An era-appropriate melody plays as photographs move slowly across the screen and a voice reads heartfelt letters written generations ago amid a violent conflict.

Documentarian and New Hampshire resident Ken Burns is almost ready to release his new series, a six-part, 12 hour show on the American Revolution. It will air for six consecutive nights and will explore "the country’s founding and its eight-year war for independence," according to PBS broadcasting.

His writings, which stretched across eight decades, helped Americans understand a president who transformed the office and shaped the postwar years.