Horatio Gates was born on July 26, 1727, and his mother was the housekeeper to the Duke of Bolton’s mistress. However, it was always suspected that her former employer, the Duke of Leeds, was Gates’ natural father, not Robert Gates. In any case, when Bolton raised a regiment to help put down Bonnie Prince Charlie’s rising in 1745, no purchase was required since it was a new regiment, so Gates joined as an ensign, number fifteen on the list, followed by John Burgoyne. Possessed of an outgoing personality, he was popular with both the soldiers and the officers, and his talent for staff work won him promotion to regimental adjutant. The regiment was disbanded at the end of King George’s War (1744-1748) but he found a position as Colonel Edward Cornwallis’ aide-de-camp for the 1749 expedition to settle Halifax, where his administrative skills won Cornwallis’ admiration. He was a dedicated hell-raiser until he began courting an ambitious woman who valued status. Realizing there were no opportunities for advancement in Halifax, he returned to London in January 1754 in search of opportunity.

Six months later he had still not found a position but when George Washington surrendered at Fort Necessity the government decided to send troops to defend the colonies from France, thus commencing the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763). After purchasing a captaincy in an infantry regiment on an installment plan, he returned to Halifax, got married, and then joined Major General Edward Braddock’s expedition against Fort Duquesne. The column often stretched four miles long and averaged two miles a day as it hacked its way through the wilderness. Frustrated by the agonizingly slow pace, Braddock led half of the army ahead and Gates’ company was part of the advance guard when the army was slaughtered at Monongahela on July 9. His introduction to Indian warfare was terrifying and almost fatal, but unlike most of the wounded who were abandoned during the rout, Private Francis Penfold carried him to safety and Gates would later reward Penfold by making him part of his household.

After he had recovered from his wound, the next three years were spent serving in a succession of frontier posts before he won assignment to Major-General Robert Monckton’s successful expedition against Martinique in December 1761. Due to his friendship with Monckton, he was chosen to deliver the news of the victory to London, which traditionally guaranteed promotion. A little over a month later, Gates became a major and was awarded enough money to purchase a lieutenant colonelcy. Unfortunately, the end of the war meant that there were fewer opportunities for promotion and his career quickly stalled. Fearing retirement at half pay, he returned to England in 1763 and flattered every person of influence he knew for a colonelcy. By 1769 he had given up and sold his commission but Monckton promised him the position of second-in-command if he was put in charge of the East India Company’s army, so three more years dragged by as Monckton’s appointment went through seemingly endless debate.

When the command went to another general in 1772, Gates realized that he had exhausted all of his possible patrons. Almost a decade had been spent currying favor and the experience had understandably bred a deep resentment against the British caste system. Left with much free time, he had befriended republican radicals, including Charles Lee, who had retired as a lieutenant colonel when he realized that his career had reached its limit. Gates even considered running for parliament but accepted that he lacked sufficient support. 

Having burnt through all of his connections Gates emigrated to Virginia where he became a successful plantation owner. Continuing his friendship with Lee, who had also emigrated to Virginia, they both became passionate advocates of American independence. Despite frequent claims that he was willing to fight for independence, he was unwilling to face Indians, so when Virginia’s Governor Dunmore sent troops into the Ohio Valley on behalf of land speculators, he quickly came down with a serious fever.

When news of the fight at Lexington arrived, Gates and Lee both told Washington that they would be happy to serve in the army. Washington was well aware of their value, since few American officers had any real experience, but many in Congress felt that they had emigrated too recently. The dissidents were satisfied only when Artemis Ward was named second-in-command with Lee as third and Gates as brigadier and adjutant general. Despite his rank, Gates quickly realized that his career would not advance without connections, so he befriended Richard Henry Lee and John and Sam Adams.

The task of transforming the huge mass of recruits and militia units into a functioning army proved to be a difficult challenge. Washington had little faith in the militia, who to be fair, were almost impossible to discipline, but Gates was more willing to work with what he had. However, he was mainly motivated by a desire to win the approval of the congressmen who represented the home states of the militia units, while Washington was thinking about the long-term and was all too aware that untrained militia were no match for British regulars. Gates’ wooing of congressmen paid off when he was promoted to major-general in May 1776 and in return he opposed Washington’s calls for a standing army.

Major-General Phillip Schuyler was head of the northern army but was too ill to command, so Gates was sent to command the survivors of the Quebec expedition. Although his hard work whipped the army into shape and prevented a British invasion that year, he had little desire to remain under Schuyler’s authority, so he handed over command and went to rejoin the main army. Both he and Lee were extremely unsatisfied with how Washington was running the war but Lee was captured on December 13 by a British patrol led by Banastre Tarleton. Gates arrived at the camp on December 22, 1776 but managed to miss the raid on Trenton because he was only passing through. Claiming illness, he traveled to Baltimore, which conveniently enough was where Congress was located. However, he had only begun to conspire with sympathetic congressmen when the victories at Trenton and Princeton made Washington a national hero.

Gates began to fear that he would be forced to accept a position as adjutant-general, which gave no opportunity for glory, when Schuyler’s abrasive personality offended congress and Gates was given command of the army at Ticonderoga on March 25. However, Schuyler had himself elected to congress, and as the leader of the New York delegation he quickly won undisputed command of the northern army. Unwilling to be either second-in-command or adjutant general, Gates addressed congress on June 18 but he was so arrogant that he was ordered to never address congress in person again.

