Have you ever watched the movie, "The Patriot"? Remember the British Colonel who massacred civilians and soldiers who had surrendered? He was an actual historical person - Colonel Banastre Tarleton. And history seems to validate the cruelty of his character portrayed in the movie.

On May 29, 1780 his command overtook a detachment of Virginia Continentals, and when overwhelmed they surrendered, "Tarleton's forces ignored the white flag and massacred the soldiers of Buford's detachment; 113 American soldiers were killed."

A surgeon for the Continental Army wrote about an incident where Continental soldiers had surrendered, and Tarleton's men, "commenced a scene of indiscriminate carnage never surpassed by the ruthless atrocities of the most barbarous savages."

"As legend has it, Tarleton forged freely across the country in search of food. but finding none he appropriately referred to his route as Dry Bread Road. He then swung north burning all the tobacco warehouses that he found, including those of the community of Smoky Ordinary...Raise-A-Pint...was so named because of Tarleton's frustration over the fact that the local populace was so poor as not to be able "to even raise a pint" to quench the parched throats of his weary cavalrymen.”

These are just a few of the many stories that have been passed down from generation to generation. Legends concerning the exploits of Tarleton and the British have a certain amount of historical accuracy to them. In many cases these tales are all that remain of our remembrances of the past."

And, I might add, some of these names like Smokey Ordinary, and Dry Bread Road are still a part of our landscape.

(Citations are from :

National Park Service website

Boatner, Cassell's Biographical Dictionary, p. 1174

Brunswick County, Virginia 1720-1975, p. 83)