Horatio Gates: Defender of American Liberties 9780231883870

Table of contents :
FOREWORD
PREFACE
CONTENTS
ILLUSTRATIONS
Part One. THE KING’S BUSINESS, 1727–75
II. TRAVELLER’S REST
Part Two. IN AMERICA’S CAUSE, 1775–83
III. WASHINGTON’S RIGHT HAND AT CAMBRIDGE
IV. SCHUYLER, GATES, ARNOLD
V. AT WASHINGTON’S REQUEST
VI. “BY THE VOTE OF ELEVEN STATES”
VII. STILLWATER, SEPTEMBER 19–OCTOBER 6, 1777
VIII. STILLWATER, OCTOBER 7–17, 1777
IX. THE VICTOR OF SARATOGA
X. WASHINGTON OR GATES?
XI. CONWAY’S LETTER TO GATES
XII. THE CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER
XIII. GATES AS PRESIDENT OF THE WAR BOARD
XIV. THE HIGHLANDS, BOSTON, PROVIDENCE
XV. SOUTHERN WILLOWS
XVI. WASHINGTON AND GATES AT THE LAST CANTONMENT
Part Three. TO THE END OF THE ROAD, 1783–1806
XVII. THE KNIGHT OF TRAVELLER’S REST
XVIII. THE PEACE OF ROSE HILL FARM
NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX

Citation preview

HORATIO G A T E S I am ready to risque m y L i f e to p r e s e r v e the L i b e r t y o f the W e s t e r n W o r l d . — H O R A T I O GATES,

1773

W e e n t e r e d into this W a r to p r e s e r v e o u r &

to

which, 1778

establish Freedom

that

Republican

Freedom,

Equality,

is but a N a m e . — H O R A T I O

without GATES,

MAJOR GENERAL HORATIO GATES BY G I L B E R T S T U A R T

DEFENDER

OF

AMERICAN

LIBERTIES "By Samuel

White

'Patterson

AMS Press, Inc. New York 1966

Copyright 1941, Columbia University Press New York

Reprinted 1966 with Permission of Columbia University Press

AMS Press, Inc. New York, N.Y. 10003

Manufactured in The United States of America

TO W I L L AND G R A C E , R O B AND E L L A IN G R A T E F U L R E M E M B R A N C E OF T H I N G S PAST AND T O T H E V A L I A N T S P I R I T OF

MAY

W H O C H E E R E D US BY H E R P R E S E N C E AND E N R I C H E D US W I T H H E R L I F E

FOREWORD

I T M I G H T BE thought strange that the victor of Saratoga—the one really decisive battle of the American Revolution—should go down in history as a weakling, a bungler, and a marplot, but such has been his fate. For it was the misfortune of Horatio Gates to incur, unjustly, the enmity of Washington, and though Washington himself overcame that enmity, his admirers and biographers never did. For generations Gates was to serve as the whipping-boy for the generals and statesmen of the Revolution, his triumphs forgotten, only his mistakes recalled, the verdict of history rendered on only ex parte evidence. Iconoclasm, the favored literary technique of the last generation, is easy—and largely profitless. Happily, Professor Patterson has eschewed it here, and has attempted the far more difficult and more satisfactory task of recreation and vindication. H e has traced, with meticulous scholarship, Gates's early military career and reminded us that no other American leader had longer or more valuable military experience than did the veteran of Ft. Duquesne, Herkimer, and Martinique. H e has explained the removal from England to Virginia and the decision to throw in with the Revolutionary cause in terms highly creditable to Gates's mind and heart. H e has emphasized Gates's invaluable services as organizer, administrator, and disciplinarian—first at Cambridge, later as president of the Board of War. H e has thrown grave doubts on the allegations of incompetence at Saratoga and set the record straight as to the disaster at Camden. H e has recorded Gates's persistent efforts to return to active service and the sacrifice which that return entailed. H e has revealed Gates, not as a "summer soldier and sunshine

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FOREWORD

patriot," but as courageous, faithful, and loyal. H e has, in short, effectively rescued from ill-merited obloquy and undeserved neglect the reputation of one of the ablest of the Revolutionary leaders. But not the least of Professor Patterson's achievements is the scrupulously skillful unraveling of the tangled skein of the GatesWashington misunderstanding. H e has disposed of the myth of the "Conway Cabal"—let us hope permanently—and vindicated the memory of Gates from the charge of disloyalty to his commanderin-chief or to the patriot cause. H e has established the unhappy controversy in its proper perspective—a minor, almost a trivial one, reflecting some degree of discredit on almost all who were involved in it, and he has done this without heat and with sympathy and even humor. This study is largely military, but Professor Patterson has not neglected the human element. T h e Gates who emerges from these vivacious pages is a singularly attractive figure—warm-hearted, generous, magnanimous even; a faithful husband, a devoted father, a loyal friend, an earnest citizen of his adopted country, a zealous democrat. Like Washington himself he was sometimes vain, stood upon his dignity rather touchily, wrote resounding letters that might better have remained unwritten, was guilty of mistakes and blunders. H e was not, perhaps, a great man, not even a great soldier. But he did his duty as he saw it, and did it, on the whole, well. H e joined the American cause because he believed in it and— notwithstanding his wealth, his professional training, and his proper connections—he kept to the end his faith in the ideals of the Revolution. Professor Patterson's biography—thorough and scholarly, critical and intelligent, judicious and perspicacious, felicitous in style and sympathetic in interpretation—should establish beyond challenge the right of Horatio Gates to be remembered as one of the Fathers of the American Republic. ALLAN

April

22,

1941

NEVINS

P R E F A C E

I N M Y B O Y H O O D I was given to understand that General Gates conquered Burgoyne at Saratoga, but that General Schuyler deserved the credit. There was no use denying it. Bloated by this fluke of a victory, Gates meanly conspired with that everloathsome Conway Cabal to oust Washington and snatch the highest post for himself. But the whole thing petered out most wretchedly for every one so malignantly concerned. Poetic justice overtook the arch-schemer at Camden where, defeated by Cornwallis, he left his leaderless army in the lurch and fled the field. T h e r e his career ended, as any decent person would have it end.

Most Americans have much the same picture. I myself accepted it as authentic over a period of many years of lecturing upon the Founding Fathers. Gates was a sort of historic nuisance, not so treacherous as L e e or Arnold, but bad enough in his own subtle way. Whenever I mentioned his name, my friends drew their patriotic cloaks about them, Brahminlike, unwilling to be defiled. And yet, from time to time I kept turning over in memory the Gates Papers that I had seen in T h e New-York Historical Society when I was in my teens. A story must be there and I promised myself that some day I would tell it. Nobody had ever read those Papers critically in their entirety and with an open mind in the light of other sources great and small in numerous libraries, and out-of-the-way places as well. F o r ten years past I have been studying this voluminous record and wheresoever it might lead, here and abroad. Altogether, it has been a rewarding quest. Visits to historic sites and scenes have added not a little interest; friendly, generous aid has enriched the recollection of all the work involved. In the begin-

X

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ning, I must confess, it seemed akin to the sacrilegious to treat Washington especially with the same rigorous hand I used with lesser figures. After all, I came to feel, the great commander was to his contemporaries a man among men and not the idealized "Father of his Country" that he has been to succeeding generations. " W h o faulteth not, liveth not." I have tried to separate the wheat from the chaff. I have searched out the facts and weighed them impartially, interpreting them with even-balanced justice, regardless of what Bancroft or Fiske, or anybody else, may have said. In reopening the historic house of our national origins, wherein I really love to dwell, I have let in some good wholesome air not only to refresh the rooms but also to clear away the cobwebs here and there. I have had to touch up a picture or two and shift one or more from time-honored places, but always, I trust, with understanding sympathy. Now and then, I have even removed a statue to the attic or downstairs, and it has often pained me to do so. If any reader is aggrieved, I am sorry. I , too, find it hard to change the lines in patriotic pieces which I have learned in childhood. Our early textbooks are tyrants all our lives. Visitors' lists in many a library have yielded their own story of historians' neglect of General Gates. H e left no family to sing his praises in pardonable forgetfulness. Cliques and political rivalries deprived him of his due in life and memories long and bitter have trailed his spirit ever since. This respecter of human personality, whether white, black or red, this soldier-victor at the Revolution's decisive battle in 1 7 7 7 , this man of the world in the best sense of the words, this friend and counsellor of Franklin, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and John Adams, to mention only a few, this leader who stood four-square against all the winds that blew in troubled times deserves to be known for what he was. With characteristic urbanity and modesty he might well have said with Othello: I have done the state some service; and they know't. No more of that; I pray you, in your letters. . . . Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate, Nor set down aught in malice.

PREFACE

XI

It is impossible to name and to thank all who have helped through the long years of research just past, but it would be ungracious if the following were not singled out for a word of particular appreciation: M r . Alexander J. Wall, director of T h e NewYork Historical Society, who introduced me to General Gates, M r . John T . Washbourn, chief of the Society's reading room, and his late father, Mr. Charles Washbourn; D r . Victor H . Paltsits, head of the manuscripts division of the New York Public Library and Mr. Wilmer R. Leech and M r . Edward B. Morrison, of the same division; Mr. Charles Clare, of the Columbia University Library; Dr. St. George L. Sioussat, chief of the division of manuscripts of the Library of Congress, and D r . Thomas P. Martin, of that division; Dr. Lawrence C. Wroth, librarian of the John Carter Brown Library, Providence, R. I.; R. E . Thomas, Esq., of Beeleigh Abbey, Essex, England; the Reverend Frank R. Wilson, rector of St. James's Church, H y d e Park, N. Y.; the Right Reverend Robert E. L . Strider, D.D., bishop of West Virginia; Dr. Dixon Ryan Fox, president of Union College, and Professor Allan Nevins, of Columbia University; the late William L. Clements, and Miss Jane Clark, of his library; M r . Julius H . Tuttle, late librarian of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and M r . W . J. Wheeler, of the Society's library; Captain Dudley W . Knox, U.S.N., chief of the Office of Naval Records, Washington; Colonel H . L. Landers, U.S.A.; M a j o r General William D. Connor, U.S.A.; Mr. Stephen H . P. Pell, of Ticonderoga, N . Y.; and Dr. A. S. W . Rosenbach, of Philadelphia. Finally, I record Maxwell Patterson my late wife, May my enthusiasm for his best.

my indebtedness to my brothers, D r . William and Mr. Robert Cauldwell Patterson, and to Blauvelt Patterson, all of whom .have shared the ideals that distinguished Horatio Gates at SAMUEL W H I T E

Hunter College, New York February io, igqi

PATTERSON

CONTENTS

Part One. The King's "Business, / 7 2 7 - 7 5 I. FOR K I N G A N D C O U N T R Y

3

II. T R A V E L L E R ' S R E S T

26

Part Two. In ^America's Qause, 1775-83 III. W A S H I N G T O N ' S R I G H T H A N D A T C A M B R I D G E 47 IV. S C H U Y L E R , G A T E S , A R N O L D

66

V. A T W A S H I N G T O N ' S R E Q U E S T

99

VI. " B Y T H E V O T E OF E L E V E N S T A T E S " VII. S T I L L W A T E R , OCTOBER

121

SEPTEMBER

6, 1 7 7 7

VIII. S T I L L W A T E R , O C T O B E R

144 7-17, 1777

IX. T H E V I C T O R O F S A R A T O G A

164 ^4

X. W A S H I N G T O N OR G A T E S ?

200

XI. C O N W A Y ' S L E T T E R T O G A T E S

217

XII. T H E C O N C L U S I O N O F T H E W H O L E M A T T E R

232

XIII. G A T E S AS P R E S I D E N T O F T H E W A R B O A R D

251

xiv

CONTENTS

XIV. T H E H I G H L A N D S , BOSTON, P R O V I D E N C E

273

XV. S O U T H E R N WILLOWS

298

X V I . W A S H I N G T O N AND G A T E S AT T H E LAST C A N T O N M E N T

322

Part Three. To the End of the Road,

1783-1806

X V I I . T H E K N I G H T OF T R A V E L L E R ' S R E S T

347

X V I I I . T H E P E A C E OF ROSE H I L L F A R M

369

NOTES

397

BIBLIOGRAPHY

429

INDEX

447

ILLUSTRATIONS

MAJOR GENERAL HORATIO GATES, BY G I L B E R T S T U A R T Courtesy of Commander Edward E. Spafford

FrontisfUce

TRAVELLER'S REST Kindness of Mr. and Mrs. John W. Egan of Charles Town, West Virginia T H E S U R R E N D E R OF B U R G O Y N E , BY J O H N T R U M B U L L Courtesy of the Gallery of Fine Arts, Yale University ROSE H I L L FARM From Thomas Addis Emmet Collection, 8 1 3 5 . Courtesy of the New York Public Library

40

180

370

Tari

One

T H E K I N G ' S BUSINESS, 1 7 2 7 - 7 5

I.

