At the end of the movie, as Benjamin and his family ride towards their homestead, Aunt Charlotte is holding a blanket on her lap. She holds the blanket as though it contains a baby as she descends from the wagon. She continues to hold the bundle as though it contains a baby while the family stands and listens to the speech about what Gabriel said about rebuilding and that the other militia men decided to begin with Benjamin's home. A moment later, the camera focuses on one of Benjamin's sons standing next to Aunt Charlotte and she has no bundle and her arms are by her sides. Next, we see the family from behind as they walk towards the house being erected and it looks like Aunt Charlotte is once again holding a bundle in her left arm. Finally, she picks up Susan with only her right arm.
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.
In the beginning, Benjamin carries a five-stick candelabra upstairs to tuck the two small girls in. The candles are a short three inches, but by the time he gets downstairs to see the older boys, the candles have grown to five inches.
On the wanted poster for "The Ghost" the bottom of the flyer bears the seal of "Her Majesty's State Paper Office" which is incorrect. That office did not exist at the time. In fact the original name of the office was "Her Majesty's Stationary Office" and was not established until 5 April 1786 almost 8 years after this poster was supposedly created. Additionally, King George III was still the reigning monarch at the time and the correct title would have been "His Majesty's State Paper Office" had the office actually existed at the time of printing.
When Tavington is fighting with Gabriel, just before he runs him through with his sword, his hair changes from long, stringy, hanging down to being in a pigtail, neatly tied.
George Washington's proclamation regarding the freeing of slaves who give one year of service is incorrectly interpreted. The historical offer applied to slaves who enlisted in the Continental regulars or served in regular state forces which served with Continental armies. It did not apply to units such as Benjamin Martin's local militia, which solely were under state control.
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.
At least twice (at the fight at the river and at the battle near the end) Tavington loads his pistol and discards his ramrod after he's done with it. This would make it impossible to reload the pistol again, and it is unlikely that a highly trained British colonel would do such a thing. At the river, dropping the rod is understandable, given the pressure, but tossing it some distance away isn't.
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.
The Continentals are seen wearing coats with white facings throughout most of the movie, but the South Carolina Line would've been wearing blue-on-blue, especially after Congress passed a law standardizing colors in 1779.
(at around 2h 20 mins) An African soldier is marching in the ranks of the British army at the beginning of the last battle, seen directly after the Frenchman yells, "Make ready!" The British did, in fact, recruit slaves to fight in their army during the American Revolution, promising them their freedom. One of the most famous British slave regiments was the Ethiopian Regiment, recruited by Virginia Governor, John Murray, the Fourth Earl of Dunmore.
When the British officer asks who the messenger is, Gabriel says it was him and walks down the stairs towards the officer. The shot cuts to the officer then back to Gabriel, who is now wearing a blue coat, which he didn't have on in the previous shot. However, he's seen picking it up.
Just after Benjamin received his battlefield commission, he and Gabriel mount their horses, Gabriel is on the left. In the next scene, he is on the right. While this is true, as the shot with Gabriel is on the right opens you can see that his horse is completing a move from Benjamin's left around to his right front.
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.
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. However, at that point there was no guarantee that the indicated soldier was actually dead, only wounded. Later it is clear that at least one soldier survived the fight, others could have also.
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.
When Tavington is on the bridge watching Martin and the retreating Militamen ride down the river, he shoots at them with a smoothbore flintlock pistol, and hits one. The effective range on one of these pistols is about 30 feet and this shot was much longer, too far to hit the rider.
At the end of the beginning scene where Martin and his two younger boys kill all the red coats to save their brother, one of the "dead" soldiers in the wagon sits up just before the scene fades out.
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.
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.
When the church burned, it apparently burned hot enough to burn all of the bodies locked inside of it. YET when Benjamin found the North Star pendant in the ashes of the church there was remnants of the ribbon on it which it hung around Ann's neck. If this fire had burned hot enough to consume all of those bodies, it would have consume that ribbon as well.
At the 2:35:57 mark, during the final battle when General Cornwallis order the first charge, two soldiers of opposing sides in the foreground can be seen awkwardly bumping chests before they start stage fist fighting, disregarding the still loaded muskets with bayonets they both have.
The film spans years of struggle. Militia survivors like Occam and Dan Scott would, after years of fighting improve their firearm skills like reduced reload times and improved accuracy, yet during the penultimate battle, they haven't appreciably improved much. Constant warfare has a tendency to make survivors (even irregular fighters and guerrillas) dangerous and skilled combatants.
Cannon rounds are shown exploding in fireballs. Even if the cannons are howitzers, the rounds still shouldn't explode in a gout of flame, since howitzer shells are explosive and not flammable.
The film spans many years yet Benjamin doesn't age a bit.
Great Danes were not known by that name until the late 19th century. Before that they were called "Boar Hounds".
When Tavington and Cornwallis are discussing using "brutal" tactics, Tavington requests "Ohio" as payment. Ohio was not a specific area until it was named as Ohio County of the Northwest Territory in the 1790s or so. Before that, it was simply part of the Iroquois Nation which was claimed by the British Empire.
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.
The music performed at the party scene was the Gavotte from Bach's Orchestral Suite # 3. This music was unknown until its rediscovery as part of the Bach renaissance started by Felix Mendelssohn in 1850. This piece was first performed in the United States at the Cincinnati May Festival on May 7, 1873.
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".)
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.
When Occam is speaking at the end of the film, he is seen saying "Gabriel said if we won the war, we could build a whole new world. Just figured we'd start here... ." The shot cuts to over his shoulder and he finishes with, "... .with your home," but his jaw is not moving suggesting it was dubbed in later.
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.
When Tavington is walking through the house we hear the jingle of his spurs. Close-ups of his boots reveal he is wearing English Spurs which are solid and would not jingle. Spurs that jingle, notably Western spurs, have rowels (rotating discs or stars) which make the jingle sound.
At the party when the ship blows up, you can hear the explosion at the same time you see the blast, when it's clear that the ship is far enough away that there would be a delay between seeing and hearing the explosion.
In the last scene when the family walks forward to the new home being built, pretty sure there is a line of cars, trailers and tents in the distance, to the right.
When Benjamin is riding out from Charlotte's plantation to rejoin Gabriel and meet Colonel Burwell, you can see several vehicles driving past in the distance immediately after he turns his horse around.
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.
The North Star is shown rising in the east.
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.
Benjamin Martin's description of the Fort Wilderness campaign is incorrect. There never was a Fort Wilderness or Fort Ambercon. The only Fort Charles is in Jamaica, and the Ashuelot River is in New Hampshire.
Brothers, Gabriel and Thomas, both pronounce Charleston, South Carolina as "Charlestown" several times in their dialogue. Gabriel opens a newspaper clipper which title states, "Charlestown." Charlestown is located in West Virginia, not South Carolinda.
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.
Many of the dresses worn by Charlotte would have been considered quite revealing and scandalous at the time and wouldn't have been worn by a woman of high society who valued her reputation.
During an ambush, the militia is shown lining up opposite each other and then firing directly towards each other as the British troops ride between them. No competent officer would arrange his troops to fire at each other.
Young unmarrieds would not have kissed in public in 18th-century America.
On the wanted poster for "The Ghost," the name of General Cornwallis is misspelled as "Cornwallace." Arguably fair, since literacy was low 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 in-joke reference to Braveheart (1995).)
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.