TARLETON, tiirl'ton, Sir BANASTRE (1754 1833). An English soldier in the American Revolutionary \\ ar, born in Liverpool, and edu cated at Oxford. In 1776 he took part in Clin ton's operations against Fort Moultrie (q.v.). Later in the year, under Sir William Erskine, lie served in the successful operations in the vicinity of New York, and early in 1777 was with Cornwallis in New Jersey. With the army under Howe, the commander-in-chief. he took part in the battles of Brandywine and German town and the occupation of Philadelphia. In January, 1778, he was promoted captain, and in the following year was made lieutenant-colonel of 'the British legion,' a force of cavalry and light infantry, with which he very substantially aided the British cause in the South until the fall of Yorktown in October, 1781. He was an able and intrepid cavalry leader, but gained a reputation for cruelty until `Tarleton's quar ter' came to mean general butchery. Dispatched
by Cornwallis, he defeated with great slaughter the superior force of Lieutenant-Colonel Burford at Waxham Creek, May 29, 1780; he routed a part of General Gates's force at Camden, August 16th, and defeated General Sumter at Catawba Fords, August 18th. Three months later he was defeated by Sumter, and, January 17, 1781, by General Morgan at Cowpens. He was with Corn wallis at the final surrender and returned to England in 1782. Representing the opposition, he was elected to Parliament in 1790, where he remained, excepting a brief interruption in 1806 07, until 1812. He was made major-general (1794), Governor in Berwick and Holy Island (1808), general (1812), and baronet (1815). He wrote a History of the Campaigns of 1780 and 1781 in the Southern Provinces of North. America (17S7), a work marred by vanity and partisan ship.