F O R

K I N G

A N D

C O U N T R Y

O N E COLD, raw day in February, 1778, Horace Walpole sat in the spacious library of his Gothic castle, which rambled over Strawberry H i l l on the Thames. T h e literary fop and amateur statesman was musing upon the strange antics of destiny. H e read and reread a letter, which his brother had received, concerning the historic events overseas at Saratoga in the preceding autumn. W a l pole's entry in his journal is important to any one interested in the life and career of the man, who in forcing Burgoyne to surrender turned the tide of the American Revolution. Gates [wrote Walpole] was the son of a housekeeper of the second Duke of Leeds, who, marrying a young husband when she was very old, had this son by him. . . . M y mother's woman was intimate with that housekeeper, and thence I was godfather to her son, though I believe not then ten years old myself. 1 There was a good deal omitted from Walpole's brief jotting regarding General Gates's family history. 2 T h e name, spelled with or without an "s," had appeared in British annals as far back as the fourteenth century. Chaucer's time knew a Thomas Gate of Essex, who was the ancestor of three knights of the realm. Sir Geffrey Gate was lord of the manors of Dengie and Bradwell, in the latter half of the fifteenth century. His daughter, Dorothy, married Sir Thomas Joscelyn and allied her house with the blood of the Black Prince and the third Edward. These French and E n g lish strains mingled again when M a r y Joscelyn became the wife of Peter Gates, of London. T h u s at various times and places the name of Gates was interlinked with the nobility, even with the royalty of England.

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FOR K I N G AND C O U N T R Y

It was Sir John Gate, Sir Geffrey's grandson, who was the first to reach the uplands of glory, from privy councilor in one reign to captain of the guard and sheriff of Essex in the next. With the dissolution of the monasteries in the sixteenth century, he received Beeleigh Abbey as his portion. Sir John was a doughty knight who never hid his light under a bushel. Whether character traits are inheritable or no, this trait in some way survived through the generations to Horatio Gates. W h e r e white-robed priests had supped and told their beads, Sir J o h n Gate and his companions ate, drank, and made merry. T h e n his royal sponsor, Henry, died; a few years afterward, the sickly E d w a r d . With the accession of Mary Tudor, Sir John's lot fell upon evil days. H e supported the luckless L a d y Jane G r e y , the new queen's youthful rival; he entangled himself in Wyatt's revolt. M a r y saw her chance, or some one saw it for her. She dipped her sovereign quill in the year of her L o r d 1 5 5 3 , the first of her reign, and sent L a d y J a n e and her nearest of kin to block and scaffold; Sir John Gate, too, with Wyatt and their fellow conspirators. A l l of Sir John's estates escheated to the crown. As there was no issue, the luster of his name faded with him. Collateral descendants, unknown to history, migrated to New England, 3 where their neighbors remembered at least one of them for a certain cantankerousness. This may have been, to friendlier eyes, simply a high-powered self-will. At any rate, none of the name reached the highroad of renown. W e must wait a full century for another Gates to refurbish the family escutcheon, on the blood-stained field of Saratoga. Tradition, unquestioned these many years, has named Maldon, Essex, as General Gates's birthplace, but there is no authentic record of it. Diligent search of parish registers, usually correct and trustworthy, help us not at all. T h e year of his birth, as commonly assumed, 1 7 2 8 , is incorrect. Horatio Gates was born on the twenty-sixth day of J u l y in the year 1727. 4 A cruel slander, at first whispered and later in print, sought to make Horatio Gates the natural son of Horace Walpole, but

FOR

KING AND C O U N T R Y

5

Walpole's own journal confounds the slanderers, even if a paper of administration bearing the signature of Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury, were not extant. This document affirms the fact that Horatio Gates was "the natural and lawful Son of Robert Gates late of the Parish of East Greenwich in the County of Kent, deceased." 5 General Gates's parents named him after the Walpoles, uncle and nephew. Some have said that his father was a butler for the distinguished Leeds family—and he may have been; some, that he was a clergyman—and it may be that he was a lay preacher in the Wesleyan movement; some, that he was this, that, or the other. A l l we really know is that the elder Gates became a surveyor of customs at Greenwich. In truth, Robert Gates was only a faint image of his forebears. H i s outstanding characteristic was a slight ability to move ahead in the world, a characteristic which reappeared, much developed, in his son. Dorothea Gates, the general's mother, was a strong character, demanding Horatio's attention long after he had fought in the King's service. T h e " d r i v e " in his life derived from her. Perhaps the fact that he was the only child of her second marriage explains her special interest in him, an interest warm, though querulous, until the end of her days. T h e impressionable years of Horatio Gates's life were passed in an age-old atmosphere of culture and long-accepted social sanction. T h e trappings of the profession of arms were round about him. T h e aristocratic way of life was everywhere present for a boy well placed, though not of wealth, to note and cultivate. Very likely he was familiar with Beeleigh Abbey. H e may have indulged in reverie over the neighboring Allington Castle, seat of the W y a t t s with whose fate and fortune Sir John Gate had sealed his days. H e may have gazed at the great Leeds Castle, redolent with memories of the Plantagenets, the Lollards, and more and plenty along the centuries. If it was Maldon, after all, where the lad first dreamed his dreams, the countryside was not without its vista of historic associations. Saxon and Dane, Norman and English, had trodden the highways of Essex and, awe-struck, stood before the

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FOR K I N G AND

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ancient graystone churches that comforted the simple folk and warned their masters. W e know nothing directly of Horatio Gates's schooling. W e know a good deal indirectly. W h e n he wanted to do so, he could speak and write with clearness and with force. O n occasion, he marshaled his ideas better than many a college graduate of today. H e picked up a little Latin. Soldiers of fortune during the Revolution were fond of writing him in French. History was a favorite study j verse and fiction were diversions. T h e Bible left an indelible impression upon his thought and style. H i s intimacy with the minor literati was close, but he was not a bookish person, much less a scholar, as some have said; on the other hand, what he read he retained and put to use, often with felicity and usually with effect. U p o n his final departure f r o m E n g l a n d to make his home in America, his wife packed thirteen books, mostly religious, with their household goods. Of formal military training he had none. Experience was his teacher. T o a mind clear if not profound, to a body healthy if not robust, nature added the g i f t of a dignified bearing, not at all stiff, as well as a countenance readily alight with sympathetic understanding. H i s physique was attractive, but aged rather early and was never in any sense inspiring like Washington's or Schuyler's. Handsome, debonair, without pretense, young Gates had a winsome manner, kindly and helpful, which drew men and women to him in any social circle. H i s sense of humor and ready laughter were lifelong assets. In a time of spiritual decay and of low moral standards, Horatio Gates lived his younger manhood with little to foster lofty vision, but with a character singularly sound, forthright, and unafraid. In the mid-eighteenth century, the E a r l of H a l i f a x , uncle of L o r d North of unhallowed memory in American history, was not the least a m o n g British statesmen, able and sober enough to accomplish things. H i s name graced the new capital of H i s Majesty's province of N o v a Scotia. As president of the board of trade, he exercised wide authority. With the D u k e of Newcastle, secretary

FOR KING A N D C O U N T R Y

7

of state for North America, and the Duke of Cumberland, captaingeneral of the King's army, Halifax controlled the military affairs of the empire. A letter from Halifax's agent in America, the Hon. Edward Cornwallis, governor of Nova Scotia, must have been an event in any British household. Such a letter came when Horatio Gates was just past his majority and in His Majesty's service overseas. Governor Cornwallis had promoted him upon merit alone to a captain-lieutenancy in Warburton's famous regiment, though Gates's well-known connections may have helped his excellency make up his mind. As there was now an opportunity to purchase a company, as the phrase was, the governor kindly notified the elder Gates and urged him to take advantage of it. It seemed a lucky chance for Horatio. A t a cost of only £4.00, he would be assured of an income of 6s. 6d. a day. Unwittingly, Cornwallis was bestowing his high favor upon a young man destined to lead an American army against the governor's nephew Charles, then a student at Eton. The wheels of the royal military machine ground slowly. It was not until September, 1754, that His Gracious Majesty, King George II, attached his name and seal to Captain Gates's commission, clear today as in the hour of its issue. Gates's time was not given to things military exclusively. Socially minded, he enjoyed the companionship of the drawing room as well as of the barracks. H e had tasted literature and wine and could hold his own in the witty but not too edifying talk that went round. It was in Nova Scotia, where he was stationed, that the captain became a friend of General Robert Monckton, younger brother of Viscount Galway, of Yorkshire, and lieutenant governor of Annapolis Royal. It was also in Nova Scotia that he met and courted Elizabeth, elder daughter of Lieutenant Philipps, who was serving his King and country with fidelity if not with the grace of powerful connections. At no house in Annapolis Royal did young Horatio feel more at ease than at Elizabeth's. H e r family came from the landed gentry of the southern counties of England. At Totnes, in Devon, Thomas Parker had owned a fairly large estate, which he

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FOR K I N G AND

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devised, share and share alike, to his three surviving daughters, one of whom had married and gone with her soldier-husband overseas. In Nova Scotia three children had been born to the Philippses: a boy Erasmus, named for his father, and two daughters, Elizabeth and Ann. H o w long the courtship lasted we do not know, but on the twentieth of October, 1754, the Reverend Jonathan Breynton, of Halifax, made Horatio and Elizabeth man and wife. 6 In education, Elizabeth Gates was superior to many of her female contemporaries, perhaps most of them, for educated girls filled small corners in eighteenth-century households at best. H e r letters compare well with others', with Martha Washington's, for instance. This is not saying a great deal, as anyone who has strained weary eyes over the yellowing pages of the first First Lady will readily testify. Elizabeth's thought-patterns were of her day and station, but she could express herself with clarity and with force. Of course she confined her correspondence to her family and intimate friends. These were her social horizons. Born in the New World as she was, she remained British to the core, with an upper-class consciousness, in part inherited but in larger part acquired, as her ambitious husband moved higher in military favor. Although Elizabeth's aspirations kept to the rhythm of his advancement, her character continued unsullied. She never lost her head in the merry swirl of social life. Fortunately, she was staunch and stable enough to keep Horatio from going too far along the downward path of dalliance with drink and the gaming table. As the wife of a young army officer, Elizabeth Gates had qualifications which were ideal in essential respects. "Whither thou goest, I will go," guided her steps through the coming eventful years. She had a mind of her own and a will to be heard in all family councils, but she was responsible for holding the marriage bark on an even keel amid the shoals in which so many in the society of her time struggled and sank. For nearly thirty years the Gateses lived out their lives faithfully together, with as much of quiet domesticity as his gypsy military life permitted. All told,

