The scene from the movie was actually based on German war crimes carried out in Italy during World War II. No none instance of anything similar occurred during the Revolutionary War. That's not to say war crimes didn't happen or that civilians were never targeted. However there is simply no evidence of British soldiers forcing civilians into a church which was then burned.

On a related note, the British officer in the movie was based (loosely) on [Banastre Tarleton] (http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2000/07/did_the_brits_burn_churches.html), who was accused of, and basically admitted to, massacring troops that were attempting to surrender, in a situation that was admittedly quite different from anything portrayed in the film.