Banastre Tarleton

After becoming commander of the British Legion, a force of American Loyalist cavalry and light infantry, Tarleton went to South Carolina, at the beginning of 1780. There, the Legion supported Sir Henry Clinton in the siege operations that culminated in the capture of Charleston.[7] The siege and capture of the city were part of the British strategy in the southern military theatre meant to restore royal authority over the southern colonies of British North America.

The Battle of Waxhaw Creek (29 May 1780), in Lancaster County, South Carolina

On 29 May 1780, Colonel Tarleton, with a force of 149 mounted soldiers, overtook a detachment of 350 to 380 Virginia Continentals, led by Colonel Abraham Buford, who refused to surrender or to stop his march. Only after sustaining many casualties did Buford order the American soldiers to surrender. Nonetheless, Tarleton's forces ignored the white flag and massacred the soldiers of Buford's detachment; 113 American soldiers were killed, 203 were captured, and 150 were severely wounded. The British army casualties were 5 soldiers killed and 12 soldiers wounded.[10] From the perspective of the British Army, the affair of the massacre is known as the Battle of Waxhaw Creek. In that time, the American rebels used the phrase "Tarleton's quarter" (shooting after surrender) as meaning "no quarter offered".

Forty years later, Robert Brownfield, a surgeon’s mate in the Second South Carolina Regiment at the time of the battle, wrote an account.[11] He said that Colonel Buford raised the white flag of surrender to the British Legion, "expecting the usual treatment sanctioned by civilized warfare"; yet, while Buford called for quarter, Colonel Tarleton's horse was shot with a musket ball, felling horse and man. On seeing that, the Loyalist cavalrymen believed that the Virginia Continentals had shot their commander – while they asked him for mercy. Enraged, the Loyalist troops attacked the Virginians and "commenced a scene of indiscriminate carnage never surpassed by the ruthless atrocities of the most barbarous savages"; in the aftermath, the British Legion soldiers killed wounded American soldiers where they lay.[11]

Tarleton's account, published in 1787, said that his horse had been shot from under him, and that his soldiers, thinking him dead, engaged in "a vindictive asperity not easily restrained".[12]

Regardless of the extent to which they were true or false, the reports of British atrocities motivated Whig-leaning colonials to support the American Revolution.[13] Tarleton, though, criticized the mildness of Lord Cornwallis's methods, saying that "this moderation produced not the intended effect: It did not reconcile the enemies, but it discouraged the friends ... The policy therefore adopted on this occasion, without gaining new, discontented the old adherents;..."[14] In either event, on 7 October 1780, at the Battle of Kings Mountain, South Carolina, soldiers of the Continental Army, having heard of the slaughter at Waxhaw Creek, killed American Loyalists who had surrendered after a sniper killed their British commanding officer, Maj. Patrick Ferguson.[15]

In South Carolina, Tarleton's British Legion were harried by Francis Marion, an American militia commander who practiced guerrilla warfare against the British. Throughout the campaigns, Tarleton was unable to capture him or thwart his operations. Marion's local popularity among anti-British South Carolinians ensured continual aid and comfort for the American cause. In contrast, Colonel Tarleton alienated the colonial citizens with arbitrary confiscations of cattle and food stocks.[16]

Tarleton materially helped Cornwallis to win the Battle of Camden in August 1780.[7] On 22 August, he was promoted to major in the 79th Regiment of Foot (Royal Liverpool Volunteers).[17] He defeated Thomas Sumter at Fishing Creek, aka "Catawba Fords", but was less successful when he encountered the same general at Blackstock's Farm in November 1780.[7]

On 17 January 1781, Tarleton's forces were virtually destroyed by American Brigadier General Daniel Morgan at the Battle of Cowpens. Tarleton and about 200 men escaped the battlefield.[18] William Washington commanded the rebel cavalry; he was attacked by the British commander and two of his men. Tarleton was stopped by Washington himself, who attacked him with his sword, calling out, "Where is now the boasting Tarleton?" A cornet of the 17th, Thomas Patterson, rode up to strike Washington but was shot and killed by Washington's orderly trumpeter.[19]Washington survived this assault and in the process wounded Tarleton's right hand with a sabre blow, while Tarleton creased Washington's knee with a pistol shot that also wounded his horse. Washington pursued Tarleton for sixteen miles, but gave up the chase when he came to the plantation of Adam Goudylock near Thicketty Creek. Tarleton was able to escape capture by forcing Goudylock to serve as a guide.[20]