FOR K I N G A N D C O U N T R Y

9

the youthful couple had made no mistake, his urbanity and spirit of conciliation making up for what she lacked in sweetness and light. 7 Not long after their marriage, the captain and his bride left for New York, whither he had been ordered and where he would soon sniff political air which he had not breathed in England or in Nova Scotia. Socially, the atmosphere was delightfully familiar. The gayety of the provincial town, which hugged the Battery but crept up a mile or so to the Common, now City H a l l Park, gained much with the Gateses' coming. Elizabeth and Horatio entered upon a round of festivities with untiring zest. She liked dancing and mounted a spirited horse, but she suffered from the jealous criticism of other wives, whose husbands were not so fortunate as hers in enjoying the cordial ear of their superiors. On her own account, she was probably a bit snobbish. As usual, the captain escaped feminine censure, though there is room for belief that he incurred the envious ill will of some of his brother officers. The principal reason for whatever genuine bad feeling existed arose largely from Gates's association with a group of brilliant young radicals, all Yale men, who belonged to the W h i g Club. Many a delightful hour Gates reserved to himself from the social life that Elizabeth and he enjoyed together. William Smith, the younger, John Morin Scott, and William Livingston were "good fellows," as well as legal lights and intellectuals, and far from the least among budding politicians. Though twenty years had passed since the trial of John Peter Zenger for publishing "Seditious Libels" in his Weekly Journal, the tumult and the shouting had not died entirely. Gates must have heard of it at the Whig Club. The provincial authorities, he learned, had taken serious objection to certain articles which young Whigs had written and the German immigrant printer had set in type. So serious, indeed, was this official resentment that Zenger had been sent to jail and was only freed after a bitterly contested court battle, which witnessed the disbarment of William Smith,

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the elder, for daring to criticize the validity of the appointment of the trial judges. Long memories were still recalling, in 1754, how Zenger had lent his columns to utterances well calculated "to raise Factions and Tumults among the people . . . inflaming their minds with Contempt of His Majesty's Government, and greatly disturbing the Peace thereof." In the early fifties there had been another furore; this time, over the establishment of King's College, the Columbia of today, under Church of England auspices. The contention of the Presbyterian Whigs, who opposed it, was that such an institution should be nonsectarian—a novel point of view for that day. Anglican Tories were as firm for church control. With voice and pen the issue was joined by both parties. In the Independent Reflector and the New York Mercury, Scott, William Smith, the younger, and Livingston fought the question, with vitriol on their quill points. The later importance of the Zenger trial and acquittal is not difficult to note, as one turns the pages of those journals of mid-eighteenth-century New York. When Gates reached his post at the mouth of the Hudson, the warfare of words had ended but much of the smell of battle's smoke lingered in the air. The compromise effected was still being talked about at the Whig Club. A Church of England clergyman had been made president of King's College, but representation on the board of trustees had been accorded the opposition. True Whigs snorted their disdain and declined to soil their robes on the threshold of so Tory a seat of learning. Livingston put through as neat a piece of politics as a professional might delight to see. He signed a petition to the King for a royal charter for the new college, but quietly tried to scuttle the infant school by having half its funds diverted to the erection of a new jail and pesthouse, far more worthy objects for public funds, as he thought. If it had not been for a land grant from Trinity Church and that foundation's fostering care, King's College might have left a name and little more. Captain Gates had every opportunity to read and ponder the "Watch Tower" column of the Mercury and the vivid pages of the

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Reflector. It was strange reading for a young Englishman, an officer of the King, who had been brought up in the Anglican Church and in politics of the high Tory type. His new friends spared no feelings in their prolific outpourings. One can almost hear young Livingston chuckle as he showed Gates the tirade against "superstition, bigotry, priestcraft, tyranny, servitude, public mismanagement and dishonesty in public office." There were other outbursts, attacking the establishment of any religious sect by law—a footnote on religious freedom long before Jefferson wrote it into the statutes of Virginia. There were diatribes against all meddling by the British Parliament with strictly local affairs in America. This flaming young radical, William Livingston, was a member of a great conservative family in Dutchess County, on the Hudson, but he pointed with pride to his own pregnant words upholding "the inestimable value of liberty." It was through this future governor of New Jersey that Horatio Gates first heard the Livingston name. One day it would play a large and romantic part in his life. 8 There was something about these reformers—they were around Gates's own age—which gripped his imagination and set him thinking upon the political scene from an entirely different angle. Within a score of tumultuous years, he came to apply young Livingston's doctrine of liberty not to a community of a few hundreds but to a nation of several millions. Other matters of nearer importance claimed his attention in the immediate present. Gates had never known Europe when it was not an armed camp, nor would he ever know it as anything else, to the end of his days. From the Walpoles at the beginning of the century to Pitt at its close, the guns of war boomed over the Western World as well as over the lands across the Channel. America felt the repercussions. Events had made the times ripe for larger issues. While the interior of North America had been witnessing the exploration and settlement of Frenchmen, who in the labors of L a Salle, Champlain, and Cartier really laid the foundations of a colonial empire, Britain's discontented lower and middle classes

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had been coming to the Atlantic seaboard, from Massachusetts to Georgia, and gradually spreading inland toward the French possessions and trading posts in the Ohio R i v e r Valley. When war broke out between England and France, their colonists in America loyally took up the quarrel, with a useless spilling of blood. T h e Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748, settled little or nothing with finality. At his capital in Williamsburg, Virginia, Governor Robert Dinwiddie reflected upon this ever-perplexing problem. Having turned it over in his mind often enough, he thought he had a solution, which in its way was as drastic as his exposure of corruption had been in his West Indian service days. H e decided to end French "encroachments" in the Ohio Valley by sending a young Virginia surveyor named George Washington, with a bristling message to the French commandant at Great Meadows, demanding immediate surrender to H i s Britannic Majesty's authority. M a j o r Washington went—and returned—the French flag still floating in the breeze. 9 In the homeland, the Duke of Newcastle, not too well informed, had been doing a wisp of thinking on Dinwiddie's problem. T h e governor's failure to oust the French "intruders" baffled his grace. H e therefore determined to invite expert advice. In Captain Gates he believed he might find it. H a d not the young officer seen service overseas? Never mind whether in Virginia or west of the Alleghenies or only in Nova Scotia and N e w York. On whose recommendation Newcastle acted we do not know. When Gates stepped into the great man's presence, he saw at the same table L o r d Chancellor Hardwicke and the E a r l of Holdernesse. H e r e was a rare opportunity to preen one's wings, but Gates did nothing of the sort, rather acting as in a manor born. N o derogatory remark passed his lips; no slur or boast of superior knowledge of the terrain over which Washington had marched. On the other hand, as always, there was no false modesty about Captain Gates. When he knew a thing he admitted it. T o the day of his death, he neither pretended nor evaded when he did not

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know. Nevertheless, on the screen of Newcastle's ignorance, whatever young Gates had to say was probably magnified. 10 When the conference broke up, only a dim, uncertain light had been shed upon a wilderness 3,000 miles away. Braddock's fateful expedition of 1 7 5 5 was the result. T h e Duke of Cumberland had the guiding hand in this new adventure. H e picked E d w a r d Braddock as the leader and promised him all the aid that disdain of Indian warfare and reliance upon colonial cooperation could provide. Through more than twoscore years, General Braddock, now sixty, had rendered noteworthy service with the Coldstream Guards in the L o w Countries. At Culloden, Fontenoy, and elsewhere he had drawn a valiant sword. Membership in the Coldstreams alone stamped one with the insignia of Caesar. Elevated to the rank of major general, he was called back from voluntary exile on the Continent, whither his habits—gambling the least of them—had forced him to retire. 1 1 T h e subordinate personnel of Newcastle's expeditionary force merited the high tribute that the reticent Washington paid their valor. Sir Peter Halket, Gates's superior officer, was a stalwart figure, an experienced soldier, while Colonel Thomas Gage, commanding the advance, was a scion of the Irish peerage and the future royal governor of Massachusetts. Gage was the captain's ever-courteous friend as well as comrade-in-arms. Braddock's rank and file were regulars of all ages, youth to middle life, with nondescripts and conscripts from the slums of England and the bogs of Ireland. America, it was expected, would add a large quota of militia. T h e Indians would trail along in their own inimitable way. European civilization sanctioned warfare, but not slaughter. When Captain Gates left New York to join his command under Braddock, his young wife stayed on a 300-acre estate at White Stone, L o n g Island, as the guest of a well-to-do merchant, Francis Lewis, a Welsh immigrant and graduate of the famous Westminster School in England. A son, Morgan, born the year before, enlivened the Lewis household. In later days, he was to serve Elizabeth's husband as a faithful and devoted aide. Captain Gates learned that Will's Creek, in Western Pennsyl-

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vania, had been picked as the rendezvous. There the Ohio Company had a trading post; and many men in public life had an interest in the Ohio Company. A route through Virginia would have cost less in troops and treasure, but what were troops and treasure to a self-seeking officialdom bent on future gains beyond all imagining? Military projects other than the reduction of Fort Duquesne were in the offing. A brief few months at the most, and the ramparts at Niagara, Ticonderoga, Crown Point, and Quebec, as well as those on the Monongahela, must behold the French ensign no more. It was not until mid-April that Gates reached the Shenandoah Valley. T h e vision glorious so gripped his spirit that time did not dim it. Fort Cumberland, he found, was of logs and topped a hill 1,200 feet above the Potomac. Indian braves crowded round with their squaws, friendly but enigmatic. Braddock took pains to make their friendliness real and doubly certain. H e let it be known that H i s Majesty meant to restore their land to them; the wicked French had taken it and must give it up. T h e English were their brethren; all hostile thoughts must be interred under the tall trees of the forest. On their part, the savage chiefs pledged their loyalty to the Great King for his generous promise of £ 5 for every enemy scalp. Before Gates had smelt powder, the word spread that several families had been surprised within four miles of the fort and twelve persons scalped and butchered. In his essay on Napoleon, Emerson observes that it is a sign of genius to know what to do next. Braddock was no Buonaparte, to be sure, but he was not too proud to ask questions. More, he could take advice. H e talked things over with the twenty-threeyear-old Washington, whom he had made a member of his military family when the high command at home had stupidly decreed that all colonial commissions were lower in rank than those of the royal establishment. T h e Virginian's counsel was poor enough, heaven knows: T h e general should divide his forces and send a column forward with artillery and light stores, but hold a division in the rear with heavy ordnance and baggage. Braddock acted

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accordingly, and professional easy chairs have condemned him for it ever since. T h e bloody flux soon filled the hospital at Will's Creek. In the first week of June, the sick roll was increasing daily. If grog had been plentiful, complaint might have been less, as man and beast strode over deep gullies and halted in slimy woodland stretches. Captain Gates saw Daniel Morgan, a nineteen-year-old teamster, and others drive their spavined nags, which traitorous sharpers had furnished for a pittance of blood money. But, stupidity and cupidity aside, a truly amazing feat was accomplished. At what price, who in the military hierarchy cared a farthing or a sou? T w o miles west of Turtle Creek, an estuary of the Monongahela, Gates's company pitched camp with their comrades, at L o n g Run. T h e fords had yet to be crossed. Engineers set to work, as scouts sped off through the forest. B y two in the afternoon of J u l y 9, Captain Gates was mounted and advancing with Colonel Gage to the second ford. Croghan's savages and Gist's Virginians were in the van. Presently, a hundred and more sinewy forms glided among trees and underbrush. T h e Canadians and the French followed the gaily garbed Beaujeu. At a signal—a bright cap thrown in air— deadly lead and arrows rained from every thicket. It was the first time in his life that Gates had been under fire. F o r a while he kept his saddle and directed his men. Traditional tactics dominated Braddock's military thinking. Linear formation in open spaces it must be, wilderness or no wilderness. His redcoats made sharpshooting profitable. A t two hundred yards Captain Gates could not see a flushed French face or a sleek, coppery body. F i r m , brave ranks shook, reeled, and broke. Halket, Gage, Gates, and other officers tried to hold their commands intact, but all their efforts were unavailing. When one by one they fell, the rank and file quitted the field to fumble their way back, down the crimsoned road to where Jumonville now stands. 12 Gates never specified just how he had been wounded, but it is

