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.
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.
I am trying to think where I read it -— it was a church in northern South Carolina -— and I think one of my ancestors was in the church. Or at least a woman of the same last name. In Draper’s ‘the Battle Of King’s Mountain’ perhaps? If i can find it later today I will let you know.
There was simultaneously an Iroquois civil war going on with the Oneida versus most of the rest, and the Oneida were American allies.
I cried when the tribal historian sent me the detailed history of the Oneida claims made to the United States. They'd lost over half their people, and 3/4 of their warriors. Virtually every plough, harness or other item useful in this world, right down to iron pots, had been seized by the Brits.
Then, every building had been burned to the ground, and women and children were regularly bayoneted and tortured (by the Brits).
Why did we let these Brits evacuate to New Brunswick when there were perfectly good deep waters not too far away where they could have been dropped.
Next time, no more Mr. Nice Guy.