James Wilkins

Captain Wilkins is a minor antagonist in the film The Patriot. He was played by Adam Baldwin.

Biography
Wilkins as a British Colonial man who opposed the idea of independence. He walked out of a meeting discussing the issue and went and joined the British Army. He ended up as a captain in the Green Dragoons and served under Colonel William Tavington until Tavington's death.

Initially, he was certain of where his loyalties lay. He considered himself an Englishman and thought that anyone who opposed the notion of independence from the Crown was a traitor. When pressed by Tavington about his loyalties, he told his new commanding officer that all those who opposed the King deserved to die a traitor's death. These words would return to haunt him later in the conflict.

By and large, Wilkins had it relatively easy assisting Tavington in attempting to put down the rebels. He and Tavington clashed several times with Benjamin Martin and his militia, but never failed to catch them. Eventually, Tavington's tactics, already brutal, were turned fully upon civilians - particularly the friends and relatives of Martin's men. When Tavington had several of them locked in a church, he handed a lit torch to Wilkins and told him to set the building on fire with the people inside.

Wilkins refused, but Tavington reminded him of what he said before. After a moment of hesitation, Wilkins knuckled under and threw the torch into the church, setting it alight, burning it down and killing everyone inside. He was visibly sickened, but Tavington reassured him the honor was found in the end, not the means.

He later participated in the final battle of the film but it's unknown if he died or survived, as he seems to disappear in all the chaos and confusion.