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certain that as he lay in a pool of blood amid the entangled human mass he felt the kindly hands of a common soldier, one Penfold, who lifted him and carried him from the field—an act long to be remembered with gratitude. 13 Washington survived, feverstricken but unwounded; Sir Peter Halket went to his death; his son, likewise. Gage dropped, bleeding. Colonel Charles L e e , a soldier of fortune, was one of the few who escaped—escaped to become Gates's dubious friend as well as a thorn in Washington's side. Braddock might have come through untouched had not the brother of a Pennsylvanian he had sabered brought him in mortal agony to the earth. So the story, at least. A s life ebbed, the general feelingly asked for the sick and the wounded. Before many hours, near the run that bears his name, he died. In the middle of the forest road the haunting cadences of the Book of Common Prayer fell from the lips of Washington. 1 4 Through the coming seven years, until the early spring of 1762, Captain Gates lived the soldier's life with ever-widening horizons. June, 1756, saw him in New Y o r k , able and ready to pay the balance on his commission. H i s W h i g acquaintances were still in the city—and still as vociferous as they had been two years before, battling against royal encroachment upon American political rights, as they defined them. William Smith was eminent at the bar, with honors crowning him year after year, despite his diatribes against the prerogatives he detested. Scott was now an alderman—his tongue and his pen hard-biting for the principles he cherished. Livingston was bending his tall and graceless figure over plans to oust those deep-dyed Tories, the D e Lanceys, from public office. Just as bitter as when Gates first met him, he continued his pungent attacks on Parliamentary interference with local affairs in America. Horatio Gates was at a rare school, absorbing democratic doctrine more than he realized at the time. H e kept up his contacts, too, with friends in England as well as in America—the great and the not-so-great, but, not yet, all sorts and conditions of men. General James Abercrombie, commander in chief of the royal American

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forces, was one of the most devoted of his correspondents. T h e letters that passed between them give us swift glimpses of the vast military schemes that were involving Western Europe. Abercrombie's immediate interest was only the American theater of a world war. In the late summer of 1 7 5 6 , he wrote Captain Gates from his Albany headquarters that the French had fallen back from Crown Point to Ticonderoga, on L a k e Champlain. If Britain's provincials had had brains enough, the general observed scornfully, they might have cut the enemy's force of 3,500 in two by marching boldly against them, holding a small detachment in reserve to "amuse them in their retreat." Since the Americans were unwilling to cooperate with His Majesty, Abercrombie dryly reflected, "let them try it themselves but have regulars to secure the forts in case they should be repulsed." A high-ranking tutor of a different order from the W h i g Club! H i s instructions upon the vagaries of the American temperament in northern N e w Y o r k and incidentally upon the geography of that section would be valuable two decades hence, when fate had made Captain Gates of the royal army General Gates of the Continental A r m y , battling British regulars and Hessian mercenaries at Stillwater, on the U p p e r Hudson. Oddly enough, in June, 1 7 5 7 , Gates was on duty at Stillwater, near the spot at Saratoga where destiny was to place in his hands the defeated sword of General Burgoyne. In the following spring, Captain Gates commanded Fort Herkimer at German Flatts, in the Mohawk Valley. It was here that two incidents occurred which showed him in a characteristic light. When a deserter came running in with word of the hostile approach of a party of French and Indians, Gates paid little attention to him except to warn near-by inhabitants to be on the watch. H e had been deceived before by the wily savages. T h e settlements only pooh-poohed the commandant's suggestion and spurned his help. Rumors of attacks were an old story. T h e Oneidas had been around all morning and nothing had happened. Within half an hour the deserter had something more to say.

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T h e enemy were trailing the woods in a menacing mood. This time Gates decided to parley no longer. H e ordered a detachment to march from the blockhouse nearest the dwelling first assaulted. A l l in vain! T h e whole settlement had been wiped out, except for a lone wagoner who had fled to his housetop and shot a redskin who was pursuing him. As evening fell, Gates adopted a "watchful waiting" policy and did not attempt to avenge the slaughter in the dark. T h e Oneidas were at home in the wilderness by night as well as by day. At the risk of his superior's censure, he assumed full responsibility himself and declined to jeopardize his men's lives in a punitive foray doomed to be futile anyway. While at German Flatts Captain Gates made the acquaintance of Hans Yost Herkimer, the wealthy head of a powerful German family which has given to history the redoubtable Nicholas, whose heroic death at Fort Stanwix a decade later fills a bright page in America's textbooks. T h e Herkimers were holding up the hands of Sir William Johnson, lord of a vast domain; but Hans Yost was industrious on his own account. H e was selling rum to the Indians in large quantities, so large that the Indians saw redder than their skins. T h e captain of H i s Majesty's Independent Company stood this liquor traffic as long as he could. With not a little moral courage, he dispatched a strong protest to the famous "Johnson of the Mohawk." T h e shrewd Sir William, fearing to offend the Herkimers, pocketed the message. Captain Gates had merely added one more item to the source material of history. As a footnote to Gates's career so far—a note significant of his social station—Lord Sackville sent a delightful bit of news to the young captain's father at Greenwich, in the fall of 1758. Horatio had behaved himself very well. H i s diligence must soon win high honor. Less than a score of years later L o r d Sackville, better known as L o r d Germain, would be doing his best to stay the American Revolutionary forces under Robert Gates's son at distant Stillwater. T h e year 1758 requires a second footnote—a personal one. Elizabeth Gates gave birth to a son. T h e boy was named after

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his grandfather for family reasons but after General Robert Monckton for friendship's sake. It was politic, too. Not the least fascinating chapters in his father's life lilt the leitmotif of "dear Bob." His parents idolized him; his friends rarely omitted some charming reference to him and his ways. General Monckton loved the lad as his own son. 15 With the N e w Y e a r came a far-reaching change in duty, from up-state N e w Y o r k to Fort Pitt. Memories must have crowded upon Captain Gates as he rode with his men toward the site of Fort Duquesne. Just four years had passed since he lay wounded on Braddock's field not f a r distant. 16 Gates now became brigade major, or military secretary, to General Stanwix, who commanded H i s Majesty's troops in Pennsylvania. M o r e important still, the year following, was his association with Stanwix's successor, General Monckton, whom he served in the same capacity. Sir J e f f r e y Amherst, not yet or for many years L o r d J e f f r e y , had taken Abercrombie's place as commander in chief and brought the wounded Monckton down from his glorious campaign with W o l f e at Quebec, to take over the quieter sector of the King's dominions along the Delaware River. T h e city of Philadelphia, where Monckton and Gates made their headquarters, was in 1760 a town of red-brick houses and redbrick sidewalks extending two miles or so on the Delaware's west bank and inland several squares. It was far from the sleepy Quaker village of the past, for it had grown to be a rich and prosperous blend of the newer commercial and the older religious flavors, with its slums and its grogshops as numerous as its meetinghouses of every faith. It was in this bustling city of 12,000, America's metropolis, that General Monckton and his self-willed subordinate became intimates. T h e next dozen years were to witness the rise and fall of one of the most beautiful relationships in Gates's long life. T h e bachelor commandant found Mrs. Gates a charming hostess during relief hours, and the chat of her husband, with a glass of wine, made the time pass merrily and well. A year younger than

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his superior, Gates was treated as an equal by this kin of Viscount Galway. T h e r e was something attractive in Horatio Gates to cement such a friendship with this distinguished soldier, as widely heralded f o r his deeds of valor as for his high command. While Gates was on duty in Pennsylvania he formed another acquaintance which reached full flower in the trying times ahead. A t Carlisle lived a small lad, named John Armstrong after his father, an immigrant Scot, who would one day quit the royal colors, like the major himself, and fight against his king. Young Armstrong was about Bob's age, when he toddled out to smile into Gates's face. Their paths did not cross again until the great days of 1 7 7 6 and later, when romance mingled with military glory. M a j o r Gates's service under Monckton proved invaluable for its wide experience. H e helped pacify the Indians and did much to persuade Pennsylvanians, Marylanders, and Virginians to raise troops in their own defense against the red men. T h e spell of the Society of Friends had lost much of its effectiveness. 17 When Chief Justice D e Lancey of New Y o r k died, in 1760, he left a vacancy not easy to fill. A s acting governor, the justly eminent Cadwallader Colden 1 8 had the award of this prize post in his very T o r y hands. Though the father of Gates's friend, William Smith, declined, other candidates were not lacking, and the contest waxed hot—so hot that the ministry 3,000 miles away felt the heat and ordered a dark horse to come over from Massachusetts. I n the political as well as judicial shake up, Monckton became governor of the province. 19 M a j o r Gates's removal with Monckton to N e w Y o r k was especially pleasing to his young wife. Official circles offered a good deal of diverting interest, and the city's life fitted Elizabeth's temperament admirably. T o go horseback riding with the élite— what could be more delightful? A r m y officers have always ranked high in social registers. T h e bright young men of the W h i g Club soon became the major's friends once more and the ladies of their very respectable families were as charming hostesses as in any city of the land. With a world in arms, politics was to the fore of course. An eve-

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ning with William Livingston, William Smith, John Morin Scott, and other scintillating radicals could hardly be dull. Horatio Gates's conservative upbringing received many a fresh shock. From a provincially minded Englishman he was in the way of becoming a man of the world in the better sense. Certainly he grew in mental stature as his outlook broadened. His definition of a gentleman became more inclusive. Titled folk now seemed only a small part of society, more democratically interpreted.20 For some time past, more or less sub rosa, England had been aiding Frederick of Prussia against his surrounding foes, even while it bent its energies to wrest America from King Louis. For the tight little island looked upon France as its particular enemy. As events seemed ripe for a general offensive, Monckton was ordered to the West Indies, where several French islands baked in the semitropical sun. Elizabeth was none too happyj the major would surely go along, with the future all unknown. During the weeks of preparation for his new post, Governor Monckton leaned heavily upon Major Gates, who advised him on questions of policy as well as relieved him of administrative detail. Indeed the forceful aide was a little too vigorous, a bit too Whiggish in his counsel. The high Tories were incensed. They put the blame for many of the governor's decisions, which they disliked, at Gates's door. Tongues wagged and wagged until they were saying that the major was Monckton's "everything." The aristocratic order was disgusted with his "mean capacity and trifling intellect." The "republican cabal," or progressives as we should call them, were plainly using him to worm themselves into the good graces of the governor, a Tory of Tories through family and station. Gates's special meanness was his insistence that Lieutenant Governor Colden post his bond, with security for all the perquisites of his office during Monckton's absence. But Major Gates had gone too far, for his easy-going chief apologized, returned Colden's bond, and accepted his unpledged word as a gentleman. A lesson here for Horatio Gates. In November, 1761, Gates sailed with Monckton and several thousand troops for Martinique. Two months later they bivouacked

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on the island shore. Before January changed to February the French had retired on all sides. "Our General," read a message to the war office, "in a cool deliberate way . . . carried everything with less loss than could be expected." Major Gates survived unscathed. Meanwhile Mrs. Gates and Bob had gone to England. There was a difference in viewpoint between General Monckton and his brigade major, which is worth touching upon, if only because a similar difference developed between Gates and Washington. Monckton would not order a soldier to march without express command from the civilian authorities at home. They, he held, were responsible for broad policy and military strategy; he was simply their agent in the field. Major Gates, on the contrary, took the position of the Frenchman, Danton. A military leader must assume responsibility in emergencies, which are bound to arise. H e must be ready to act on the spot and with audacity. General Monckton intrusted his official report to Major Gates, who delivered it to the Earl of Egremont, one of His Majesty's principal secretaries of state. It was a long and hazardous voyage. Monckton gave high praise to his men and remembered especially his young aide. F e w commanders have ever been more generous than Robert Monckton, dissolute in life but without a trace of meanness. H e commended Gates to His Majesty's favor, as "a deserving officer." Later he sent Gates a personal word, hoping that he would come back with a lieutenant colonel's commission.21 Major Gates remained in England for some time after his return from Martinique. Toward the close of April, 1762, he received a note from the W a r Office. A very pleasing note it was. General Monckton's neat compliment had been quickening leaven. His Majesty had appointed Gates to a majority in Boscawen's famous regiment. H e was happy and so was Elizabeth. When the appointment was first studied, the advantages seemed to outweigh whatever disadvantages there might be. But not for long, for acceptance, it was perceived, meant severing connection with his Independent Company. This, however, had already practically taken place, since he had not accompanied his command to Havana a few

