The Patriot The Patriot takes place in South Carolina, 1776. A man by the name of Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson) regrets his past experience in the French-Indian war, even though he was a war hero. When the revolutionary war against the British starts, he wanted nothing to do with it, avoiding the memories of his dark past. Fathering seven children, his oldest son decides to join the colonial army despite his father's wishes. When the oldest son, Gabriel, gets captured by the British, his father had no choice but to get him out. In the process of that, his second oldest son was shot by a British General. This event reignited his revenge-like attitude, starting up his hatred for the "red-coats". Benjamin ends up starting a militia group with …show more content…
This battle took place in South Carolina on August 16th, 1780. This battle in the movie is from the perspective of Gabrielle, Benjamin's son. Just before the scene, Gabrielle speaks of how he wishes to join the war again after being injured. There are factual inaccuracies and accuracies of this scene. But overall, I did find this scene to be accurate. The result in the movie is that the British simply trounced the continental army in this battle. The Americans were defeated easily in this scene. Horatio Gates, the Continental Army General during the battle, was forced to retreat. This was depicted clearly in the movie. A primary source explains the defeat that took place that day: a letter from Francis Marion to Peter Horry on August 27th, 1780. The letter …show more content…
The main character, Benjamin Martin, is openly based on the well-known militiaman Francis Marion (a.k.a. Swamp Fox). Considering that, Benjamin Martin is not all that historically accurate compared to Francis Marion. They do accurate depictions of him such as the fact he fought in the Indian war as well as him being a militiaman. But they have some important differences that should be discussed. In the movie, Benjamin Marion is presented as a nice slave owner who is more of a family man, wanting nothing to do with the war but ends up in it anyway. In real life, Francis Marion was someone who dedicated his life to militias and war. He also was a ruthless killer to Cherokee Indians. Francis Marion is still considered an important, good role in the revolutionary war, but he's just not exactly what the movie made him out to be. In a source from a document written by Henry Clinton last edited in 1954, Henry Clinton briefly explains the role Francis Marion played in the war. Explaining how Marion and his militia single handedly would take out groups of British travelers. As I already stated; Francis Marion was depicted slightly differently from what historical trueness would