Born at Malden, Essex, England in 1728, Gates's parents served as butler and housekeeper to the Duke of Leeds. Gates joined the army while a very young man. He first came to the North America to fight in the French and Indian War--the American theater of the worldwide conflict called the Seven Years War. Through distinguished service in Nova Scotia, New York, and Martinique, he achieved the rank of major. Encouraged by friend and former comrade-in-arms, George Washington, he returned to America a decade later and settled in western Virginia--the frontier at that time.
Sympathetic to the American cause, Gates's name was the first proposed by Washington when Congress asked him to nominate officers for the Revolutionary Army. In 1775, Gates accepted his nomination as adjutant general of the Continental Army and by 1777 had replaced General Philip Schuyler in northern New York. After Saratoga, Gates, an able administrator, served as president of the Board of War. He had many friends in Congress and was, perhaps unwittingly, drawn into the "Conway Cabal"--an attempt to replace Commander-in-Chief Washington with Gates. Although criticized for his conduct during the battle of Camden, he continued to serve the American cause until the end of the war.
Troubled by the issue of slavery, Gates manumitted his slaves and relocated from Virginia to New York after the Revolution . He served one term in the state legislature but much of the General's time and money was spent aiding Revolutionary veterans. General Horatio Gates died on April 10, 1806.
