Little is known about the Spirit of '76's early life. '76 was active against Nazi spies in WWII. In 1942, he traveled to Great Britain and was recruited by the Crusaders, a British super team who were unaware that they were being manipulated by a Nazi spy, Alfie, and that the source of most of their weapons was the Third Reich. Alfie wanted to discredit the Invaders and assassinate King George VI. Alfie manipulated the Crusaders into fighting the Invaders, who exposed Alfie’s plot and saved the king. Upon learning how they had been tricked, the Crusaders disbanded. Unlike most of his cohorts, the Spirit of '76 remained an active adventurer, continuing to fight for the Allied cause.

In April of 1945, the Spirit of '76 joined Captain America, the Patriot and the USSR's heroic Red Guardian in a Berlin mission to retrieve Nazi secrets. Their mission ended with the Nazi Red Skull being crushed under the a fallen building. Shortly after Captain America and Bucky were lost in action. In order to hide their disappearance, President Truman appointed Nasland to become the new Captain America and the young Fred Davis to become Bucky. They both served for the rest of the war with the Invaders, and after the war joined the All-Winners Squad.

In the summer of 1946, the All-Winners Squad learned that Adam II was planning to assassinate a congress member and replace him with an android. The team split up to learn who the target was; Nasland and Davis confronted Adam II as well as his robots who were preparing to replace JFK. Davis was knocked out and Nasland tried to alert the other heroes but was captured by one of Adam II's robots. Although he was mortally injured, he signaled the other heroes with a flare before dying from his wounds.