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months previously. H e did not then realize how lucky he was. Most of his men never left the Antilles. Fevers took a terrible toll. There was, of course, in the appointment the high favor of the King, a consideration not lightly to be ignored. Still, Gates preferred service in His Majesty's forces in America, rather than with Boscawen's royal command in England. T h e American scene had entered into his blood. Then, too, the newly proffered commission brought a stipend smaller than what he was receiving as captain and brigade major. Clouds of preferment had precious little of silver in their lining. As the aspiring young officer brooded over his lot, the thought came to him that a word from Lord Ligonier might put " D e a r Amherst" in a mood to add another deserving man to his staff. Amherst had served Ligonier as aide-de-camp in other days and not unlikely had been helped by the master general of ordnance. T h e noble lord had vast influence in his adopted country's military service and he had a kindly heart toward ambition. Major Gates accordingly waited upon L o r d Ligonier, prepared to drive straight to the point. Amherst should be willing to do something, with Monckton and Ligonier backing a request. And Ligonier felt the same way about it. Perhaps a lieutenant colonelcy might be had, even though counter to strict adherence to custom. But what is military custom in the game of political preferment? A nice adjustment might be effected if the proper persons were interested. Five days later, the Honorable Charles Townshend sealed a message to Amherst and handed it to M a j o r Gates to deliver in person. Sir Jeffrey's prestige must have risen in the major's mind, as he and his wife packed their belongings. With young Bob they prepared to recross the Atlantic. T h e word to Amherst must prove an open sesame. Dazzling, indeed, had been Sir Jeffrey's success in recent years—the more so as it appeared against Abercrombie's failure. Three short years after Braddock's defeat Amherst had taken Fort Duquesne, with Ticonderoga and Crown Point on Lake Champlain shortly afterwards. Under his leadership British

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arms had triumphed over Montcalm at Quebec. At the death of " H a l f - m a d " W o l f e , General Monckton, his second in command, had invested the city. Sir J e f f r e y Amherst was the man of the hour. Today his name is kept alive in a sprightly song lustily sung by college boys, much more interested in a football victory than in the conquest of an empire. T h e course of military politics soon paralleled the course of true love. Gates had but landed in America when he learned that Amherst had appointed someone else to the coveted place on his staff. It was more than an ordinary disappointment, for there were signs that hostilities might soon cease, when the prospects for further service would be far from bright. Reduction in military establishments is an aftermath of warfare. Gates had little enough for the support of his family. At Christmas time word reached the major that through an accommodating shift from one regiment to another the gentleman whom Amherst had appointed might be satisfied to make way for Gates. T h e able Boscawen had heard of his plight and was trying to straighten the matter out. H e had even taken the trouble to bring the problem before the war secretary, who promised to lay it on the table of King George himself. Characteristically enough, such a piece of long-distance official patchwork, not to mention the ethics of it, suited Horatio Gates not at all. H e determined to take his family back to England, to the source whence the milk and honey of advancement surely flowed. Sir J e f f r e y , however, must first grant permission. H o w would he feel about it, great as he was? With his customary directness, Gates sought a personal interview with the commander in chief; but he accomplished nothing. H e next went to Amherst's son, Colonel William. Perhaps he could move the general. Alas! H i s father was hard as flint. Gates must not think of leaving America. Grave personal consequences might arise—especially much inconvenience in regard to his pay. H o w graciously realistic Sir J e f f r e y could be! Perhaps there was a post in another part of the country, to which the major might care to go for the winter. Amherst, like Washington years afterwards, was irked by the thought

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that Gates had gone over his head to get what he wanted. Suavely prudent, Sir Jeffrey suggested that if the major persisted, it might be well for him to have a surgeon's certificate, for appearance's sake at least. Immediately upon receipt of Amherst's note, Gates penned a sharp reply. The ink ran freely. His boldness was amazing. Setting all subterfuges aside, where they belonged, he informed the commander in chief that his sole desire was to return to England. As for the surgeon's certificate for a disability which did not exist, he spurned the suggestion for what it was. T h e forceful note brought results. The powerful Amherst drew in his horns and meekly surrendered—not to a mere major, of course, but to the strong backing he assuredly had. On the very day of Gates's writing, Sir Jeffrey's permission went forth through the general's aide. H e repeated his advice that Gates stay where he was, but, if he must go, here was his leave, with a " G o d bless you" for good measure. 22

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was that of a tired traveler, who had seen much but had hoped against hope to see more. For the time being the Gateses settled in Gerrard Street, London, where the major tried to make some kind of pattern out of his jig-saw life. He was in his middle thirties, with a devoted and ambitious wife, who like himself adored their son of five summers. The future of "dear Bob" weighed with particular heaviness on both his parents. Though he did not realize it, Gates was becoming the victim of frustration, complicated by a growing distrust of the Old World. A strange, haunting feeling of withdrawal from his friends was creeping over his spirit. He wrote General Cornwallis, his first helpful patron, now far away at Gibraltar. He posted another note to General Monckton. It was a very personal note. Forthright as ever, he reviewed his case. Six weeks had already passed since his return to England, and still no back pay. Monckton had been remiss, very remiss. What had he been doing about it? The night before, and again that morning, Gates had begged to see Lord Holland, the paymaster general j but only an indifferent response was the major's reward. "This, Sir," he penned Monckton, "you must think too Cool a reply to One in the unhappy Predicament I stand in, whose circumstances will not admit Delay." Lord Galway's easy-going brother now bestirred himself and sent Gates a letter to present at the door of the Honorable Welbore Ellis. The new secretary of war might be more sympathetic, or more efficient, than his predecessor. With the letter Gates took a carefully worded statement of his military service—twelve long years in the rank of captain. He mentioned the fact that his com-

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mission had cost him the tidy sum of £900 and he threw into high relief the further fact that he had suffered much for the King. T h e very bad wound he had sustained in the sharp encounter under Braddock, and the incidental loss of all his horses and baggage, were not forgotten. Furthermore, he recalled for Secretary Ellis's benefit that he had been at Martinique with the great Monckton, Lord Galway's kin, and had carried to London the important news of the fall of Port Royale. H o w soon the war office would act was at the secretary's pleasure. Not even a Monckton dared say when. Nevertheless, Major Gates's memorial should bring results. General Monckton's superscription was plain upon it, and Monckton's fame was high. For clarity and forcefulness, with reasonable modesty and restraint Gates's paper was a model of effective English. When he willed to do it, Horatio Gates pressed the pen of a ready writer. Before the turn of the year Gates received notice of a 25-percent reduction from his expected stipend. The gods of war, however, seemed anxious to show a little pity, for with the notice came " A True-Copy" of the King's favor, addressed to " O u r Right Trusty and Well-beloved Councillor Henry Lord Holland Paymaster General of our Guards Garrisons and Land Forces." His Majesty had directed Lord Holland to pay Horatio Gates, Esq. the sum of 15s. a day in lieu of his pay as major from April 24, 1762—the allowance to continue until "our Further Pleasure shall be known." Gates must have smiled a withering smile as he fingered this official notice. Lord Holland! H e who had won a peerage from the same hand by corruption and had lined his pockets with unnumbered pounds, damned by thousands upon thousands of heroic dead in the Seven Years' War, in which the major himself had suffered in goods and body for his country's sake. Something, Lord Holland, but justice was better than favors. Not long afterward, an interesting news item stirred the Gates household. It had been announced at headquarters in New York that the King had permitted Sir Jeffrey Amherst's return to England. The command of the troops in America would probably de-

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volve upon M a j o r General Thomas G a g e ; so rumor had it. Possibly, M a j o r Gates reflected, this old companion in arms at Will's Creek may be better disposed than the great Amherst. 1 Within two months of his arrival in London, Gates was nursing his tired spirit with letter after letter from N e w Y o r k friends. T h e trend of events seemed clear, but military preferment was a mere plaything for the high and mighty. Strange that so many influential men could not do more for a worthy young officer! T o William Smith, Gates's acquaintance of the W h i g Club, England appeared to be just a busy, contentious island. " W e in these Dispersions of that vast Empire grow sickly," he observed to Gates, "and want aid from the prime Source of political Influence." Amherst must be the happiest man alive to have got out of America when he did. T h e people of N e w Y o r k had refused him all but a few of the 1,200 provincials he had asked for immediate defense. T h e y contended that they should not be asked to bear the full expense alone, but that all of the northern colonies should contribute equally. " I s not Gage to be pitied?" Whither turn, my dear Major, amid so much perplexing opinion, so much confused and confusing counsel? Francis Lewis thought he had the answer for his good friend, the major: Cast your lot with the Americans! So far as old Britain was concerned, America was getting badly out of hand. Traders were tumbling one another down like ninepins. Eventually, dear Gates, it must be fatal to the homeland. Come over and start afresh in a new country! 2 M a j o r Gates was not quite ready to take Lewis's advice. Instead, he sought refuge from the political turmoil of London. But where? Mrs. Gates was unwell. M a y b e Bath would help her. Of late, the curative springs had become better known and more fashionable than in all the centuries since the Roman occupation. While the waters were doing Elizabeth some good, the social contacts might be doing her husband no harm. A year or more of quiet domesticity, Gates fondly envisaged. Three days by coach along the ancient Roman road past Runnymede, cradle of Magna Charta and British liberties, took the

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Gateses to Bath. Before they were settled, friends wrote again of America—that great garden where only constant cultivation of the freedom-loving spirits of men could ever keep down the noxious weeds of dissension. " T h e r e are strong Roots, which will soon despise the Gardener's utmost strength." The watchful eye of the major's faithful business agent, Oldham, saw not so much as a flicker of hope of advancement in the army, except as death made vacancies. It might be worth while to apply to the lords of trade for a grant of a thousand acres in Nova Scotia. Gates's friend, Major Gorham, enjoyed a government bounty of twenty thousand. Evidently, the Gates household had been slipping downhill very fast in recent months. It was not a matter of preferment or of money merely. It was the major's habits, which were not of the best. T h e high life at Bath had been a little too high for him; strong drink was undermining his health and gambling was making deep inroads upon his means. In late November a dear friend of Elizabeth's more than hinted that if her husband had any head on his shoulders, or would take counsel of his wife, who had a good one on hers, he would go back to London and leave off "guzzling & gaming" at Bath. Let him sign up for Jamaica and get into active service again. H e might keep his Independent Company; no doubt of it, the more optimistic believed. His pay would at least maintain "dear B o b " at school—with a little extra for gloves for his lady to go to a ball. One day while Elizabeth Gates was preparing mock turtle soup to tempt Horatio's discriminating palate from something stronger, notice came of his appointment to a majority in the Royal Americans, one of His Majesty's crack regiments. Unfortunately, a recent act of Parliament made the honor less than perfectly desirable. T h e Royal Americans must not serve in Europe; indeed, they were even then under orders to ship immediately. A dilemma, surely. Secretary Ellis must learn about it. For the moment, America had ceased to be alluring to Major Gates. If he accepted this appointment he explained to the war office, he would have to take a long leave of Elizabeth and Bob or else once more carry them with him overseas. The advancing year

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gave him a good excuse: An ocean voyage would be hazardous for his family, and his own health, impaired by fifteen years' hard service, might not stand it. With his usual frankness, he confided to General Gage, recently named commander in chief in America, that he would join the Royal Americans only as a last resort. A f t e r much thought Gates decided to ask the war secretary to intercede with His Majesty to permit him to remain at home until the St. Lawrence opened in the spring. Meanwhile, he busied himself with negotiations for a lieutenant colonelcy, and he had every reason to expect success. Forty-five hundred guineas was pretty high, but he would seek the commission nevertheless. T o assist hope to realize itself more swiftly, he sought Gage's active aid, candidly admitting, after felicitating him upon his advancement, that the strictly personal matter was the real reason for his writing him at all. Gates knew perfectly well that the far-from-brilliant but highly respectable Gage had the right connections or he would never have reached the top. General Gage responded cordially but ineffectually. H e was much obliged for the major's congratulations on his appointment to the great Amherst's post! M y best to you and Mrs. Gates, my dear M a j o r ! M r s . Gage joins me. 3 Somewhere in the dark files of the British war office, M a j o r Gates's ambition to be a lieutenant colonel in his King's army was gathering the dust of official neglect. Deeply disappointed, his restless spirit prayed relief from the pomps and vanities of Bath. But where could one live at ease within a meager income—and where, unvexed by ambition? Cardiff looked inviting. I t was in the native land of his N e w Y o r k friend, Francis Lewis. There the major might remove and try to feel, as he expressed it, "none of that Anxious hope or Fear that Scorches the Bosoms of all Those that Aspire to Gain or Dread to Lose that deceitful W i l l O'the Wisp Court Favour." Across the Severn, perhaps, neither "the malice of secret enemies" nor "the treachery of pretended friends" would affect him. "Both I Forgive, Both I will endeavor to F o r g e t . "

