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To: mstar
I have often wondered if the burned church, along with congregation in the film, was based on a church in the area. Do you know?

I don't think so, but the British and/or their Indian allies may well have burned people in houses up in Pennsylvania. The real life British Col. Tarleton herded SC livestock into a barn and burned them. Here's material from and old post of mine:

The real life Tavington (British Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton) didn't burn people in a church but did order "cattle, hogs, and fowl driven into the barn where the corn was stored, the doors closed, and the barn put to the torch" [From The Road to Guilford Courthouse by John Buchanan.] Today, PETA would be after him.

In some respects, the British war against the Carolina colonists was similar to what Sherman did against the South. Consider the December 8, 1780, indictment of SC Governor Rutledge against Tarleton:

This, however, is but a faint description of our country, for it is beyond a doubt the enemy have hanged many of our people, who from fear and the impracticality of removing had given paroles, and from attachment to our side joined it. Nay, Tarleton has since the action at Black-stocks hung one Johnson, a magistrate of respectable character. They have also burnt a prodigious number of houses, and turned a vast many women, formerly of affluent and easy fortunes, with their children, almost naked into the woods.

Tarleton, at the house of General Richardson, exceeded his usual barbarities, for, having dined in his house, he not only burnt it afterwards, but having driven into the barns a number of cattle, hogs, and poultry, he consumed them, together with the barn and the corn in it, in one general blaze.

That is not to say that the British didn't burn people inside buildings during the Revolutionary War. Apparently they did (up in Pennsylvania), but Tarleton apparently didn't. See: Schooling Brits on the Patriot -- Mention of the Wyoming Valley Massacre. A British account of the Wyoming Valley Massacre that say the women and children were treated well and men given quarter when they asked for it. That account is included with a long patriot account of the affair in the following very long description. Interestingly, the patriot account tells of British and Indians attaching a long single file line of patriots, much like what happened in "The Patriot" movie.

901 posted on 08/18/2010 2:48:54 PM PDT by rustbucket
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To: rustbucket

attaching = attacking


902 posted on 08/18/2010 2:51:02 PM PDT by rustbucket
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To: rustbucket
Thank you for the wealth of info. Will set down with it in a bit to study it better.

In some respects, the British war against the Carolina colonists was similar to what Sherman did against the South. Consider the December 8, 1780, indictment of SC Governor Rutledge against Tarleton:

I think that was what stood out to me concerning these particular areas in Columbia, Camden, Cowpens, the historic boundaries of Chesterfield County, SC and Anson, NC, how history will repeat itself territorially. Fascinating read. Thank you for posting this.
903 posted on 08/18/2010 3:16:36 PM PDT by mstar
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To: rustbucket
In some respects, the British war against the Carolina colonists was similar to what Sherman did against the South.

It wasn't just the British. Actual British troops were scarce in the south. Instead, the war was mainly fought between loyalist and independence militias from the area. Tarleton's British Legion, for example, was composed of Tories. It was a preview, all right, but a preview of all-out civil war. When Nathanael Greene got there, he wrote back "the Whigs and Tories pursue one another with the most relentless Fury killing and destroying each other wherever they meet. Indeed a great Part of the Country is already laid Waste & in the utmost danger of becoming a Desert." One of Greene's aides wrote, "The country is so thinly inhabited and has been so stripped by the militia and the Enemy that there is no moving through it." Tory homes and farms were just as likely to be looted and burned as those supporting the revolution.

Nor were atrocities only on one side. Captured Tories were frequently lynched on the spot. One American commander, Benjamin Cleveland, was reputed to have hanged more than anyone else. Once he captured two Tories. After hanging one, he gave the other the choice of joining his companion or of cutting off his own ears. No points for guessing which the man chose. On another occasion, some men brought a captured Tory to Cleveland's estate. He wasn't home but his wife was. They asked what they should do with the prisoner and she told them to do what her husband would do. They hanged the man from the estate gate

And then there were the bandits, who fought for neither side but took advantage of the chaos for their own ends. There's a very good book called "Between the Lines: Banditti of the American Revolution" that's worth checking out.

904 posted on 08/18/2010 5:40:07 PM PDT by Bubba Ho-Tep ("More weight!"--Giles Corey)
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To: rustbucket
That is not to say that the British didn't burn people inside buildings during the Revolutionary War. Apparently they did (up in Pennsylvania), but Tarleton apparently didn't. See: Schooling Brits on the Patriot -- Mention of the Wyoming Valley Massacre.

Just finished both accounts of the Wyoming Valley Massacre and all I can say is "how horrible". I had no idea the extent of the tragedy. Guess old Mel was alluding to it and the PETA Barbecue, with his rather mild in comparison Carolina church/congregation burning.

Thank you again for the interesting "reads".
907 posted on 08/18/2010 10:48:58 PM PDT by mstar
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