Horatio Gates
gAteS, hoRAtio John burgoyne twice at Saratoga (19 September and
7 October 1777), after which Burgoyne surrendered his
army to Gates. Historians believe, however, that it was
the actions of Gates’s subordinates, including Schuyler
and Benedict Arnold, that caused Burgoyne’s defeat;
nevertheless, Congress voted a resolution to congratulate
Gates for the victory. For his service, in November 1777
he was named as president of the new Board of War and
Ordnance, a body not unlike the modern Department
of Defense.
An intrigue to have Gates replace General George
Washington as commander of the Continental army
failed, but Gates remained popular, and on 13 June
1780 he was named commander of the army’s South-
ern Department. His first offensive in this role was on
16 August 1780 against Lord cornWallis, the Brit-
ish commander, at Camden, South Carolina, where the
American forces were badly beaten. His superiors ques-
tioned his conduct during the battle, and Gates was re-
placed by General Nathanael greene as commander of
the Southern Department. Suspended from the service,
he was investigated by a military court of inquiry, but
it was not until 1782 that the court dismissed all of the
charges. By that time, the war was virtually over, and
Gates never saw military action again. On 17 August
1782, he wrote to General Washington: “General [Ben-
jamin] lincoln has in his letter acquainted me that it is
your Excellency’s desire to know, if I wish to take Com-
mand in in the Army this Campaign. I beg upon your
Excellency to believe that I am always ready to obey your
Commands, and shall be most happy when I can execute
them to your satisfaction; I have but to entreat that no
attention to me, or my Rank, may interfere, or break in,
upon any part of your Excellency’s arrangements.. .”
No command was forthcoming.
Gates returned to his lands in Virginia at the end
of the American Revolution and remained there until
1790, when he sold the estate and moved to New York
City; at the same time, he freed all his slaves and gave
financial help to those who needed it. In 1800, he was
elected to the New York state legislature, but he resigned
soon after taking his seat. He died at his home in New
York City on 10 April 1806.References: Nelson, Paul David, General Horatio Gates: A
Biography (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press,
1976); Patterson, Samuel White, Horatio Gates: Defender of
American Liberties (New York: Columbia University Press,
1941); Mintz, Max M., Generals of Saratoga: John Burgoyne
and Horatio Gates (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University
Press, 1990); “Horatio Gates to George Washington,
17 August 1782,” George Washington Papers, 1741–1799,
Series 4: General Correspondence, 1697–1799, Manu-
script Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.;
North, Bruce, “Gates, Horatio,” in Encyclopedia of Ameri-
can War Heroes (New York: Checkmark Books, 2002), 96.