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About this time a New York acquaintance sent Gates a Boston newspaper, in which it was stated that General Gage would try to "settle all matters on a sure footing." The "peaceful olive" graced his brow. A little later came a "close-up" of New York : Dear Gates, politicks seems to have taken another turn rather more unfavorable f o r America than when you wrote last December. N o Cash stirring b u t A m o n g s t Contractors, Barrack M a s t e r Generals, Quarter M a s t e r Generals & the rest of them kind of people w h o seem to rowl in m o n e y & will return I presume nabobs. W h a t is m y Friend Gates doing w h o without compliment has more merit & friends than all these foulks. 4

Elizabeth Gates's poor health persisted} Mother Gates's longing to have her son near her was as sharp as ever; and the major's yearning to be somebody in a strangely ordered world was still unsatisfied. Would Bristol be a better place to live? Early in the spring of 1766, Gates thought he might try it. H e took his family back to England from Wales and settled down on St. Michael's Hill. Lord and Lady Galway were most cordial. "Shall be very happy to see you here this summer," wrote his lordship. " W e have fine weather & the crops in general promise plenty." If ever a gracious spirit breathed the air of England's moors, Lord Galway's was that spirit, in his cups or not. While the Gates family was in Bristol, John Wesley was conducting his Revival. Rationalistic, dram-drinking, morally bankrupt eighteenth-century Britons soon realized that something like a spiritual revolution was afoot. Major Gates was impressed; he was stirred. His experience with the upper classes had prepared him for it. H e had observed the private ideals of a profligate soldier, Robert Monckton; a drunken nobleman, Lord Galway; of a foul-mouthed littérateur, Hall-Stevenson. They were his friends. At Galway's castle he had been lavishly entertained; within the walls of Skelton he had lifted a glass at the low-browed revels of Yorkshire intelligentsia. Though his character remained unblemished, his speech was purple-patched—and remained a shade darker than pure white throughout his army life. Elizabeth Gates and John Wesley had

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a first-class piece of work in human salvage on their hands; and they made a first-class job of it. Some of Gates's intimates soon enjoyed a laugh at his expense. T o think of their convivial Horatio donning the hair shirt! I heard last y e a r that y o u . . . had given up Politicks and w a s turn'd M e t h o d i s t [wrote his long-time crony, Jack H a l e ] . Y o u m a y indeed with some reason A b a n d o n Politicks as it is next t o I m possible to settle things. . . . B u t no one shall make me believe y o u are a M e t h o d i s t unless t h e y bring sufficient proof that someb o d y has taken out y o u r Brains. 5

M a j o r Gates, however, had seen a light. W h i g and Methodist, Methodist and W h i g , what did it matter? T h e y were not worlds apart but kindred in aim. T h e one glimpsed release here and now; the other, through all eternity; in both, the same spirit prevailed in essence.® In the June after his removal to Bristol, M a j o r Gates was in close touch with Lord T y r a w l y , then field marshal of the royal army. T o reach the peer, he had to appeal through Lord Galway. T h o u g h this Yorkshire nobleman had a severe cold, he sniffed out a letter of recommendation and sent a copy of it to his young friend, Horatio. There was a vacant lieutenant colonelcy in a home guard detachment, which Gates had his eye on. But suppliants must not presume too far upon the friendship of their betters. M y Lord Galway, whether drunk or not, was peeved at the major's truculence and told him so. Horatio Gates remained where he was, champing at the bit. Next year the major's friends got busy in earnest; his military experience must be recognized, and that right soon. Their method was by no means novel. T h e hint was passed to a M a j o r Walters that he ask to be retired on Gates's half pay. As quickly as convenient, the purchase of his commission would then be recommended to Gates and to Captain Monckton, the general's younger brother, for practical political reasons. T h e whole transaction was against the regulations—shady throughout; but what did that matter, since it had a more than even chance to succeed? T h e Monck-

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tons' influence made H i s Majesty's commander in chief blink at the code, without so much as a painful prick of conscience. M a j o r Walters stoutly protested—but in the end complied. As the warm June sun of 1768 lingered over St. Michael's H i l l at Bristol, Horatio Gates's mother died. H i s father's death, just two years before, had not touched him so deeply. L o r d Galway tried to ease him past the bitter time, but anyone with much of life behind him knows how hard that is. Of one comfort Gates might be well assured, Galway reflected earnestly. T h e major had been a faithful son, attentive to his mother's every wish throughout his life. With Mother Gates's passing, the major's tie to native land, long weak, soon snapped. H e was ready for the next step, which he had often been urged to take. A little time must elapse, however, before he could bring himself to break with the past and remove to America as a new homeland. L o r d Galway did his best to fix his friend's thoughts upon this thing and that. H a d the major heard, he asked, that General Amherst had declined the governorship of Virginia? Sir J e f f r e y , it should be said in passing, had had his fill of America. N o more savages for him—red, white, or black! T h e Indians shed no tears over his departure, for long memories recalled the malignant germs he had scattered among them. T h e blacks did not count—their feelings were not for the record—and the whites were singularly ungrateful. T h e fresh glory with which Sir J e f f r e y had surrounded H i s Majesty's name and fame left them cold. W h y not Major Gates, in the great Amherst's stead, queried Galway, whose influence might give effect to the suggestion? But nothing came of it. T h e death in life of Horatio Gates's days on the Severn was nearing the zero hour. In March, Benjamin Franklin, sixty-two and internationally famous, invited him and General Monckton to sip wine at his London home with a party of young friends, not the least interesting of whom was probably the brilliantly erratic Charles L e e , Gates's lucky fellow officer in the Braddock campaign. L e e was two or three years younger than Gates. When not soldier-

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ing for his own sovereign or another on the Continent, he specialized in hobnobbing with important people, only to scorn "the swine," as he came to know them better. Details are lacking of this evening in Craven Street, but the scene in broad outline is not hard to recreate. 7 T h e chat and chaffer drifted close to the new center of Gates's life, deepening his interest in the tense relations of America and England. Echoes of the Stamp Act were still abroad in the land, but the lively topic of the moment was the amazing trend of John Dickinson's Letters from a Farmer. T h e y were so well written and so pro-American that heads wagged a knowing wag. W a s the suavely persuasive Franklin himself their author? It was probably at this same Craven Street table, at one time or another, that Gates first shook the hands of two young Philadelphia physicians, the serious minded Benjamin Rush and the very able John Morgan. If he did not actually meet them there, he certainly heard of them from his host. T h e y were to play their parts in the major's life in the next decade. A t D r . Franklin's they and other young men toasted the British Society of Friends to the Cause of Liberty, munched good Newton pippins, and feasted upon a turkey fresh from the fields round Norwich—all spiced with good stories, flavored well if not too seemly. W i t h Franklin and his congenial group M a j o r Gates liked to sit down to a game of chess, a life-long habit which he often indulged with Poor Richard in after years. As Franklin and his choice young rebels played, they smacked their lips over a glass of Burgundy as sparkling as any at Paul's H e a d Tavern. There can be no doubt about the influence of this intimate circle of like-minded fellowship in the late 1760's. It was in a very real sense decisive upon Horatio Gates's career as well as upon the travail of his mind and heart. T h e guileful sage of Philadelphia believed with Cassius that the fault is not in men's stars, but in themselves, that they are underlings. H e indoctrinated his youthful guests with this thought and quickened their political pulse. Gates's eyes soon moved farther and farther from the sick old T o r y

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England he had been serving, until in due season he found his peace in the freer air of the N e w World. 8 Some time in the late autumn of 1768 the Gateses left Bristol to settle at Sandridge, on the Dart, in the vicinity of Totnes. T h e south country had much to attract them. It was near London. It was Elizabeth's ancestral home. T o leave the Galways was of course not easy; and other old associates were as loath to let them go. A few had been seeing the same light as the major himself. With these he kept his contacts ; toward the rest, however, he grew cold and indifferent and finally cast them off as he did his British uniform forever. In January, Hall-Stevenson, apparently quite innocent of the new stirrings in the heart of his friend and possibly too dull and besotted to perceive them, wrote Gates a strangely interesting letter about a queer group of rebellious N e w Yorkers who called themselves "the Sons of Liberty." T h e Stamp Act had left farreaching and disagreeable effects. T h e smoldering embers of discontent with the mother country might blaze forth soon again. In such case, the tact of a M a j o r Gates was sorely needed in America. I am not clear [advised his Skelton Castle friend] that you will not be appointed Secretary for American Affairs. . . . I must be prepared with an Answer, whether Colonel Gates (General Gates I mean) will serve or not.® At all events, why not go over to Canada, even "tho' 'tis Damn'd cold and freeze ourselves a few years for Bob & J a c k ? " T h e literary roué had ten thousand acres on St. John's River. Toward the close of 1769 stocks fell with a crash. M a n y a speculator scurried hither and yon. M a j o r Gates felt the impact severely. Friends wondered what he would do. Quit and join a party to Bermuda? Would he leave wars, tumults, the madness of Europe, and seek peace and contentment under cloudless skies? " I shall Embark very soon," wrote J o h n H a l e , misreading alike his own and Gates's future, "and want nothing but a Philosopher to help me dig my garden; you need only provide a spade and a Knapsack."

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Another intimate of this Bristol period was the young American, H e n r y Cruger, one of the very few whose friendship survived through the long years to come. H e n r y had been a student at the infant King's College, still struggling to exist, but he gladly forsook that T o r y seat of learning when his father sent him abroad to study the British way of doing business. Honors of state were to bless this rich young man. Friend and political associate of Edmund Burke, he became mayor of Bristol and a Member of Parliament, though never giving up his allegiance to America. I know not the Man on earth, that I should receive more pleasure in entertaining than my friend Gates [ran one of Cruger's many charming letters]. I consider your Wife and son . . . a chief Part of you. They share in my affection and are by right entitled to every civility & good office in my Power. Kiss Bob for me, and . . . do for Mrs. Gates whatever will please her most . . . may the little Ship of fate . . . long enjoy you, under Providence, for its Pilot . . . [with the] agreeable ballast of a reasonable Competency! 10 H e n r y Cruger's letters fed fuel to the smoldering flame of M a j o r Gates's mounting mistrust of Britain's wisdom in her handling of the American problem. Parliament would never comply with over-seas demands, Cruger averred, and the young business man was near the center of official life. T h e tax on tea must stand. " T h i s you know, M a j o r , in no way answers the desires of the Americans who will permit the operation of no revenue act made by a British Parliament." T h e student was ripe for his lessons—and fortunate that his teacher was sober now and then to teach them. " G o d bless you—I am drunk," was all that poor Henry could scrawl on one occasion. M a j o r Gates had more than his own future to consider. H e was particularly eager that young Bob receive the best schooling possible and asked John Hale, of Gisborough, for advice. A peasant or a yeoman is a Happier man than a Chancellor or a Bishop [responded the future British general, in a manner rivaling Polonius at his best]. But if Bob . . . must have a liberal profession to His back and can submit to be Commanded by Turranical block

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[heads] Let him be a soldier or a sailor. . . . But above all Let him depend upon himself and fly a Court as he wou'd a Pestilence.11 T h e lad's father was keen for such doctrine. Even Jack Hale's kind words soon fell on stony ground. Horatio Gates suddenly turned from him, as from other lifelong friends, and without a tremor of regret. Presently, the closest and most important acquaintanceship he had ever made came to a sharp and bitter end. H e had expected to accompany Monckton to the East Indies, but had been disappointed. H e chided Viscount Galway's famous brother for doing so little for him. Quite sober for the moment, the general ceased toying with his mistress and tartly replied: " I have distresses of my Own . . . and I can not charge myself with having brought any on you." H e had been unable to serve himself, much less the major. Softening the blow, the lovable Monckton reassured the major that he was the only one whom he had had in mind for the post of brigade major in his command, which Gates so longed for. In fact, the whole East India expedition was still only in the rumor stage. Gates sulked the more and would not be appeased. Shortly afterwards Robert Monckton wrote him again in friendliest vein: "East India matter dont go on so well as I could wish." Incidentally, it never did. This was the last letter that passed between them. Nobody, even in highest station, was ever able to persuade Major Gates to renew his friendship with "this man in ten thousand." H e never even mentioned his name again to Elizabeth. Psychologists alone may explain it. Ingratitude? Stubborn, self-seeking egotism? More probably, an inner conflict, born of a new vision which darkened the past while it brightened the future. 12 For some time Gates had been investing his surplus funds in Virginia quitrents. In the early summer of 1772 he sent an inquiry to his former comrade in arms, Colonel George Washington, of Mount Vernon. What were the prospects of acquiring an estate in Virginia? Washington mislaid the letter, but as soon as he found it hastened an answer, not glowingly warm, though friendly enough.

