The Patriot Inaccuracies
There are a number of inaccuracies in the representation of battles and other incidents
surrounding the War of Independence, as well as in details of personnel, equipment and
uniforms. This is not a documentary.
Additional resources on the inaccuracies:
http://www.patriotresource.com/factfiction.html

Factual errors: On the wanted poster for "The Ghost," the name of General
Cornwallis is misspelled as "Cornwallace." Arguably fair, since spelling was less
standard in those days, though you'd expect the name of a high government official
to be spelled consistently in government documents. (This could have been an injoke reference to Braveheart (1995).

Incorrectly regarded as goofs: For a split second, on an American tent at the end of
the movie, a flag is seen that does not use the circular star arrangement, but the star
arrangement was not yet standardized.

Anachronisms: When Tavington is searching for the child hiding under the table his
boots are clearly visible and certainly of the "Left-Right" variety. Boots were made
on straight lasts until the 1800s.

Anachronisms: Modern snare drums.

Anachronisms: The ships attacking Cornwallis' army at the end are carrying the
modern blue, white and red French flag but this was only adapted after the French
revolution: French ships during American Revolution should be carrying the royal
fleur-de-lis insignia.

Factual errors: In the scene where the militia ambushed the British by hiding in a
field, they attacked them from parallel lines on either side. This is a blunder. Under
no style of war would anyone fire on someone in that formation without being at an
elevated position because they could end up shooting each other.

Miscellaneous: In the scene where the British raid Charlotte's plantation, Tavington
looks under the tablecloth to see if anyone is hiding under the table. At this time,
Nathan is hiding on the outside of the table on the right side. The tablecloth hangs
several inches from the floor, so Tavington should have easily seen Nathan hiding
on the other side the tablecloth through the gap between the tablecloth and the
floor.

Factual errors: It is extremely unlikely that a southern plantation owner in 1776
could operate a successful plantation if it was run by free men who worked for
wages, as it would be impossible for him to compete with other plantation owners
who used slaves and therefore had fewer expenses. This was clearly done to make
Benjamin Martin more likeable and not with regard to historical accuracy.

Factual errors: Near the end, when the French fleet is bombarding Cornwallis'
army, French ships's hulls are painted black with yellow stripes along the gunports.
This scheme was characteristic of the Royal British Navy and it only became popular
during the Napoleonic wars: French ships of the time were either black and white or
natural wood color

Factual errors: Benjamin Martin shoots a British soldier who is on a moving horse
using a flintlock pistol at a range of approximately 100 yards. A ball from a black
powder pistol would not even reach that sort of distance and hitting a moving target
at that distance would be difficult even with a modern pistol. The effective range of a
blackpowder pistol is about 20 feet as the barrel is too short to allow all the powder
to burn before the ball leaves the barrel (too low a muzzle velocity to achieve any
sort of range)

Anachronisms: In the first shot of the film, two of the children are seen playing with
alphabet cards. These famous "Hotch Potch, posture master" cards weren't printed
until 1782. However the scene takes place in 1776.

Anachronisms: When the militia are about to be hanged, just before Benjamin
Martin rides in, you see the British prepare for the hanging by testing tying
sandbags to the noose and opening the trap doors. In actuality, hanging with trap
doors didn't happen until after the war. (In the DVD commentary, the director
acknowledges this and says they did this because "it looked cool".)

Continuity: In his monologue Gabriel says that his friend fell at the Battle of
Elizabethtown, however, when you see him writing the letter it says that his friend
was killed at the Battle of Monmouth.

Revealing mistakes: Supposedly stabbed in the chest by Tavington, Gabriel can
briefly be seen with the sword between his side and his left arm.

Continuity: When Gabriel is reading the letter he is writing home aloud, the only
line in the entire letter that matches what he has said is the line he is currently
writing. Nothing in the long letter before the bottom line comes even close to what
Gabriel read.

Continuity: When Gabriel is in line to enlist, he is facing different directions when
Benjamin is talking to him.

Continuity: When Tavington kills the preacher and then Gabe, he is twice seen
tossing his ramrod rather far away in successive shots.

Revealing mistakes: In the final battle, a cannonball rolls on the ground and cuts off
the legs of several soldiers in its path. One soldier's leg falls apart before the ball
even makes contact with it.

Factual errors: When the militia is coming over the hill to see the British military
lined up and waiting for the final battle scene you see a distant cannon fire and
almost immediately impact very close to the American lines. With the range of the
shot it would have taken 2-3 seconds for the ball to cover the distance.

Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The final battle is the battle of Cowpens, while some
thought that it was just a made up battle, although the facts are stretched a bit. For
example, only 12 Americans died in the real battle. The real Battle of Cowpens was a
mostly cavalry affair and was over in less than an hour.

Errors in geography: During the movie, battles take place in Camden and Cowpens,
two places that are very far inland, yet the troops march there in a day from the
shoreline.

Revealing mistakes: Many of the soldiers turn their heads when firing their
muskets. Although the musket was an inaccurate weapon and this would have made
little difference, by 1776 the practice of turning away when firing had more or less
died out. In fact, the reason the soldiers here were turning away was because the
director didn't think black powder made enough smoke, and decided to use a mix of
black powder and magnesium (evident by a blue color to the smoke). This created
more of a flash in the pan and made turning away rather a shrewd move.

Factual errors: When the rebels/patriots are returning by boat to their secret base
deep in the swamp, one man moves a boat by placing his hand on a lantern, with a
burning candle inside. With that style of lantern, he should have burned his hand.

Anachronisms: Young unmarrieds would not have kissed in public.

Anachronisms: After the ships blow up in Charleston Harbor, Benjamin and his
band ride through the countryside and we see a high tension electricity pylon in the
background.

Revealing mistakes: During the final fight between Tavington and Martin, when
Martin picks up the musket (in slow motion) and sets the butt on the ground, the
bayonet flops back and forth, obviously made of rubber.

Continuity: In the final fight between Tavington and Martin, Martin first impales
Tavington with a bayonet on the end of a musket. He then drives a second bayonet
into Tavington's throat. We see the killing bayonet supposedly dropping to the
ground, but in the next shot we see Tavington still standing, impaled on the musket
with the bayonet still in his throat.

Anachronisms: Great Danes were not known by that name until the late 19th
century, before that they were called "Boar Hounds".

Revealing mistakes: When Benjamin Martin kills many redcoats to save his son
from a hanging, the driver of the horse carriage is fatally hit. When the scene fades
out moments later, the "dead" driver is seen to turn his head noticeably, right
before the scene becomes entirely black.

Continuity: Peter Copen, who died at the Battle of Elizabethtown, is seen later at the
Battle of Camden.

Errors in geography: The Great Danes purportedly sent to Cornwallis as a gift from
the King have had their ears pricked. This is not done anywhere but in the modern
USA, and certainly not at that time in Britain.

Continuity: John Billings walks up to Martin to sign up for the militia. He picks up a
bottle takes a drink, laughs at Martin's comment, and walks off. He doesn't actually
sign the book.

Continuity: When Benjamin springs his ambush to save Gabriel, he first shoots the
officer leading the redcoats from his horse. In the next shot, we see the redcoats
looking around them to see who fired at them, as well as the officer still on his
horse. In the next shot when Benjamin runs for his next gun, we see the dead officer
on the ground again.

Continuity: In the battle scene that is watched through the window by Benjamin, we
see a soldier get his head taken off by a cannonball. Later on, in the final battle, as
Benjamin runs past with the flag, we see a soldier turn his head dramatically to
watch, and it is the same beheaded soldier.

Continuity: Half way through the movie, Tavistock's name changes to Tavington.

Miscellaneous: A major error in the final battle (Guilford Courthouse) is when
Cornwallis orders "Sound the retreat." The British controlled the battlefield at the
end of the day with Greene's army having escaped intact across the river. Cornwallis
delivered both the wounded British and American to a nearby Quaker settlement
for treatment.

Errors in geography: There is a scene where Benjamin and his two younger sons are
running through the woods to intercept the British column who captured the older
brother. They are seen jumping over and hiding around boulders to get in position.
In the South Carolina low country where this presumably occurred, there are no
rocks or boulders. The eastern part of South Carolina was never glaciated.

Anachronisms: When Charlotte and the kids are hiding from the red coats in the
root cellar, they creep past a basket full of bread wrapped in cellophane. Cellophane
wasn't invented until 1906.

Revealing mistakes: The two dogs are both referred to as "boys", however, the black
one is clearly a female.

Anachronisms: In the scene where Tavington is after Martin's children at
Charlotte's plantation, Susan is seen looking out a window covered with a venetian
blind. Venetian blinds weren't invented till the late 1800's - 100 years after the time
period of the movie. The most accepted "invention" of blinds was by a man from
Chile named Hernando de Venuto on May 20, 1857. Clearly, in the home used, they
forgot to remove one set.

