[muawiyah]

The Brits regularly seized buildings and put troops in them. There were two reasons for that ~ the inhabitants or owners were gone, and there were really very few buildings in America.

This was a wild country even at that time ~ our Third Amendment prohibits the practice EXCEPT IN TIME OF WAR, which excused the Brits.

As far as burning churches down, there are instances of the Brits doing that, and in South Carolina they literally had a civil war going on with our people, patriots to the core, were up against OTHER civilians recently shipped in by the Brits ~ and all those old boys had bright red hair and gave no quarter.

For the most part the Brits did restrict themselves a bit and only burned down houses, barns and other buildings when there were suspected rebels inside ~ and when it came to churches, there's one instance of the scene shown in "The Patriot" ~ but, of course, there should have been none of that at all.

[Rockingham]

The broad judgment of history is that during the Revolution, Americans transgressed the laws of war more than the British did. Of course, the comparison is not equal in that most Americans had only a hazy notion of the laws of war while the British were schooled in them.

The worst savageries took place on the frontier involving ad hoc Patriot and Loyalist militias infused with criminality and revenge. In the Second Amendment, the phrase "well regulated militia" reflects that experience by qualifying the endorsement of militias.

"The Patriot" did a fine job with the battle of Cowpens. I nearly gagged though on the bi-racial calypso music wedding celebration. And as much as the British may at times have burned down churches, they did not do so with people in them.