The American Revolution was in many ways America's 'first' civil war. Families, towns and regions were torn apart. About 20% of the white population was Loyalist (also known as King's Men or Tories). Both sides committed what we consider now as atrocities. Mob violence occurred in both Patriot and Loyalist areas, which involved anything from verbal and physical harassment and abuse, destruction of property, forced exile, loss of liberties and legal recourse, lynching, and extrajudicial murder. In Patriot areas, they had congressional and state confiscation and banishment laws to support them.

The British had various provincial corps and light infantry units of Loyalists, who formed ranging companies that operated on the flanks or vanguard of British forces. (Among the most successful units were the Queen's Rangers.) Their job was reconnaissance and raiding. Continental forces also had comparable irregular militia units. Today we would call it guerrilla warfare.

This could include destruction of civilian property and livestock, harassment of civilians, arbitrary arrests, rape, looting, mistreatment or murder of POW's. The mortality rate of American POW's, who suffered terribly in captivity, ran as high as 70%. This behaviour, which looks deplorable now, would be seen as par for the course in 18th century warfare -- especially on the American frontier, as these tactics had been used there since before the Seven Years War. Colonists had been pushing westward into native territory since the fall of New France, antagonizing the indigenous peoples there. These units adopted the frontier tactics and used them against the enemy, either in cohort with regular forces on campaign, or independently.

George Washington himself was not immune, especially when it involved the native peoples. (Most of the Iroquois nations sided with the British, while a minority sided with the Patriots.)

While he objected to some atrocities done in the name of the Patriot cause and urged punishment of offenders in his army, this did not apply to the native peoples. He ordered the destruction of Iroquois villages across upstate New York in 1779, so "that country may not merely be overrun but destroyed." Up to 40 villages were razed to the ground in a brutal scorched earth policy, leaving many natives homeless with hundreds dying of exposure in the winter. The moniker the Iroquois gave him was not flattering: Conotocarious, or "Town Destroyer".

The British offered freedom to slaves who served in Loyalist units. They were literally fighting for their freedom from servitude and knew that capture by Patriots could mean a return to slavery, as the Patriot cause did not apply to their own experience. Slaves owned by Washington and Thomas Jefferson fled to the British during the war. After Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, they had no qualms about reclaiming their property.