Anachronisms: In the final scene showing the new home for the Martins, it is going
up with balloon framing. This type of construction was not in practice until the early
1800's. The framing should have been of 17th century post and lintel type.

Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Tavington is searching for the child hiding
under the table, we hear the "jing-jing" of spurs as he walks, just as in western
movies. He is, however, wearing English/dressage-style spurs, which have no
rowels, and thus can make no noise.

Factual errors: In the film, Lord Cornwallis is portrayed as a much older man. This
is incorrect as in 1780, the year in which the film is supposed to be set, the real
General Charles Lord Cornwallis was only in his early forties. He was, in fact, born
in 1738, which would make him six years younger than George Washington.

Revealing mistakes: The British really were the masters of the sea during that era their ships themselves actually seem to run contrary to the natural laws, as
demonstrated during the party scene where we see the British ship blown up in the
nearby harbor. The laws of physics state that, loosely translated, for every action,
there is an equal and opposite reaction. When the ship is destroyed we see the
explosion not only spread outwards from the sides of the ship, but also the gigantic
plume of fire going straight up in the air. This ship, however, remains firmly in its
same position in the water, neither moving from side to side, or being pushed
downwards deeper into the harbor, as an explosion of such magnitude would
undoubtedly force it. Unless the ship was aground on a sandbar or rock, it should
have had at least some movement away from the direction of the blast

Factual errors: When Aunt Charlotte takes in the children after the family's home is
destroyed her hair is down. Women only wore their hair down during sickness or
bedtime, as long tresses in public were considered to be risqué. During the day, out
in the world, and during evening socializing hair was always pinned up or tucked
under a bonnet.

Factual errors: In the Battle scene watched by Benjamin through the farmhouse
window we see the Redcoats bayonet charge the Rebels. The order is given and the
soldiers run across several hundred yards of open ground in a free-for-all. The
Redcoat Army was a disciplined and well trained army. You can't have your troops
running in a free-for-all across a battlefield. In that period cohesion of troops was
important. Also by the time the soldiers got to their objective they would be too
exhausted to be of any effect. In reality they would have "charged Bayonets" (bring
their bayonets forward) and march slowly towards the enemy. When about 50 yards
away they would have marched at a double quick time step (almost a jog) - enough
to cover ground quickly but slow enough to remain in line. This would mean control
could still be kept in case a change of direction is needed or a cancellation of the
order. Finally, when a few yards away and committed, the troops would charge at
full speed and engage the enemy.

Factual errors: Later on in the film Tavington and his men come to Anne Howard's
village to receive information on the militia and do this by placing the people of the
village in the local church and threatens to burn it down if nobody gives him any
information. Once Tavington hears what he wants, his men lock the doors of the
church (trapping the village people inside) and burn the church down, the villagers
are burned alive. The British, however, never locked people inside a church and set
it on fire.

Factual errors: In the debate at the Charleston Assembly, several orators refer to
Charleston as being "three thousand miles" from London. The distance is, in fact,
four thousand miles. Any colonist would have known this at the time.

Factual errors: In the town hall meeting in the beginning, Col. Burwell said, "We
killed 700 of them at Bunker Hill and they just kept coming". Actually they killed
226.

Factual errors: When Gabriel returns to the Martin plantation with a sword wound
from the Battle of Waxhaws, he states that "Gates ordered us to march straight at
the redcoats". Gates was not present or in command at Waxhaws, Buford was, and
the American column did not march straight at the redcoats at Waxhaws, they were
marching away when the British legion and dragoons attacked.

Revealing mistakes: At the Battle of Camden, we see the cannon firing round shot
(Ball) into the Colonial line. When the shot hits, we see it knock a hole in the line of
battle several feet wide as about three across are knocked down. Round shot does
not work that way. One or two soldiers wide might be knocked down by round shot
but not four or five. You'd expect to see that with canister shot or grape shot.

Continuity: The movie begins before the war and ends at (or near) the end of it. This
is a span of 5-7 years, yet none of the Martin children (especially the little ones) age
a day.

Revealing mistakes: After the town is burned in the church, they're shown burying
their bodies in graves with mounds of dirt above like there's actually bodies in
them, however, they buried ashes which wouldn't make as much of a mound even if
buried.