An age that would decide whether America would grow into a vast global power, sweeping all the way to the Pacific or be broken, its divided pieces remaining small adjuncts to a mighty England. A war that would claim the breadth of the continent for America or cede that vast expanse to England and Spain.

Among the many men and women who would forge the future of our young nation's destiny were:

James and Dolly Madison - Together they face the ultimate presidential decision: Should they take the nation into a war for which it isn't prepared?

Andrew and Rachel Jackson - They speak for the West, for the frontier drive. Their enduring marriage gives Jackson the fortitude to dominate history in the battle that will determine our nation's future.

Winfield Scott - The young soldier who takes us headlong into the battle that will define American Army professionalism for all time.

Sally McQuirk - The daughter of a Washington publisher who is determined to cover the war as a journalist.

In their lives and loves, their hopes and fears, we live the thirty months of the war that shaped American destiny.