[XRdsRev]

The church scene was very inaccurate from a historical standpoint. That having been said, the evil figure in the movie was loosely based on the exploits of the English dragoon officer Banastre Tarleton whose exploits in the Carolina's and Virginia late in the War earned him a reputation for frequent use of excessive force and sometimes outright brutality toward soldiers and civilians.

He is widely recognized to be the most hated British officer of the American Revolution.

[Maedhros]

It's true that Tarleton was hated. I thought the movie went a little too far in demonizng him.

[John H K]

Tarleton's worst crime was apparently executing surrendering soldiers.

However, at no time in the Revolution did any British force ever lock the citizens of a town in a church and burn it down, or anything close to that.

In the South (which was largely a Civil War between Patriots and Loyalists with relatively little British involvement till late in the war) there were a fair number of atrocities on both sides.

No movie can be entirely 100% accurate, but there's a responsibility of filmakers making a historical movie to at least not egregiously make things up. "The Patriot" completely ignored this responsibility with the church burning.

The other annoying thing is they made a big deal of hiring historical advisors and pretty much completely ignored everything they told them...regarding uniforms, flags, etc.

Just because people like the political slant of "The Patriot" doesn't mean its abuse of history can be ignored.