Horatio Gates

Major General Horatio Lloyd Gates (July 26, 1727 – April 10, 1806) was a British-born American army officer and politician who served in the British Army and Continental Army. He played a major role during the American Revolutionary War in the American victory at the 1777 Battles of Saratoga. His career was subsequently tarnished when he was defeated by the British at the 1780 Battle of Camden. He has been described as "one of the Revolution's most controversial military figures" due to his role in the Conway Cabal, which attempted to discredit and replace George Washington as the Continental Army's commander-in-chief, along with his controversial actions at Saratoga and Camden.

Gates was born in Maldon, Essex, and served as a British army officer during the War of the Austrian Succession and the French and Indian War. He became frustrated by his inability to advance in rank, so he sold his commission and bought a slave plantation in the Colony of Virginia. On Washington's recommendation, the Continental Congress made Gates the Adjutant General of the Continental Army in 1775. He was made the commander of Fort Ticonderoga in 1776 and of the Northern Department in 1777, and American forces defeated a British army at Saratoga soon after. Some members of Congress considered replacing Washington with Gates after the victory at Saratoga, but that did not materialize.

Gates took command of the Southern Department in 1780, but he was removed from command later that year after the disastrous American defeat at Camden. Gates's military reputation was destroyed, and he was not given another command for the remainder of the war. He retired to his Virginia plantation after the war, but eventually decided to manumit his slaves and move to New York. He was elected to a single term in the New York State Legislature and died in 1806.