Tarleton's Movements historical marker in Adams Grove, Virginia

He was successful in a skirmish at Torrence's Tavern while the British crossed the Catawba River (Cowan's Ford Skirmish, 1 February 1781) and took part in the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in March 1781. With his men, Tarleton marched with Cornwallis into Virginia.[7] There he carried out a series of small expeditions while in Virginia. Among them was a raid on Charlottesville, where the state government had relocated following the British occupation of the capital at Richmond. He was trying to capture Governor Thomas Jefferson and members of the Virginia General Assembly. The raid was partially foiled by the ride of Jack Jouett, with Jefferson and all but seven of the legislators escaping over the mountains. Tarleton destroyed arms and munitions and succeeded in dispersing the Assembly.

Tarleton was brevetted to lieutenant-colonel in the 79th Foot on 26 June 1781.[21] After other missions, Cornwallis instructed Tarleton to hold Gloucester Point, during the Siege of Yorktown. On 4 October 1781, the French Lauzun's Legion and the British cavalry, commanded by Tarleton, skirmished at Gloucester Point. Tarleton was unhorsed, and Lauzun's Legion drove the British within their lines before being ordered to withdraw by the Marquis de Choisy.[22][23][24] The Legion suffered three Hussars killed with two officers and eleven Hussars wounded.[25] Fifty British were killed or wounded, including Tarleton.[26] The British surrendered Gloucester Point to the French and Americans after the surrender at Yorktown in October 1781. He returned to Britain on parole, finished with this war at the age of 27.[7]

In 2005, Sotheby's announced that four captured regimental colours taken by Tarleton from Patriot units in 1779 and 1780 would be auctioned in New York City.[27] Two of the colours were the guidon of the 2nd Continental Light Dragoons, captured in 1779; and a "beaver" standard – possibly a Gostelowe List Standard No. 7 dating from 1778.[28] The "Beaver" Standard and two other flags (possibly division colours) were apparently captured at the Battle of Waxhaws. The flags had been kept by the Tarleton family for more than 200 years. The flags sold for $17.4 million at auction on Flag Day in the United States on 14 June 2006.[29]

Banastre Tarleton returned to England a hero: a triumphant veteran wounded in his country’s service. On his arrival “[in] Liverpool in 1782 after legendary exploits in the American war of independence, the church bells rang out and he was feted by admirers.”[30]Knight expands on this:

Most British senior officers returned to England after the war to severe criticism from their compatriots…[They] received varying degrees of blame and censure for the loss of the American colonies.  But Tarleton was almost unique in attracting no such rebuke. …he was received home with universal acclaim, being feted at court and becoming an intimate friend to two future kings, George Prince of Wales and William Duke of Clarence…[31]

Tarleton sat for portraits by three leading artists in London: Reynolds, Gainsborough, and Cosway.[31] Contrary to claims of Tarleton’s vanity, he didn’t pay to have them painted.

Tarleton’s brother commissioned Sir Joshua Reynolds’ well-known painting of Banastre for their mother.[lower-alpha 1] “Colonel Tarleton” is regarded as one of the finest examples of Reynolds work and portraiture in general. The full-length painting, at 236 × 145.5 cm (92.9 x 57.3 inches) is too tall to fit in many homes. Like Tarleton’s mark on the history of the war, the painting is larger than life. The National Gallery describes it:

Reynolds portrays Tarleton momentarily dismounted on a battlefield, with gun-smoke swirling behind him. Wearing the uniform of the British Legion, he props one leg up on a cannon to re-fix his sword to his belt before changing horses. Reynolds frequently drew on ideas from old master paintings, drawings and antique sculpture for his compositions. Tarleton’s pose appears to be based on works by Rembrandt, Tintoretto and an ancient Roman sculpture of Hermes. [32] [lower-alpha 2]

— The National Gallery, "Colonel Tarleton by Sir Joshua Reynolds" (2023)

The pose disguises Tarleton’s mutilated right hand, of which he lost two fingers to a musket ball at the Battle of Guilford Court House. The flags are unidentified. The Reynolds painting was shown at the Royal Academy later in the year.