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T h e Virginia planter rarely showed himself at his genial best in such a correspondence. Somehow, his quill got tipped with hoar frost as it left the ink-pot. T h e property that Gates had asked about, he advised him, was legally still quite unsettled. Before George Washington replied, M a j o r Gates had cast the die. O n the first of August, Mrs. Gates with evident pain, for the approaching ordeal must have been hard to bear, scribbled off a farewell note to the dear Galways in the North Countree. T h e Gateses had been in Bristol four weeks, preparatory to sailing to Virginia. It was vain, Elizabeth bravely reflected, to expect anything more in England. In less than three weeks they were planning to leave, in the hope of doing better with their small pittance in "a distant part of the world" where, she continued bitterly, they would remember their best friends with gratitude and endeavor to forget those who had injured them. " M a j o r Gates," Elizabeth revealed, "is farr from well and I fear I shall have a hard task to support his spirits till the employment we shall have to cultivate . . . rouses him from his present dejection." It is quite clear that he intended to settle down to plantation life, bury himself in tobacco-raising, and let the mad world finish the spiral of its downward plunge without benefit of Horatio Gates. There is no record of the voyage in this late summer of 1 7 7 2 ; none except that it was an "agreeable" passage. One should like to know how often Gates read a paragraph upon America, which came in a letter shortly before he stepped from the wharf to the deck of the waiting vessel. T h a t C o u n t r y [ran the illuminating comment] must be held in subjection b y A r m s , or it will soon shake off our Y o k e s ; if M o d e r a t i o n and T e m p e r is us'd as well as power the Inhabitants m a y be lull'd into a supineness & m a y let us continue to plunder them. I d o u b t h o w e v e r w h e t h e r the Inhabitants suffer more from us than

poor

P o l a n d does f r o m those w h o pretend to be her Friends. 1 3

M a j o r Gates and his family had no permanent home for some time after their arrival within the Virginia Capes. T h e y did not lack for advice, however. " D o not be in a hurry in Settling foot,"

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counseled Colonel A d a m Stephen, one of the first of the major's new acquaintances. It is not difficult to imagine the problems that lay ahead. T h e first was Bob's welfare. H e was fourteen years old. Without much trouble, his father soon enrolled him in a school in St. Mary's County, Maryland. As the Christmas season approached, a Philadelphia well-wisher posted M a j o r Gates a kind suggestion or two upon how, where, and when an estate might be purchased. L a n d in the back parts of Virginia, it was true, would rise in value, and some day it might pay wellj but why not come to Pennsylvania? Society in Penn's Woods was f a r superior, and the country much better settled. T o say no worse of Virginians, they were not the "Politest kind of people." T h e M a j o r might draw his own conclusions. On March 1 5 , 1 7 7 3 , M a j o r Gates signed a mortgage for more than 65O acres in Berkeley County, Virginia, now Jefferson County, West Virginia. L a t e r additions brought the number to well over 700. There were neighbors roundabout, few but kind. Slaves and servants were cheap enough. Samuel Washington, the oft-married brother of George, was willing to sell the major a N e g r o " f e l l o w his wife & Child." Some one else offered him " T w o Fellows and a Wench." An indentured white servant was also available. 14 A retreat it was, this Traveller's Rest, as Gates named his estate; a retreat in a wilderness. Several leagues from the Braddock Road, it stretched toward Shepherdstown, in the Shenandoah Valley. T h e spell of the encircling hills had never quite loosened its grip upon Horatio Gates. Close by, the Potomac flowed through the primeval silence to the Chesapeake and the open sea. Only three weeks after M a j o r Gates took title to his property, the E a r l of Dunmore twirled his quill in the old Virginia capitol at Williamsburg. It was his third year as governor of H i s Majesty's province. Dour by native right, he was far from pleased with the representatives of the people over whom he ruled and, more particularly, with their sympathetic attitude toward the political situation in N e w England. After some earnest thought and probably a

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good Scottish prayer, as a vicegerent of the crown he dissolved the Virginia Assembly. This done, Vice Admiral John, Earl of Dunmore, lieutenant general and governor of H i s Majesty's colony of Virginia, cast his eye over another parchment that lay on his table. H e set his seal once more. Horatio Gates had been commissioned a lieutenant colonel in Colonel Stephen's regiment. Elizabeth may well have had her misgivings, for her husband's commander could get most grandly and frequently drunk. 18 Exactly one month afterwards, a sweet little note flew over to Traveller's Rest. Gates had upbraided Colonel Charles Lee for failing to visit him. L e e , whom the Mohawks fittingly named "boiling water" upon his philandering "marriage" to White Thunder's daughter, apologized and promised to make amends: What think you of our blessed Ministry? Do they not improve in absurdity and wickedness? . . . I think it incumbent on every man of liberality or even common honesty and humanity to contribute his mite to the cause of mankind and of Liberty . . . but we will talk over these things viva voce; I have an infinite fund of things to say to you. 18 Colonel Gates was most eager to hear this "infinite fund of things." H e had an "infinite f u n d " of his own to tell Lee. In the meantime, he sat at his table in Traveller's Rest and penned a long and self-revealing letter to his enigmatic friend. M y dear Lee [he wrote], I have received your welcome Letter . . . and live in daily expectation of seeing you at my Hut. I now more than ever wish for that satisfaction, as the alarms of the Times make me Earnest to consult and converse with you thereupon— until Actions convince me to the contrary, I am resolved to think Mr. Gage has some secret medicine in his pocket to heal the wounds that threaten the life of American Liberty; surely a man so humane, so Honorable, so Independent in his Circumstances, & so great from Family expectations would never undertake a business fit only for an abandoned Desperado, or a Monster in Human Shape. Selfishness and sycophancy had so possessed the minds of men that Gates had begun to think that "the many are best avoided,

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and the few only who are Liberal & sincere . . . sought for and caressed." H e had therefore resolved to stick to the cultivation of his farm, to be intimate with few, to read when he had the time, and to content himself generally with such domestic comforts as his lot in life might afford him. I wish . . . most anxiously you would come to my retreat, and let us philosophize on the vices & virtues of this Busy World, the Follies and the Vanities of the Great Vulgar & the Small. Laugh where we please, be candid where we can, And Justify the ways of God to man. Mrs. Gates earnestly desired to see L e e "under her R o o f , " where a good bed was ready for him. T h e major owned two or three slaves, who would supply his "wants & whimsies." There was space enough about the place to exercise all his "spleen & Gloomy Moods." Besides, a farm, a mill, and plenty of land were for sale at " a very good bargain." As for the Indians, Gates showed his early sympathy with their lot, a sympathy which grew with the years. T h e behavior of certain white people, he told L e e , was "beyond all comparison abominable towards those unhappy Natives." Not content with the quiet possession of all the land "on this side Ohio," the settlers were demanding "all the Land between that River & the Mississippi." E x ceeding "wickedness and absurdity!" Turning to the most pressing problem of the hour, he reflected, " I have read with wonder & astonishment Gage's Proclamations," and rambled on, "surely this is not the same man you and I knew so well in days of yore; but that men should change neither you nor I will be surprised at, it is rather matter of amazement when they do not." Colonel Gates put his letter away for a month and a half, until he had returned from a trip to Baltimore. All his life he enjoyed making brief jaunts to the larger cities. In mid-August he completed his note to L e e and sent it off. I am this instant returned . . . [he remarked] 8c hoped to have crossed upon you in your Route to the Northward, but like Swift's

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Mordanto you were vanish'd. I was sorry for it, as I might have prevailed upon you to have tempered your zeal with caution before all such persons as may reasonably be expected to watch your words and actions; . . . be careful how you act, for be assured Gage knows you too well, and knows you know him too well not to be glad of any plausible pretence to prevent your good services in the Publick Cause— Farewell my Friend—Remember I am what I have allways profess'd myself to be, & that I am ready to risque my Life to preserve the Liberty of the Western W o r l d — On this Condition would I build my Fame, And emulate the Greek or Roman Name, Think Freedom's rights bought cheaply with my blood, And die with pleasure for my Country's Good. While I live I am unchangeably Yours, H. G. Vain prophecy, in the van of compelling events! 1 7 Within the coming twelvemonth, the unimaginative but stoutly honorable Governor Thomas Gage of Massachusetts, whom Gates had known so well in half-forgotten days, followed Lord Dunmore's example and prorogued the provincial assembly in Boston. T h e silenced members met and promptly organized as a Provincial Congress. John Hancock, a wealthy merchant—through the grace of an uncle, but a wine-smuggler and smartly-dressed dandy in his own right—was made president. About this time, while Colonel Gates was writing L e e , the Virginia Convention was seriously considering nonimportation and nonconsumption measures, and Colonel Washington was boldly declaring his willingness to raise 1,000 men, pay their expenses, and march at their head to the relief of Boston. Gates very much wished to be a delegate to this Virginia Convention, but he had to be content with the lesser dignity of "gentleman justice." A friend tried to relieve his hurt feelings with the remark, commonplace enough, that the colonel's fellow citizens did not know a good man when they saw one. 18 " A l l things portend the Storm to be thickening," John Cary, of a prominent Virginia family, observed to Gates in October. " G o d

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knows the event, the Congress keep things Very Secret but it's said great things are in agitation." The onrushing days gave Colonel Gates hardly time to read a bit of news from his old friend, Jack Hale. Lord Galway had "drunk his last Bottle." What " a negligent forgetful Old ThieP' you have been, my dear Gates, to quit England without so much as dipping a quill for your cronies of past days! Gates, the old days surging back, replied in so cordial a letter about his farm that Hale returned a yearning wish that the colonel had "a Farm contiguous," where they might "Drink and Dig and philosophise together upon the moral and natural Evil of this W o r l d ! " By the way, dear Gates, " A r e these Lords mere Blockheads or Rascals?" Horatio Gates owed something, possibly very much, to John Hale. It was this ever-gracious friend in fair weather and in foul who may have brought the despairing exile back from the Slough of Despond, quickening his spirit after the long night following his removal to America. 10 The month before, delegates from most of the colonies had foregathered at Philadelphia to discuss the next step. The "Liberty Boys" of the loud-speaking and energetic New Englander, Samuel Adams, had given place to committees of correspondence; and now, a Continental Congress. Bostonians were standing firm as Gates learned from the occasional newspapers that drifted in from Williamsburg and elsewhere. An embargo had been placed on Boston's trade with Britain and the British West Indies, as well as with Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina. Only the presumably unoffending Quakers in the Nantucket whale fishery were excepted from official disfavor. 20 On the morning of May the second, Colonel Gates took leave of Traveller's Rest and galloped along Virginia's dusty roads toward Mount Vernon. "Major Gates and M r . B. Fairfax dined and lodged here," Washington set down in his Diary with a brevity almost irritating to the historian. On the following morning M r . Fairfax left, but Gates stayed all day. In the afternoon Richard Henry Lee came in. Probably for the first time Gates had the privilege of exchanging views with this distinguished son of distin-

