Horatio Gates was the son of a clergyman at Malden, in England, and was
born in the year 1729. Having lost his father at an early age, he was
left pretty much to the dictates of his own passion. He appears to have
determined on a military life as early as twelve years of age, when
the frequent remonstrances of his uncle and guardian could not prevail
on him to relinquish the thoughts of a profession so much against the
wishes of his family.
At the age of seventeen he was appointed to an ensigncy in the
regiment commanded by General Monckton, who was a personal friend of
the father of Gates, and who gave him every opportunity of improving
himself. Shortly after he was promoted to a lieutenancy, and was
aid-de-camp to General Monckton at the capture of Martinico, where his
bravery and soldier-like conduct won for him the rank of major. He was
among the first troops who landed at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, under
General Cornwallis, and was stationed there for some time. He was only
in his twenty-sixth year when he accompanied the unfortunate Braddock
in the expedition against Fort du Quesne, and with the illustrious
Washington, was among the few officers, who, on that occasion,
escaped with their lives. Gates did not escape, however, without a
very dangerous wound; he was shot through the body, which for a time
shut him out from the bloody and perilous scenes which attended the
various battles of the French war. Although he had not been a citizen
of the new world but a few years, he evinced his attachment to it by
purchasing a farm in Virginia, where he retired till he was perfectly
restored to health. His attachment to the new country, and a military
reputation so high, Congress, without any hesitation, appointed him
adjutant-general, with the rank of brigadier-general in the new army
of the revolution of 1775. General Washington was well acquainted with
his merits in his military character, and warmly recommended him to
Congress on the occasion; they had been fellow-soldiers and sufferers
under General Braddock.
From this period he took an active part in most of the transactions
of the war, and his bravery and good fortune placed him in a rank
inferior only to Washington. In July, 1775, he accompanied the
commander-in-chief to Cambridge, and was employed for some time in a
subordinate but highly useful capacity. In June, 1776, the government
evinced their confidence in Gates, by conferring on him the chief
command of the forces at the north, and the new general was found in
no way deficient in courage and vigilance, so necessary under such
circumstances.
The Congress had turned an anxious eye towards Canada at the opening
of the contest; being fully aware of the danger of their gaining
possession of our harbors and lakes, and the great difficulty to us,
to obtain possession of their strong forts on their settled frontier.
The British commenced the naval preparations on their side with great
alacrity and success. But the Americans had every obstacle, but the
want of zeal, to encounter in preparing for defence. General Gates
was directed to co-operate with General Schuyler, but there was a
miserable and irreparable deficiency in cannon, in the materials of
ship-building, and even in the necessary workmen. The country had
been hitherto a desert. Colonization, in its natural progress, had
not approached these solitary shores. Nothing but the exigencies of
the former war with France had occasioned this region to be traversed
or inhabited. A few forts, with suitable garrisons, were all that
could be found in it, and that abundance of workmen, vessels and
prepared timber, which a well-planted country would have spontaneously
furnished, was unknown. Schuyler, indeed, was not destitute of a naval
armament, but it was insufficient to cope with the greater preparations
of the enemy. With all the exertions of the two commanders, they
were merely able to equip about fifteen vessels, half of which were
little better than boats, and the largest carried only twelve small
guns very ill supplied with ammunition. This small armament, at the
recommendation of General Gates, was placed under the command of the
intrepid, and then, unsuspected Arnold. The first operations of the
campaign consisted in a contest between these vessels under Arnold, and
a much superior force under General Carleton, in which the land forces
had no concern. The British army under Carleton commenced their advance
to Ticonderoga, where Gates and Schuyler were already stationed with
eight thousand men, well provisioned and determined to defend it to the
last extremity; all parties expecting to witness a long, obstinate,
and, perhaps, a bloody siege.
Some causes, however, and most probably the lateness of the season,
induced Carleton to disappoint these expectations, by precipitately
retiring to Canada in search of winter quarters.
