General Sir Banastre Tarleton, 1st Baronet, GCB (21 August 1754 – 15 January 1833) was a British soldier and politician. He is today probably best remembered for his military service during the American War of Independence. He became the focal point of a propaganda campaign claiming (without merit) that he had fired upon surrendering Continental Army troops at the Battle of Waxhaws. In a fictional novel The Green Dragoon: The Lives of Banastre Tarleton and Mary Robinson by Robert D. Bass (published in 1952) he was given the nickname 'Bloody Ban' and 'The Butcher', which has carried over into popular culture as being his nickname of the day, a moniker given to him for rebel propaganda purposes. The negative reputation given to Tarleton during the war was an attempt to counter the fact that