Posted on 08/28/2010 7:51:41 AM PDT by the OlLine Rebel
I didn't see any comments about Glenn Beck's 1st words on his Friday TV show.
He talked about the "Black Robe Regiment", and said that Brits largely blamed churches/preachers for fomenting the Revolution.
Then he said as a result, when the Redcoats came here upon the war starting, they burned churches because of this. Then he said they even "locked up people inside and burned them".
That probably referred to the William’s plantation incident, albeit, it was Hollywood’ed up by Gibson. In the William’s plantation incident (noted above) the church, library, and residence were all burned with the family and they made a bonfire of Bibles that had the Scot-Irish translations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banastre_Tarleton
Education is your friend. The Wikipedia article has cited sources. Read them and then come back.
A church in Midway, GA, was burned by the British. It’s mentioned on the Midway page of Wiki >>>
Established in 1752, the Midway Congregational Church building was destroyed during the Revolutionary War. British in the area burned it, but it was rebuilt.
There are numerous references to it elsewhere.
There’s this:
http://www.nyfreedom.com/trinitychurch.htm
and this:
http://www.discoversouthcarolina.com/products/3460.aspx
BTW, the colonists burned at least one Anglican church during the Revolution, and others were collateral damage as the British burned entire towns.
Long before the revolution, the British burned or destroyed many Catholic missions in Florida, including St. Augustine (1702).
Not an expert, but hope this helps.
But.. but.. publicmic schoolschizzles taught me that the British were all classy and honorable and the Americans were rebellious savages. /sarc
I’m a historian of the period.
The British blaming church leaders for fomenting revolution is true.
The church burnings did happen, the most famous being during Simcoe’s 1779 raid on Bound (not Bround) Brook, NJ.
The claim that the British locked up Americans in the burning churches—that happened in the movie “The Patriot”, but I’m still trying to verify that.
I guess the Indians were wearing Red Coats, too.
I stand corrected on those particulars. Nevertheless, these were limited examples and not part of a general policy — as the wide scale survival through the Revolution of most colonial era churches indicates.
I stand corrected on those particulars. Nevertheless, these were limited examples and not part of a general policy — as the wide scale survival through the Revolution of most colonial era churches indicates.
The British atrocities depicted in “The Patriot” were actually carried out and then some by the barbaric Binastre Tarleton, who unfortunately would later die in bed of old age.
Certainly the incident in ‘The Patriot’ was lifted wholesale from Oradour-sur-Glane, 1944.
The Presbyterian Church at Bound Brook was not burned at the Battle of Bound Brook NJ in 1777 but as you mentioned correctly the Dutch Church at Van Veghten’s Bridge (2 miles west of Bound Brook) was burned by Simcoe’s Raiders in the fall of 1779 (they claimed that they found stored in the church, harness’ and other equipment belonging to the Continental Army). Simcoe also ordered the burning of the Somerset Court House (about 5 miles sw of Bound Brook) because he claimed that he found a mistreated Tory prisoner in the jail.
British troops did heavily damage the church at Somerset Court House (now the village of Millstone) in December 1776. They used much of the structural wood and siding to build huts that they expected to live in during the winter but which they never used since they evacuated the town immediately after the Battle of Trenton NJ
Correction:
Meant to post the Trinity Church (NY) link under the “collateral damage” remark.
In its place should’ve been:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springfield_Presbyterian_Church
(The belief that colonists hid gunpowder/arms in churches, true or not, is often cited as the reason they were burned.)
read some history books, Benjamin Franklin’s book talks about this and worse!
I knew some incidents of burning churches happened, but I hadn't put two and two together.
“the wide scale survival through the Revolution of most colonial era churches indicates.”
I would think so, too. I’ve gone to historic sites all my life (including obscure) and I can’t recall too many church-burnings from the RevWar. Certainly not “on purpose” as in, “we’ll get your churches.”
But there is interesting info here. I guess I get so bogged down in the “order of battle” part I miss some of the more general “social” aspects of it.
British captives on Braddock’s march/massacre were burned alive.
It is obvious that the British did not always fight like the gentlemen you have seen depicted in movies, but committed atrocities of what would now be considered war crimes. I suspect that if anyone other than Glenn Beck had mentioned this, it would have gone without comment.
So far, everything the left has objected to has not happened, and once again, Beck gets the last laugh. The mainstream media and the left have made fools of themselves, just as they did with the Shirley Sherrod incident. I find it amazing that such fear can be stirred by one man who has a genuine concern for the American spirit.
The trouble with "The Patriot" is that it distorts history, partly to make the "good guys" more PC, and partly to make the "bad guys" look bad without any regard to accuracy.
For instance, Francis Marion was a slaveowner, but you can't make a movie in 1999 with a "good guy" owning slaves, because that automatically makes him a "bad guy". (Disclaimer: I'm no expert in the analysis of PC groupthink.) So they make a fictional character that does not own slaves, although he does use colored help. Go figger.
Meanwhile, Col. Tavington, who is substituted for the real-life Banastre Tarleton, mostly does the same things, but with a couple of notable exceptions. Tarleton burned churches, and he burned houses with people inside, but never, as far as we know, a church with people inside. You may be sure that if that had happened, we would know about it. Tarleton's excesses were talked about everywhere, even preached about, and they were a major reason that South Carolina, which started the war with a large Tory base, turned fiercely Whig and chased Cornwallis northward with nothing to show for his time here.
The other difference I was thinking of between Tarleton and Tavington is that Tarleton didn't die in the war. Of course, in a movie the "bad guy" has to die; he can't survive, go home to Liverpool to a hero's welcome, get a seat in Parliament and live to be 78.
It's actually a good thing real life is not like the movies.
I have never heard that a burning church - with civilians - was perpetrated by Banastre Tarleton.
I am quite aware of Butcher Tarleton and his antics with his loyalist dragoons, thank you.
As stated, I am a “fan” of the RevWar and I do wish people would give me the benefit of the doubt on this, rather than making sarcastic comments. Heck, even if I was a rube on the subject, a little more courtesy would be nice.
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