General Sir Banastre Tarleton, 1st Baronet, GCB (21 August 1754 – 16 January 1833) was a British soldier and politician.

Parents: John Tartleton of Liverpool (1718-1773) and Jane Parker, daughter of Banastre Parker, Esq. He was their 3rd son and 5th child. The Tartleton family "was ancient ... seated for many years at Aigburth in Lancashire, and latterly in the town of Liverpool." (obituary, attached as PDF)

Married:

1. 1779 common law liason with Mary Robinson, famed actress and poet
2. bef.1796 liason with Kolina, last name unknown
3. on 17 Dec 1798 to Susan Priscilla Bertie, illegitimate daughter of Robert Bertie, 4th Duke of Ancaster.

Children of Banastre Tartleton and Kolina:

1. Banina Georgiana Tarleton (c. 1797-1818)

Nicknames

• Bloody Ban, The Butcher, The Green Dragoon, Butcher of the Carolinas, Bloody Tarleton, Tarleton's Quarter

also said about him

‘ He was a born cavalry leader, with great dash, as such he was unequalled in his time’. -- The Dictionary of National Biography

Among the calamities of war may be jointly numbered the diminution of the love of truth, by the falsehoods which interest dictates and credulity encourages.-- Samuel Johnson; The Idler.

Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton...arrogant, ruthless, and by all reports (including his own) utterly charming." -- Karen Hayden, in an online article Remembering Jack Jouett, Virginia's Paul Revere.

We have said that Cornwallis had subordinates who were foot, and hand, and staff, and sword to him. Tarleton was his hunting leopard, glossy, beautifully mottled, but swift and fell -- when roused by resistance, ferocious. Even this does not give an adequate idea of the velocity of his movements. He was the falcon, which, when unhooded and cast off, darts with arrowy swiftness on its prey. -- Henry S. Randall, in The Life of Thomas Jefferson (1858).

A devil-may-care charmer, the real Ban Tarleton quickly became one of my favorite historical figures, and so he remains. He was a fearless and ferocious cavalry leader, capable of showing his enemies both chivalry and ruthlessness. Away from the battlefield, he was a witty, hyper-sociable little rogue who made friends by the carriageload. (After the war, that list of friends grew to include many of his former enemies such as the Duc de Lauzun, Lafayette, Thaddeus Kosciusko and possibly even Thomas Jefferson.) -- from "Oatmeal for the Foxhounds"

Military Service

• Allegiance Great Britain
• Service/branch British Army
• Years of service 1775-1781
• Rank General
• Unit 1st Dragoon Guards
• Commands held [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Legion_(1778 British Legion]
• Battles/wars American War of Independence
• Battle of Monck's Corner
• Battle of Waxhaws
• Battle of Fishing Creek
• Battle of Camden
• Battle of Cowpens
• Awards GCB

A Note from Political Life

Campaigning for office during this time included mobs fighting in the streets, broken windows, and broken bones, which was probably right up Banastre Tarleton's alley. A very funny and slightly sarcastic poem was published in early fall. A local wit decided to write epitaphs for the politically prominent, and Tarleton was not excluded. His "epitaph" read:

Coach-builders, Curricle-builders,

Harness-devisers, and Wheel Patentees Deplore your loss. Your Colonel is no more! Here beneath this rough hewn stone, Called from life without a groan, In piteous case he lies at length! Sunk in all his manly beauty, Perish'd all his Martial Duty, Wither'd all his prosperous Strength.

Colonel T*******

Was one of those unhappy few, in whom the General, the Drummer, and The Suttling Wench had set their Seal, To certify to the World that he Was a Soldier! Yet why? He was sentenced to die, like Sisera, By the hand of a woman, and, in Consequence of that Destiny Expired at midnight of the first of January 1796 In the arms of Mrs. _________, with his Head where his Heels should be.

Tarleton had learned much while campaigning in 1784 and 1788. He took advice from the Duchess of Devonshire, who had scandalized London by publicly campaigning for Fox. She had kissed strange men in public! Ban kissed the girls in the fish market. He "dazzled" honest carpenters and whalers along the Mersey. On June 14th, from his mother's home, he announced his candidacy. The effort to be elected was not without its "Pittfalls." He once took himself off the ballot, only to have a ground-swell of support finally push him over the top. On June 23, after days of mob rule in the streets fighting for the various candidates, Ban beseeched for quiet. His major opposition had withdrawn. He had won the election. In doing so, he became the first Tarleton in Parliament. Having several ancestors Mayor of Liverpool, the family could be considered politically ambitious, which meant his victory was a family triumph.

Links

• Awesome Stories: Banastre Tartleton
• Banastre Tarleton
• Oatmeal for the Foxhounds: Banastre Tarleton and the British Legion
• Banastre Tarleton
• [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Patriot_(2000_film The Patriot]