother Margaret Mitchell, his wife Elizabeth, and their children endured deprivation and danger on the family farm in the midst of the battle.

The story of Adam's two loves – his first wife Jennetta who died bearing their firstborn child and his second wife Elizabeth who bore him twelve more children – creates the human backdrop to the dramatic historical events of Revolutionary War times.