Banastre Tarleton

Sir Banastre Tarleton, Bt
Lieutenant-Colonel Banastre Tarleton by Sir Joshua Reynolds, in the uniform of the British Legion, wearing a "Tarleton Helmet"
Nickname(s)	Bloody Ban, the Butcher, the Green Dragoon
Born	21 August 1754 Liverpool, Lancashire, England, Great Britain
Died	15 January 1833(1833-01-15) (aged 78) Leintwardine, Herefordshire, England, United Kingdom
Allegiance	Kingdom of Great Britain  United Kingdom / British Empire
Service/branch	British Army
Years of service	1775–1812
Rank	General
Unit	1st Dragoon Guards
Commands held	British Legion
Battles/wars	American Revolutionary War Siege of Charleston Battle of Monck's Corner Battle of Lenud's Ferry Battle of Waxhaws Battle of Fishing Creek Battle of Camden Battle of Cowpens Battle of Cowan's Ford Battle of Torrence's Tavern Battle of Wetzell's Mill Battle of Guilford Courthouse Battle of Green Spring Siege of Yorktown
Awards	Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Baronet

Sir Banastre Tarleton, 1st Baronet, GCB (21 August 1754 – 15 January 1833) was a British soldier and politician. Tarleton was eventually ranked as a general years after his service in the colonies during the American Revolutionary War, and afterwards did not lead troops into battle.

Banastre Tarleton was known for his British military service in the American War of Independence, which started when Tarleton was twenty-one. As a military commander he was the subject of a rebel American campaign which claimed that Tarleton's British Legion had massacred surrendering Continental Army troops at the Battle of Waxhaws, South Carolina, in 1780. In the 19th century those killings became known in American history as the "Waxhaws Massacre". In the biography The Green Dragoon: The Lives of Banastre Tarleton and Mary Robinson (1957), by Robert D. Bass, Tarleton is identified as the 'Bloody Ban', the 'Butcher', and 'The Green Dragoon'. In American popular culture those nicknames were the result of Col. Tarleton's reputation for brutality during the War of Independence, whilst the colonial Loyalists and the British hailed and praised Tarleton as an outstanding leader of light cavalry, and as an officer of great tactical prowess and soldierly resolve, especially against superior numbers of enemy.

Tarleton's cavalrymen were called 'Tarleton's Raiders'. His green uniform was the standard uniform of the British Legion, a provincial unit organised in New York, in 1778. After returning to Great Britain in 1781 at the age of 27, Tarleton was elected a Member of Parliament for Liverpool and returned to office in the early 19th century. As such, Tarleton became a prominent Whig politician despite his young man's reputation as a roué. Given the importance of the slave trade to the British shipping industry in Liverpool, Tarleton strongly supported slavery as an economic means.