Horatio Gates Biography

Dromo's Den

GATES, Horatio (1728–1806). An American soldier, prominent in the Revolutionary War. He was born at Maldon, Essex Co., England, his parents being servants in the household of the Duke of Leeds. He entered the army when very young, went to America in 1755, and, as major, served under Braddock (q.v.) and was severely wounded at the defeat of the latter on July 9 of the same year near Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh). In 1760 he was stationed, as brigade major, under General Monckton, at Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh), and in 1762 was Monckton's aid at the capture of Martinique. Buying a farm in Berkeley Co., Va., in 1763, he lived there in retirement until July, 1775, when Congress appointed him adjutant general in the regular army, with the rank of brigadier. In 1776 he was appointed to the command of the army which had lately retreated from Canada, and immediately began intriguing to supplant General Schuyler as the commander of the Northern Department. In this he was successful through the influence of the New England delegates in Congress, on Aug. 2, 1777. The army under his command, after fighting the battles of Stillwater and Saratoga, forced Burgoyr to surrender on October 17. (See Saratoga, Battles of.) Gates received nearly all of the credit, though Schuyler, Arnold, and Morgan had done most of the work, and he had been conspicuous chiefly for incapacity and for an apparent lack of personal courage. Soon afterward he entered into the schemes of the Conway Cabal (q.v.), whose object was to have him appointed, in Washington's stead, as commander in chief. For a time he was president of the newly organized board of war, but was detected in several falsehoods, became discredited, and withdrew in 1778 to his farm in Virginia, where he remained until 1780, when he was put in command of the Army of the South. Owing chiefly to his wretched generalship, his forces were totally defeated near Camden, S. C. (q.v.), on August 16 by Lord Cornwallis, and on December 2 he was superseded by General Greene. A court of inquiry, appointed to investigate his conduct, sat until 1782, and finally acquitted him. He then again retired to his Virginia farm and lived there until 1790, when, after freeing his slaves, he removed to New York City, where he remained until his death, April 10, 1806. Personally, he was handsome, affable, and courteous, and in society was a general favorite. For his part in the Saratoga campaign, consult Stone, Campaign of Lieutenant-General Burgoyne (Albany, 1877).

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. IX (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 509-510.