Editing The Patriot (2000 film) (section)

===Criticism of Tavington as based on Tarleton===
After release, several British voices criticized the film for its depiction of the film's villain Tavington and defended the historical character of [[Banastre Tarleton]]. Ben Fenton, commenting in ''The Daily Telegraph'', wrote:

<blockquote>There is no evidence that Tarleton, called 'Bloody Ban' or 'The Butcher' in rebel pamphlets, ever broke the [[Laws of war|rules of war]] and certainly did not ever shoot a child in cold blood.<ref>{{cite news |last=Fenton |first=Ben |date=June 19, 2000 |title=Truth is first casualty in Hollywood's war |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1343851/Truth-is-first-casualty-in-Hollywoods-war.html |access-date= |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |location=London}}</ref></blockquote>

Although Tarleton gained the reputation among Americans as a butcher for his involvement in the [[Battle of Waxhaws]] in South Carolina, he was a hero in the City of Liverpool. [[Liverpool City Council]], led by [[Mayor]] Edwin Clein, called for a public apology for what they viewed as the film's "[[character assassination]]" of Tarleton.<ref>{{Cite news |date=30 June 2000 |title=Patriotic Liverpool up in arms over Gibson's blockbuster |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2000/jun/30/news.melgibson |access-date= |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

What happened during the Battle of The Waxhaws, known to the Americans as the Buford Massacre or as the Waxhaw massacre, is the subject of debate. According to an American field surgeon named Robert Brownfield who witnessed the events, the Continental Army Col. Buford raised a [[white flag]] of surrender, "expecting the usual treatment sanctioned by civilized warfare". While Buford was calling for quarter, Tarleton's horse was struck by a musket ball and fell. This gave the Loyalist cavalrymen the impression that the Continentals had shot at their commander while asking for mercy. Enraged, the Loyalist troops charged at the Virginians. According to Brownfield, the Loyalists attacked, carrying out "indiscriminate carnage never surpassed by the most ruthless atrocities of the most barbarous savages".

In Tarleton's own account, he stated that his horse had been shot from under him during the initial charge in which he was knocked out for several minutes and that his men, thinking him dead, engaged in "a vindictive asperity not easily restrained".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/americanrevolution/p/battle-of-waxhaws.htm |title=American Revolution: Battle of Waxhaws |first1=Kennedy |last1=Hickman |publisher=About.com |access-date=December 8, 2012 |archive-date=November 19, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121119004142/http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/americanrevolution/p/battle-of-waxhaws.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Tarleton's role in the Revolutionary War in the Carolinas is examined by Ben Rubin who shows that historically, while the actual events of the Battle of the Waxhaws were presented differently according to which side was recounting them, the story of Tarleton's atrocities at Waxhaws and on other occasions became a rallying cry, particularly at the [[Battle of King's Mountain]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Rubin|first=Ben|title=The Rhetoric of Revenge: Atrocity and Identity in Revolutionary Carolinas|journal=Journal of Backcountry Studies|volume=5 |issue=2 |year=2010|url=http://libjournal.uncg.edu/ojs/index.php/jbc/article/viewFile/102/84|access-date=June 7, 2012}}</ref> The tales of Tarleton's atrocities were a part of standard U.S. accounts of the war and were described by [[Washington Irving]] and by Christopher Ward in his 1952 history, ''The War of the Revolution'', where Tarleton is described as "cold-hearted, vindictive, and utterly ruthless. He wrote his name in letters of blood all across the history of the war in the South."<ref>Rubin, 2010, p. 17</ref> Not until Anthony Scotti's 2002 book, ''Brutal Virtue: The Myth and Reality of Banastre Tarleton'', were Tarleton's actions fully reexamined. Scotti challenged the factual accounts of atrocities and stressed the "propaganda value that such stories held for the Americans both during and after the war".<ref>{{cite book|author=Scotti, Anthony Jr. |title=Brutal Virtue: The Myth and Reality of Banastre Tarleton|location=Boise, MD|publisher=Heritage Books|date=July 2002|isbn=978-0788420993}}</ref> Scotti's book, however, did not come out until two years after ''The Patriot''. Screenwriters consulting American works to build the character Tavington based on Tarleton would have commonly found descriptions of him as barbaric and accounts of his name being used for recruiting and motivation during the Revolutionary War itself.<ref>Rubin, 2010, p. 21.</ref>

Whereas Tavington is depicted as aristocratic but penniless, Tarleton came from a wealthy Liverpool merchant family. Tarleton did not die in battle or from impalement, as Tavington did in the film. Tarleton died on January 16, 1833, in [[Leintwardine]], [[Herefordshire]], England, at the age of 78, nearly 50 years after the war ended. He outlived Col. [[Francis Marion]] who died in 1795, by 38 years. Before his death,  Tarleton had achieved the military rank of [[General]], equal to that held by the overall British commanders during the American Revolution, and became a [[baronet]] and a member of the British [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament]].