How much more of an advantage would Cornwallis' army have had during the ARW in the South had Banastre 'Bloody Ban' Tarleton not been present ? Without Tarleton's series of ruthless and brutal depradations against colonists and gratuitous atrocities against his foes in the Carolinas and Georgia- such as the massacre of Col Abraham Buford's Virginia regt at Waxhaws- could otherwise indifferent Americans have been prevented from being driven into the arms of the Patriot cause during 1780-81 ? WI there'd been another capable but less savage British officer in such a major command position under Cornwallis in the South, such as Sur Guy Carleton or John Graves Simcoe ?
No Banastre Tarleton
- Thread starter Melvin Loh
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Melvin Loh said:
Well, I think that could have had an impact, definitely. For one thing, quite aside from giving the American Patriots a battle cry ("Tarleton's Quarter") which rallied support to the Patriot cause, a different and less impetuous leader might not have walked into a trap at Cowpens, leading to the loss of almost all of Lord Cornwallis's light forces. Said leader, whoever that might have been (I am not familiar with the two officers you name) may even have cornered and destroyed Daniel Morgan's army, which could have lead to an entirely different war in the South. Possibly no Yorktown? Britain, when she finally decides to make peace in order to pursue the overseas colonial wars against the French, Spanish, and Dutch in the Caribbean and India, might not give the Southern colonies back, so the United States consists of everything from Virginia northward?
Carleton and Simcoe
Hey Robert, Sir Guy Carleton commanded British forces in Canada during the ARW and successfully beat back all American attempts at invasion in 1776, and John Graves Simcoe was a dashing former RN officer who was commissioned to lead the Loyalist Queens' Rangers in NJ and NY during 1778-79. BTW, it's somewhat ironic that the name of Banastre Tarleton today is virtually unknown in his homeland of England, but is still hated and despised by ppl in the South.
Hey Robert, Sir Guy Carleton commanded British forces in Canada during the ARW and successfully beat back all American attempts at invasion in 1776, and John Graves Simcoe was a dashing former RN officer who was commissioned to lead the Loyalist Queens' Rangers in NJ and NY during 1778-79. BTW, it's somewhat ironic that the name of Banastre Tarleton today is virtually unknown in his homeland of England, but is still hated and despised by ppl in the South.
Melvin Loh said:
Well, I never heard too many people cussing Tarleton while growing up in the South. The South has a long memory, but not quite that long, I don't think. Now mention one William T. Sherman....
I grew up in the South too, and I never heard of Tarleton until I saw "The Patriot." Of course, where I lived was a suburban/good-school-system "pod"; perhaps I needed to be more rural to heard about Tarleton and his gruesomeness.