While the brothers are at battle, Mallory and her sister, Anne (Phoebe Phillips)—secretly pining for Daniel—protect the family homestead, and Mallory smuggles secrets to the Patriots. Six years after the story begins, at war’s end—after he has lost his brother and all of his friends and nearly lost his own life being run through by a sword—Daniel comes limping home to brave Mallory (as poor Anne watches on), carrying the battle-scarred flag, never imagining that the woman he loves has been at war herself. It was to be an epic picture, shot in Technicolor and featuring a cavalcade of Metro stars in cameos. It would be MGM’s tribute to our returning heroes and to our triumphant nation. In the opening scene, George Washington (Webster Hayes), George Ross (Edward Arnold), and Robert Morris (Frank Morgan) call on young widow Betsy Ross (Kit Rogers), who, cut off from her family and struggling during wartime while still mourning the death of her husband, has no choice but to earn money mending uniforms and making tents and blankets for the Continental Army.