Things did not look good for Gates but news of the British capture of Ticonderoga on July 5 led to calls for Schuyler’s dismissal and Gates’ cultivation of the New England delegates bore fruit when he was named commander of the Northern Department on August 1. When he took command of the army on August 19 the situation did not look favorable and Gates decided to build defensive positions to protect Albany from the British army moving south from Canada while relying on his good relations with congressmen to convince them to send desperately needed militia units. However, the situation soon improved. Burgoyne chose to carve out a land route instead of using the traditional and faster water route, which gave Gates time to gather an army. Also, Howe’s decision to sail his army instead of marching overland against Philadelphia enabled Washington to send a number of Continental units to stiffen Gates’ army, so that he had enough men to face the British. Although neither of the two separate battles were decisive victories for the rebels, Burgoyne could not replace his losses while Gates could. In the end, the British were trapped and forced to surrender at Saratoga on October 17. Gates became the Hero of Saratoga and the French government decided to openly support the rebels.

Gates would claim and receive credit for the victory at Saratoga because he was the commanding officer but he had mainly benefited from the actions of others. Schuyler’s scorched earth policy had delayed Burgoyne’s march, the diversionary expedition in the Mohawk Valley had been defeated by Benedict Arnold, Benjamin Lincoln had successfully broken the British communication lines and John Stark had won a victory at Bennington that had denied Burgoyne supplies and weakened his army. Daniel Morgan and Arnold had done most of the fighting, so his main contribution had been organizing the army and persuading the states to contribute militia units.

Instead of accepting his limited role and good fortune, he began to view himself as a great commander. He wanted to invade Canada but when Congress ordered him to lead an expedition to deal with the Iroquois in New York, his fear of Indians manifested and he refused the command. Instead, he lobbied hard for command of the Southern Department, which he finally received on June 13, 1780, following the surrender of the main rebel army in the south at Charleston on May 9. Unfortunately, his failure to grasp the nature of the terrain would prove that he was most definitely not a great general. Morgan’s riflemen had controlled the information flow at Saratoga but cavalry would play that role in the south. However, he sent Colonel William Washington’s cavalry away, which meant that he lacked a force that could cover retreats, exploit victories and most important, scout out the enemy’s location.

Although the army that he found waiting for him contained several excellent Continental units, the men were exhausted and starving, while the militia were untrained. Rejecting the advice of his officers, he believed partisan leader Thomas Sumter’s claim that the area around Camden, South Carolina was weakly defended and decided to march there in order to link up with a sizeable force of North Carolina militia. Just as he had advanced his career by forging good relations with the New England congressmen, he hoped to do the same with the North Carolina representatives, who were urging him to take the offensive. Despite the troops’ condition, he intended to repeat his success at Saratoga by building strong defensive positions near Camden and working with partisans to cut off supplies in order to force the British to abandon the town.

Unknown to Gates, Camden’s garrison of 700 men had been reinforced by 2,200 regulars under Major-General Charles Cornwallis. Worse, his decision to march his inexperienced army at night against the advice of his senior officers meant that the two armies literally blundered into each other, so there was not enough time to dig in. Despite learning that he faced 3,000 troops Gates was unwilling to order a retreat and none of his officers pressed him, probably because they had realized that he would not listen anyway. The inexperienced militia broke and fled as soon the British regulars charged with bayonets, leaving the Continentals to be slaughtered.

Instead of re-organizing his men, Gates rode for three days straight until he was 180 miles away at Hillsborough, North Carolina where he wrote a flurry of letters to Congress in an attempt to salvage his career, which highlights the difference between Washington and Gates. Washington may not have won many battles, but his strength of character had prevented numerous retreats from becoming routs and thus preserved his army.

Major General Nathanael Greene took over command of the Southern Department on December 3, but he refused Gates’ request to convene a court martial of inquiry because he had more important things to do, like preparing to fight the British. As a result, Gates had to wait until 1782 when Congress announced that no inquiry was needed and he was allowed to return to active duty. Although several officers close to Gates were involved in the Newburgh Conspiracy, where a number of senior officers threatened violence against Congress unless the army was paid, there is no direct proof of his participation.

Gates’ wife died in the summer of 1783 and he married a rich widow in July 1786, so he was finally able to live the good life, including serving a single term in the New York State legislature.

He died on April 10, 1806 and unsurprisingly there is no monument to him.

Further reading:

The Generals of Saratoga: John Burgoyne & Horatio Gates-Max. M. Mintz, Yale University Press: New Haven, 1990.

The parallel careers of Burgoyne and Gates are not just fascinating because of their fateful encounter at Saratoga but because of their different experiences with the British establishment. Although both were born to families that were only a few rungs above poor on the social ladder, one managed to penetrate the aristocracy through marriage and pursue a successful career. The other failed to acquire the necessary connections to rise further in rank than major and the resulting bitterness towards the British caste system drove him to join the American rebels. Mintz has produced a well-researched and well-written work but he falls into the same trap as many biographers, namely becoming too attached to his subjects. For example, Burgoyne’s decision to carve out a land route instead of following the time-honored waterway route from Ticonderoga to Albany gave Gates the time needed to put together the army that won at Saratoga. However, Mintz’s defense of Burgoyne is based largely on testimony given by him and his officers during a court martial, when they would not be expected to put the blame on themselves.

The Road to Guilford Courthouse: The American Revolution in the Carolinas-John Buchanan, New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1997.

The author’s descriptions of the terrain show that he has spent a great deal of time visiting historical sites in the Carolinas, which bring the terrain to life for the reader, although the overly detailed descriptions can be a bit distracting at times. Although it focuses on the Carolinas Campaign (February 1780 to August 1781), the author provides brief but insightful biographical sketches and portraits of all of the major leaders in the South on either side in order to provide more depth. It is not a one stop examination of the Carolinas Campaign since it ends with the battle at Guilford Courthouse in March 1781, hence the name. Buchanan is the rare historian who is an excellent researcher and an entertaining writer, and he has produced an excellent book that sets the standard for other works in the field.

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