War at Saber Point: Banastre Tarleton and the British Legion by John Knight (review)

War at Saber Point: Banastre Tarleton and the British Legion by John Knight contains surprising insights into Banastre Tarleton, and it disputes many common misconceptions about this British officer. Knight contends that Tarleton’s reputation as a brutal and vicious soldier is based in many cases on thirdhand reports, generally by his enemies, and that his behavior was not portrayed accurately for political and military purposes. Arguing that the American Revolution “created only two unmitigated villains: Benedict Arnold and Banastre Tarleton,” Knight provides evidence that both reputations were overstated and, in some ways, undeserved (p. x). His focus on Tarleton’s regiment of American Loyalists, the British Legion, provides detail on a relatively unknown group of soldiers, loyal and zealous in defense of the Crown. Soldiers in Tarleton’s regiment were fighting to maintain the rule of law and individual liberty and were not “weak-willed collaborators or treacherous renegades” (p. xi).

Opening the book with the scene made famous by the film The Patriot (2000) where civilians were burned alive in a church by Tarleton, Knight quickly assures the reader that this event never happened. Knight details Tarleton’s background of wealth and privilege, his attractive appearance, and his hotheaded personality, as well as his reputation as an inveterate gambler and carouser. Though British military officers rarely received effective training and suffered under a weak and ambiguous command structure, Tarleton was a talented officer who was an effective leader and an organized commander who had the confidence of his men. His British Legion became one of the most effective and formidable shock troops in the army.

Throughout the book, Knight compares Tarleton’s vicious reputation with factual evidence, which contradicts the commonly held idea that the British commander was deliberately cruel. After the battle at Monck’s Corner, an American defeat, atrocities were committed by some in the British Legion, and Tarleton was accused of ordering the release of the guilty troopers. In fact, Tarleton was outraged by the incident and wanted one perpetrator hanged. Knight also explores the so-called Buford’s massacre at the battle of Waxhaws. While the Americans sustained significant losses, Knight argues that much of the carnage was due to serious errors made by the Americans on the field. Knight disputes Colonel Abraham Buford’s official report to the Virginia General Assembly, which claimed that his men were killed “‘after they had laid down their arms’” (p. 97). Two eyewitness accounts supported this assertion; however, these accounts were written well after the battle and are demonstrably unreliable. Banastre Tarleton, in his report to General Henry Clinton, took credit for the victory and acknowledged killing 170 Americans but reported no “irregularities” in the conduct of his men (p. 97). None of the American soldiers claimed that there had been a massacre, and Revolutionary War pension records of the participants do not accuse the British Legion of any improper behavior. Knight believes that “Buford’s later account of the battle seemed geared toward deflecting criticism from himself” due to his having issued “incompetent or confused orders to his men” before he fled the battlefield (p. 102). Nevertheless, Buford became a symbol of the British inhumanity toward the enemy, which created a potent propaganda weapon and the rallying cry, “Remember Tarleton’s Quarter” (p. 103). Given the Americans’ propensity for information warfare, the “Waxhaw massacre” was memorialized in the same way as the “Boston massacre” had been and was used to inflame American passion against the British enemy (p. 104).

Knight holds a degree in American history and politics from Warwick University and writes and lectures full-time. War at Saber Point provides a unique view of the relationship between American Loyalists and the British army during the Revolution. It offers a new perspective on the reputation of Banastre Tarleton.