This retreat enabled General Gates to march southward, with a
considerable detachment of his army, to assist General Washington in
his operations in the middle colonies. The ensuing year was passed in a
great variety of movements and skirmishes in the lower districts of New
York, Pennsylvania and Jersey, between detachments of each army. In the
ordinary records of the time, we meet with no splendid or conspicuous
part performed by the subject of these memoirs, though there is
sufficient reason to believe that his services in that motley warfare
were active, strenuous and useful.
News having reached General Gates that Burgoyne, with part of his
army, had passed the Hudson and encamped at Saratoga, he, with numbers
already equal, and continually augmenting, advanced quickly towards
him, with a resolution to oppose his progress at the risk of a battle.
On the 17th of September he arrived at Stillwater, where he encamped,
being then within four miles of the enemy. Two days after, skirmishes
between advanced parties terminated in an engagement almost general, in
which the utmost efforts of the British merely enabled them to maintain
footing of the preceding day. Burgoyne, who was daily expecting
reinforcements from Clinton at New York, was content to remain in his
camp, although his army was diminished by the desertion of the Indians
and the Canadian militia, to less than one-half of its original number.
Gates, on the contrary, finding his forces largely increasing, being
plentifully supplied with provisions, and knowing that Burgoyne had
only a limited store, and that rapidly lessening, and could not be
recruited, was not without hopes that victory would come, in time,
even without a battle. His troops were so numerous, and his fortified
position so strong, that he was able to take measures for preventing
the retreat of the enemy, by occupying the strong posts in his rear.
Accordingly, nineteen days passed without any further operations, a
delay as ruinous to one party as it was advantageous to the other.
At the end of this period, the British general found his prospects of
assistance as remote as ever, and the consumption of his stores so
alarming, that retreat or victory became unavoidable alternatives.
On the eighth of October a warm action ensued, in which the British
were everywhere repulsed, and a part of their lines occupied by their
enemies. Burgoyne’s loss was very considerable in killed, wounded and
prisoners, while the favorable situation of Gates’ army made its losses
in the battle of no moment.
Burgoyne retired in the night to a stronger camp, but the measures
immediately taken, by Gates, to cut off his retreat, compelled him
without delay to regain his former camp at Saratoga. There he arrived
with little molestation from his adversary. His provisions being now
reduced to the supply of a few days, the transport of artillery and
baggage towards Canada being rendered impracticable by the judicious
measures of his adversary, the British general resolved upon a rapid
retreat, merely with what the soldiers could carry on their backs. They
soon found they were deprived even of this resource, as the passes
through which their route lay were so strongly guarded, that nothing
but artillery could clear them. In this desperate situation a parley
took place, and on the sixteenth of October the whole army surrendered
to Gates. The prize obtained consisted of more than five thousand
prisoners, some fine artillery, seven thousand muskets, clothing for
seven thousand men, with a great quantity of tents, and other military
stores. All the frontier fortresses were immediately abandoned to the
victors. This successful capture filled America with joy: Congress
passed a vote of thanks, and ordered a gold medal (_See_ Plate III.)
to be presented to him by the President. It is not easy to overrate
the importance of this success. It may be considered as deciding the
war of the revolution, as from that period the British cause began
rapidly to decline. The capture of Cornwallis was not considered of
equal importance to that of Burgoyne, nor an event which caused more
exultation.
The conduct of General Gates towards his conquered enemy was marked
by a delicacy which did him the highest honor; he did not permit his
own troops to witness the mortification of the British in depositing
their arms. The system of General Gates was that of forbearance
and lenity--of allowing for honest intentions and difference of
opinion. The benignity of his measures were seconded by the urbanity
of his personal deportment--he was courteous and even friendly to
the proscribed, and this event entitled him to a high rank among
the deliverers of his country. Soon after General Gates retired to
his estate in Virginia, and died in 1806, at the advanced age of
seventy-seven years.