Thomas Gainsborough’s equestrian portrait of Tarleton, an even larger canvas, was also exhibited in 1782.[33] John Tarleton wrote to their mother in evident pride, “The picture of my Brother at Gainsborough's will not measure with the frame less than 12 feet 6 inches."

The portrait by the third artist, Richard Cosway, is on quite a different scale. During the late Georgian and Regency periods, Cosway became a sought-after miniaturist as well as receiving commissions for his full-sized portraits. He was the only artist ever appointed official painter to the Prince of Wales. Miniatures were the wallet photos of their era, meeting the need for images which could be transported easily, and it is for these which Cosway is most famous today. His miniature of Banastre Tarleton[34] is in a private collection and a photograph of it is copyrighted.

Some good quality engravings of Tarleton exist, having met the popular interest in him. Most commonly, they were based on the Reynolds painting. Others likely arise from the Gainsborough. Some are inaccurate, perhaps imagined by the engraver. A few were coloured to show him in a red uniform, presumably to meet the expectations of some readers.

Engravings were the basis for illustrations of Tarleton in books and magazines. Others were made for transfer printing on earthenware. There are examples of jugs with his likeness in museums on both sides of the Atlantic.

As a well-known person, politician, and member of the princely social circle, Tarleton was satirized. A caricature of him appeared in several Gilray prints, both as one of the group and as the main subject. L'Assemblée Nationale includes a figure in a Tarleton helmet.

During the American War of Independence, Tarleton made popular a leather helmet with antique style applications and a fur plume (woollen for lower ranks) protruding far into the upper front side. It was based on the Continental European dragoon helmet that became popular in several other armies before it fell out of fashion.[47] Sir Joshua Reynolds' portrait of Tarleton shows him wearing the helmet; it was worn by all ranks in the British Legion. Royal Horse Artillery troops wore the helmet until the end of the Napoleonic Wars as well as by light dragoon regiments from about 1796 to 1812.[48]

He was appointed governor of Berwick and Holy Island in 1808.[51] In 1815, he was made a baronet and in 1820 a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB).

• A house at the site of the skirmish in Easttown Township after the Battle of Brandywine came to be known as "Tarleton." A school later based there was also named Tarleton.[54]
• The "General Tarleton Inn" in Ferrensby, North Yorkshire, is named after him.[55]
• A street, still in existence, was named for Banastre Tarleton—others for Howe and Rawdon—in Freetown, the Sierra Leone colony established by former slaves.[56]

• In the 1835 novel Horse-Shoe Robinson by John Pendleton Kennedy, a historical romance set against the Southern campaigns in the American War of Independence, fictional characters interact with the historic figure of Tarleton. He is depicted as a forceful martial character, sensitive to the duties of honour and chivalry.
• In the 1959–1961 American Disney television series The Swamp Fox, John Sutton portrayed Colonel Banastre Tarleton to Leslie Nielsen’s Francis Marion.
• In the novel Sharpe's Eagle by Bernard Cornwell (the first in the Richard Sharpe series), the novel's main antagonist, Colonel Sir Henry Simmerson is said to be a cousin of Tarleton. He relies on his cousin's political connections to support his position.
• In the 1986 film Sweet Liberty Tarleton is played by actor Michael Caine and portrayed to the history professor Michael Burgess' (Alan Alda) dismay as a romantic, dashing hero.
• In the 2000 film The Patriot, the fictitious Colonel William Tavington (played by Jason Isaacs) was based on Tarleton.[57]
• In the 2006 film Amazing Grace, Tarleton is played by Ciarán Hinds and is portrayed as a leading opponent of William Wilberforce’s abolition bill.
• Tarleton is a minor character in Diana Gabaldon's novel Written in My Own Heart's Blood, part of the Outlander series.
• Tarleton is a character in Donna Thorland's 2016 historical fiction novel The Dutch Girl.

