Well technically there is no longer a war. It's set in September of 1776 just after Pennsylvania signed it's COnstitution, and New York was attacked. In this version of reality, no one knows it but a gate opened in New York spilling beings from several dozen realities through the area. America has been cut off from overseas as no ships are entering port, no ship that leaves sight of land returns, and the colonies have just realized they're in trouble. They rely on imports for gunpowder and are in an uneasy position to be able to star their own industry to compensate. Contact with towns out in the boonies is being lost, NY has reportedly burned to the ground, and Washington's forces along with the British have not been seen anywhere. Meanwhile Philadelphia is having a series of unexplainable murders, the nearby Lenape Indians have apparently gone into hiding, and they are fortifying by building defenses against what they believe is an inevitable British assault (but which the government knows will be anything but).