State

General Horatio Gates Historians haven't boon kind to Ibis Revo¬ lutionary War hero for whom (inles County was naiiMMl l<»8 years ago. UP IN Northeastern North Carolina Gates County is known far and wide for its prosperous farms, succulent country hams and its cordial hos¬ pitality. Its beautiful old court¬ house at Gatesville. built in 1836 in Gothic Revival style, is in a set¬ ting of rural beauty hardly surpassed anywhere in North Caro¬ lina. Gatesville itself is a quiet and peaceful little community of per¬ haps 250 inhabitants where no one ever seems in very much of a hurry. Yet it was named for an early American General, Horatio Gates, who has come down in his¬ tory as the Revolutionary War’s most hurried officer. Strange as it may seem. General Horatio Gates, the hero of the battle of Saratoga. N. Y., for whom Gates County was named in 1780. has had few historians to sing his praises. All of his triumphs have been forgotten and his otherwise brilliant military career is remem¬ bered mostly for the fact that he ran away from battle at Camden, S. C.. on August 16, 1781. and left his Tar Heel troops in the lurch. This, coupled with the fact that he is said to have conspired to un¬ seat General George Washington and thus take over the army's high¬ est command for himself in Revo¬ lutionary War days, nearly ended his military career. Yet some say he was smarter than George Wash¬ ington and came pretty near beat¬ ing Washington to the title of "Father of His Country." General Horatio Gates was born in 1728 in a Gothic Castle in Eng¬ land known as "Strawberry Hill." Some say he was son of the house¬ keeper of the Second Duke of Leeds who late in life married a London grocer. Scandal mongers of the time claimed he was the illegiti¬ mate son of Horace Walpole, an English wit and man of letters, for whom he was named. In fact, it took a legal document signed by the Archbishop of Canterbury to quiet the rumors. This document says that Horatio Gates was "The lawful son of Robert Gates and his wife. Dorothy (Parker» Gates." Gates took to soldiering at an early age and was an army officer at Halifax. Nova Scotia, in October, Kv i:\kl ni : \i> 1754, when he was married to Elizabeth Phillips, the daughter of a British officer whose family came from among the landed gentry in southern England. During the American Revolution he cast his lot with the rebellious colonies and served in the northern army where he distinguished him¬ self at the Battle of Saratoga on October 7. 1777, when the British General Burgoyne and his army surrendered in one of the most de¬ cisive battles of the Revolution. He soon became second in com¬ mand only to General George Washington and might have be¬ come the father of our country had not Washington discovered a plot by Gates’ friends to make him commander-in-chief of the Ameri¬ can Army. Gates was transferred to command southern troops, and in June, 1780, took charge of North Carolina soldiers. The disastrous battle of Camden, S. C., however, proved his undoing and ended his brilliant military career. Defeated by General Corn¬ wallis. Gates left his army leader- less in the field while he him¬ self fled on horseback. When Gates was next heard from he had ridden some 120 miles and was reporting the disastrous rout of his army to headquarters from a point west of Charlotte. General Isaac Sawyer's Tar Heel Brigade, recruited from the farms of Camden and Pasquotank County, were the real heroes in that early American battle. They stood their ground before superior British soldiers long after General Gates and many others had fled from the field. Neither General Washington nor the historians ever forgave Gates for deserting his army to save his own hide. He was forced into re¬ tirement on his 650-acrc Virginia farm “Traveller’s Rest” and his army command was not restored to him until after I-ord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown. General Gates' latter years, however, were gay and prosperous. He married a second time in 1786 and his wife, Mary Vallance, a native of Maryland and the daugh¬ ter of a wealthy English merchant, saw to it that Gates lived in com¬ fort and luxury in New York. This 46-year-old widow, who was 12 years younger than the aging Gates, was fond of entertaining. Gates and his new wife lived at "Rose Hill Farm," a 90-acre estate located in what is now one of the busiest parts of New York City. Madison Square. They lived in a two-story frame house which stood on a low hill facing what is now 24th Street, a few blocks west of Second Avenue. Of course, not a bit of this rustic scene remains to¬ day but in those days Madison Square was three miles out in the country from fast-growing New York City which extended little more than a mile west of the battery. Mary Vallance Gates died in November, 1810 and was buried in Trinity churchyard, at the head of Wall Street. General Gates died on April 10, 1806, and an elaborate funeral for him was held at the home of a neighbor, Robert Len¬ nox, at 59 Broadway. Notables from everywhere in the infant United States attended and he too was interred in the graveyard be¬ hind Trinity Episcopal Church. the STATE. November 26. 1949