Banastre Tarleton was not engaged in the slave trade. As a child in Liverpool, he benefited from his father’s mercantile business, which included chartering ships, some of which carried slaves. But, as an adult, he did not join the business.

Tarleton is not listed by the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery,[58] which is based at University College London, nor by the Slave Voyages database,[59] begun at Emory University, now hosted at Rice University. Furthermore, unlike many of the Patriots he fought, Banastre Tarleton never owned slaves.

Nevertheless, after his election to Parliament in 1790, Tarleton often spoke against the abolition of the slave trade: "most of his speeches in his first two sessions in the House assailed the 'mistaken philanthropy' of abolishing the slave trade, which Liverpool Members were instructed to oppose."[1]

The British Legion is occasionally referred to as “Tarleton’s Raiders“ in modern American sources. However, during its service in the American War of Independence, the British Legion was most often called Tarleton’s Legion. Lawrence Babits wrote of the unit’s formation:

These companies were combined into the British Legion in June and July 1778…Thereafter, the history of the British Legion, or Tarleton’s legion, as it came to be known, was the history of Tarleton in America. [60]

Modern historians also use that name. For example, in Cavalry of the American Revolution, Jim Piecuch says “Dockerty’s statement provides clear evidence of Americans switching sides in the South and Continentals enlisting in Tarleton’s Legion.” [61] In the same book, Scott Miskimon wrote “Before the Americans could bridle a single horse, Tarleton’s Legion charged…” [62]

Thomas Raddall, the prolific writer on historical subjects, said of the British Legion:

Of all the loyalists who fought in the War of the American Revolution none were more famous in their day than those who formed the British Legion, generally known as Tarleton's Legion. [63]

Only after the American Civil War was the British Legion sometimes called “Tarleton’s Raiders“ by analogy with some Confederate units of that war. Knight explained:

The “Tarleton’s raiders” tag occurred with increasing regularity after the American Civil War.  Various Confederate partisan and guerrilla cavalry units, like Mosby’s and Quantrill’s, came to be named after their commanding officers, and [American] writers began following the same fashion with the British Legion, the corps that Tarleton commanded.  But the British Legion was never an irregular partisan unit, and though it carried out many daring raids, it was a mixed force of dragoon cavalry, light Infantry and small calibre artillery. Indeed, it was taken onto the British regular establishment in 1782, conferring on it official recognition of its prowess.[47]

In the United States, Banastre Tarleton is often disparaged as “Bloody Tarleton” or “Bloody Ban” in modern histories. But this label wasn’t used by his contemporaries. Scotti searched fruitlessly for examples of “Bloody Tarleton” before the twentieth century. He concluded “with some degree of certainty” that Robert Bass was an early writer to use the term.[64][65] John Pancake varied it to “Bloody Ban” in 1985.[66][67] Later, Scotti elaborated: [68]

In 1957, Robert Duncan Bass coined the phrase in his eloquent biography of Tarleton…With the publication of The Green Dragon, “Bloody Tarleton” became a part of the American heritage and the national psyche.

Knight agreed about its origin, saying[69]

Both labels appear no earlier than the 1950s, originating in the Robert Bass book The Green Dragoon.

and

The two personal monikers, the alternatingly violent and romantic caricatures by which Tarleton is now largely known, are sobriquets of pure fiction.  There is no evidence that Tarleton was ever referred to by either name…”

Several writers have said that, after the surrender, Tarleton was the sole British senior officer not invited to dinner with any American officers. Where a source is given, it is the 1860 book[70] of George Washington Parke Custis, a step-grandson of General Washington. Custis wrote “Colonel Tarleton…was left out in the invitations to headquarters.” He bases this on an alleged meeting between Tarleton and Lieutenant Colonel John Laurens about military etiquette. Scotti searched many sources, in particular the writing of Laurens and the Marquis de La Fayette, to whom Custis claimed Tarleton first complained. He found no indication that any such meeting took place and considers the incident to be apocryphal.[71][30] Supporting this conclusion, the book about the end of the war, “The Campaign that Won America” by Burke Davis, says only that “all the ranking British and German officers were invited”.