A personal history of Americans at war told through the lives of thirteen soldiers who fought in each of our nation's major conflicts, from the American Revolution through Iraq. Each conflict and each soldier was unique, and each occasioned unique qualities, from self-preservation to partriotism, from glory to duty, and resignation to conviction.

Soldier of the Revolution (Joseph Plumb Martin joined the Revolutionary War at fifteen and fought from Long Island to Yorktown) -- Brothers-in-arms (Charles Black, a freeborn African American sailor, risked his liberty and life for his country and comrades in the War of 1812.) -- Adventure (Sam Chamberlain was a flawed hero of the Mexican-American War, whose tale inspired the novelist Cormac McCarthy.) -- Touched with fire (Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., an aristocratic idealist, was disillusioned and enobled by the Civil War) -- Fog (Edward Baker was a Buffalo Soldier whose courage and leadership under fire set an example for the Americans, white and black, who fought in Cuba.) -- A howling wilderness (Littleton Waller "Tony" Tazewell Waller, a court-martialed Marine officer, refused to massacre Filipino civilians.) -- Lost, scared kids a long way from home (Elton "Lucky" Mackin, a marine, survived one of the most dangerous assignments in the trenches of World War I.) -- Lone wolf (Guy Gabaldon, alone and cave by cave, convinced as many as fifteen hundred Japanese on Saipan to surrender.) -- Duty (Chester "Pete" Salter fought hand to hand to get off a hill in Korea, and was wounded fighting totake the hill back and retrieve the body of the man who had saved his life.) -- Valor (Leo Thorsness, a Vietnam War pilot and POW, fought MiGs, missiles, and artillery to protect the lives of his wingmen.) -- Wounds (Mary Rhoads was an army reservist whose life was forever changed by an Iraqi Scud missile attack in the 1990-91 Persian Gulf War.) -- The job (Monica Lin Brown, a frontline medic in Afghanistan, risked her life to save others in an ambush.) -- Above and beyond (Michael Monsoor, a Navy SEAL in Iraq, would not let his brothers be killed.).