British dragoon sword

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by kronckew

By coincidence, the film 'The Patriot' was playing the other day, I looked carefully at the bad guy's sword. Col. Tavington and his dragoons were loosely based on Col. Banastre Tarllton, who was NOT the demon portrayed in the film (the murder of civilans in the church, etc. never happened). Hard to believe it was released 20 years ago.

If you look carefully at Tavington's sword you can see it is indeed a 4 slot cylindrical grip curved sabre like the one being discussed here, though presumably an officers model as the grip is ivory*. I managed to track down the company that made the sword, royal swordsmiths here in the UK, photo attached. Oil painting of the real Col. - later General - Tarlton as below. The film's historical accuracy is questionable at best, but someone got the swords fairly accurately.

*- You can see the ivory grip in the scene at Cornwallis' HQ as Mel was accosted by Tavington as Mel departed.

Thats great Wayne, you found the makers of the sword used by 'Tavington' (good play on the name) in the movie!!! One always wonders how accurate these movie weapons were, and you done gone and found out!!!

It is pretty impressive that they kept historical accuracy in mind with the weaponry, though the script writers followed their own need for the driving force in the plot, the revenge thing etc.
I agree its necessary I suppose to create a story line, but I really wish that scene was not in the movie, other than that it was a great film.

Actually I think there was far more inconsistency in war circumstances than anyone can imagine, and weapons were far more 'ersatz' than standard.

Great insights and research, thank you!!