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guished Virginia lineage. Richard H e n r y L e e had gone to school in England and was not only a high-minded leader in the controversy with the motherland but also a man of advanced social thinking—for one thing, an advocate of the abolition of slavery. H i s visit at Mount Vernon this afternoon in early M a y , 1 7 7 5 , was of immeasurable influence in Horatio Gates's life. H e remained a warm admirer and devoted but discriminating friend throughout the coming conflict. 21 Just what was discussed at Gates's memorable conference under Washington's roof we do not know, but we may be certain that these future leaders of the Revolution talked about something else than tobacco or Indian corn. T h e imagination must be dull indeed if it cannot chart the drift of this meeting of sincere minds upon the issues of that fateful springtime. It was only a week before the momentous Second Continental Congress convened at Philadelphia. Events were moving apace. T h e First Congress had cleared the ground j the Second must take irrevocable action. Gates's personal ambition was undeniably great, his interest in the cause of freedom keen and definite. T h e scent of war was in the air. But three weeks had passed since New Englanders were charging British redcoats on Lexington Green and Concord Bridge. Horatio Gates was more than eager to serve; as he had written Charles L e e the year before, he was willing to risk his life to preserve the liberty of the Western World. H e had already formed what became a lifelong habit—to delve below the surface of contemporaneous military events to the inevitable politics lying underneath. In this, he anticipated the great strategist, Clausewitz. On the morning following Gates's visit at Mount Vernon, Washington set out for Philadelphia; his guest, for Traveller's Rest 5 but nowhere is there a trace of their hour together at the historic mansion on the Potomac. 22

T'ari Two

IN AMERICA'S CAUSE, 1775-83

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was probably receptive but hardly expectant of the highest commission, whatever it might be, when the Second Continental Congress settled down to select a military leader. That he was ambitious need not be denied; that he had canvassed his own availability is not impossible. H e was reasonably certain that he would be chosen a general officer j there is merit in the guess that he and Washington had talked this over at Mount Vernon. By the authority of Massachusetts, General Artemas Ward was in the command of the motley crowd of some 16,000 on Cambridge Common and deserved to be continued in it, but anyone not wholly innocent of the ways of the world knew only too well that politics might easily put another in his place. There was never a hue and cry in Ward's behalf, as there later was in his successor's. Not till our day has he been honored with a statue in the national capital; and that, at private rather than at public expense. Artemas Ward deserved better from his countrymen.1 If right had overruled expediency, Ward would have been elected commander in chief by the delegates at Philadelphia. The ambition of others made such simplicity impossible. Barkis has had a long ancestral line. For some strange reason the popular and smartly dressed John Hancock, who presided, was in the running, but wisdom declined to lay the mantle over his unmilitary shoulders. Three Virginians were also ready and willing. Colonel William Byrd, of Westover, had a strong following, and with much to commend him; but he lacked glamour. Colonel Charles Lee had plenty of it and had the backing of a Pennsylvania clique as well. As luck and sagacity would have it, his boom died a-borning. COLONEL GATES

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Sitting quietly among the Virginian delegation was Colonel Washington, in the garb of the hour, erect and imposing, and politically powerful through the Virginia delegation. It was soon apparent that he fitted into the picture as no one else did. Unwillingly John and Samuel Adams, sensing expediency as well as the value of unity, made the stalwart colonel their choice.2 Others fell in line, for many felt the same way about the issue. Thwarted at the outset, the southern bloc might be inclined to veto any future measure and thus destroy or lessen the harmony that was imperative if success in the great adventure were to be assured. Furthermore, as some conveniently rationalized, had not Colonel Washington offered to raise a thousand men, subsist them out of his own purse, and march at their head to the relief of Boston? A f t e r a month had passed, politics mixed with good sense made the necessary shuffle of Fate's cards. On Thursday, J u n e 1 5 , 1 7 7 5 , the Continental Congress, on motion of John Adams, 3 unanimously elected George Washington commander in chief of "all the continental forces." A scar or two remained, which would not easily heal, but that was a matter ignored by expediency, as always. T h e word " a l l " in the resolution merits special attention in passing. It will loom large as the careers of Washington and Gates unfold. H a v i n g solemnly pledged "their lives and fortunes" to the new commander, the delegates, two days later, proceeded to cast lots for his chief lieutenants. With discerning tact as well as justice, they voted General Ward the first commission as major general. With an eye to his service in several foreign armies, they bestowed the second upon Colonel Charles L e e . Colonel Gates was made adjutant general, with the rank of brigadier. T w o more appointments quickly followed: Philip John Schuyler, a delegate from N e w Y o r k and a dominant social and political leader in the upper H u d son Valley, became a major general; likewise, Israel Putnam, a Connecticut farmer of strong character and slight education, but a colorful showman of widely advertised daring. Alone with Washington, Putnam was unanimously elected to his high post. Three days passed before Congress completed this vitally important task by selecting eight brigadiers, among them the Irish-

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born Richard Montgomery, a former British army officer, with whose fortunes Gates's life was to be strangely intertwined. Others, whose lives were one day fated to touch Gates, were William Heath, a farmer of Roxbury, Massachusetts, a man of sterling character but little ability; John Sullivan, a young Maine lawyer, whose self-esteem outran his competence; and Nathanael Greene, a smith from a Rhode Island forge, whom time would treat kindly during the war and almost obliterate or at least render shadowy in the minds of future generations. Pennsylvania was left in the outer courts of patronage. Thomas Mifflin, a wealthy and ambitious young Quaker with his own ideas on men and measures, became Washington's aide; Joseph Reed, a youthful and aspiring member of the Philadelphia bar, the commander's able and clearvisioned secretary. These highest commissions merit a further word. Of the fourteen officers of the first Continental A r m y , the commander in chief, one major general, and the adjutant general were from the South. A l l of the remaining eleven were from the North, principally from N e w England. T h e y sprang from all classes—professional and artisan, dirt-farming and landholding. T h e majority had seen service in the army of the King. Only three had a college education— a markedly lower showing in this respect than the members of Congress, whose average, educationally speaking, has never been surpassed, if ever equaled. F o r sheer brilliancy and character, they have had as a body f e w if any peers. 4 Intellectually, Horatio Gates was easily abreast of his fellow officers and the superior of most of them. Only Charles L e e had had greater military experience. None had anywhere near Gates's experience in the particular duties of general secretary of the army, so to speak, which he was now called upon to perform. His opportunity under Monckton had been unique. Nor did any of his fellow officers perceive more clearly than he the political significance of the conflict. With Gates, warfare was not just so many battles to be fought and won, but rather a Cause in which to strive—a Cause of basic humanitarian principle, a H o l y Cause. Single-minded devotion was therefore the outstanding charac-

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teristic of his services; disinterestedness, the mainspring of his ambition. T h e new adjutant general was within a month of forty-eight years of age, a few months under five older than Washington. H i s health seemed better than in his "gaming & guzzling" days. H i s habits were exemplary now. T h e only trace of an older time was in his tongue, which could curl about a word or two not very edifying in print. Through all of his voluminous correspondence, however, there is not a sentence that may not be read aloud in any company. As Charles Willson Peale portrayed him, he had a youthful appearance, though his hair was graying and rather thin above his long, well-modeled face. H i s shoulders were a bit stooped. H i s aquiline nose was set between an engaging pair of eyes, clear and penetrating at times, but generally kindly. H i s cheeks were ruddy and full. H e appears to have been slightly above medium height, his whole body well proportioned. 5 A s soon as possible, Gates started northward to Cambridge, to join Washington, who had left Philadelphia shortly before the end of June. On J u l y i he stopped in N e w York to rest his horses. H e a v y rain held him overnight. As he resumed his journey he heard of Bunker H i l l and felt the wave of patriotism that was sweeping across N e w England. H e reached Cambridge too late to stand with his chief under the historic elm on the Common. General Schuyler was most gracious, informing Gates in private that he had recommended another brigade major to Washington, to serve under the adjutant general whose department Schuyler believed would otherwise be poorly staffed. President E z r a Stiles, of Yale, saw Gates as a "martial man," 8 while Chief Surgeon Benjamin Church found him an "indefatigable" worker. Washington appeared "truly noble and majestic" to the keen eye of Surgeon James Thacher. Elizabeth Gates had her own ideas about staying in a wilderness while her husband fought for liberty. Before long she was on her way to meet M r s . Washington and accompany her on an exciting trip to the Hudson, across the hills of Westchester to

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Hartford, and on to Cambridge, where they arrived a fortnight before Christmas. Headquarters were set up first at the Wadsworth House, but were presently established at what has since been called the Craigie House, on Brattle Street. T h e room to the right of the main entrance served as Washington's office. It was there that Gates frequently consulted his chief, and there that they effected the organization of the Continental A r m y — a difficult but congenial task for Gates, but thankless so f a r as history has been concerned. Cambridge continued to be the heart and center of military activity for nearly a year. 7 When General Gates cast a glance over the " a r m y " in the middle weeks of J u l y , he saw thousands of poorly equipped, poorly housed young men and boys, many of them so homesick that regimental discipline melted away. Artisans, shopkeepers, fishermen, mechanics —no one considered himself a private; everyone acted like a general. Zeal, bodily strength, and good humor abounded, but it took more than these and enthusiasm over Lexington, Concord, and Bunker H i l l to keep such a force intact. Desertions were common. Nevertheless, Gates saw something of promise, while thoroughly understanding Washington's pessimism. T h e commander in chief could see little but a dirty and mercenary spirit running through the whole body of troops and would not have been surprised at anything that might happen. H e was amazed at the "fertility" of the men "in all the low arts to obtain advantages of one kind and another." Washington seldom expressed himself with such abandon. 8 Fortunately, Adjutant General Gates had ability, salted by good sense and experience, with a genuine liking for young men. H i s optimistic viewpoint was greatly needed. T h e r e was nothing passive about his conception of his post; there was no ultraprofessionalism in his attitude toward the troops. H e could never be a glorified office boy or messenger, and must always speak his mind. As an intelligent co-worker he gave his chief the wisest counsel he had; as a keen observer he appraised conditions as they were and suggested how they might be improved. H i s passion for fair

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play, his intense regard for the physical well-being of his men, not to mention his industry and his urbanity of manner, gradually chastened refractory spirits and brought him to the fore as a leader of men. Before the summer was far spent, he had whipped into shape a great company of untrained, locally minded, raw, middle-class youth, and created the Continental Army. Without American precedent to guide him, General Gates formulated the earliest disciplinary regulations for the orderly procedure of army routine and set up the skeletal frame of the services of sanitation and supply. H e was in daily conference with Washington and regularly attended the frequent and critical councils of war. It is customary to praise the Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben for whatever efficiency the Continental Army enjoyed, and no one will belittle the great Prussian's work in rebuilding the morale of the woebegone patriots at Valley Forge. His Manual of Arms, prepared later at Washington's request, also deserves its fame. Some may even recall Major Timothy Pickering's admirable and neglected Easy Plan of Discipline. No one will take one jot or tittle from anything that experts say in its praise. Gates's regulations were the first; they antedated by several years all other contributions to military stability. Toward the end of July, General Gates prepared instructions for the recruiting service. As we read them we are impressed with their crispness, simplicity, and directness. Deserters from the British army, he set forth unequivocally, were not wanted in the Continental Army; nor men under eighteen years; nor any "stroller, negro, or vagabond." Any person "suspected of being an enemy to the liberty of America might better not ask to be enlisted." The Cause, he wrote Congressman Robert Morris, of Pennsylvania, was the best that could "engage men of courage and principle to take up arms." General Gates met and consulted not only with military officers but with civilian leaders as well. Members of Congress, journeying to Cambridge, liked to sit down and confer with him. John Adams was among the earliest and most inquiring. H e became Gates's constant and very helpful friend. Whatever the circum-

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stances, entire seriousness could not reign supreme when Horatio Gates was present. T h e sober-minded man from Braintree liked him as a complement to himself. Sometimes they enjoyed a hearty chuckle together, as they saw General Lee sidling forth to the posts at Charlestown. T h e young Massachusetts lawyer pestered him with questions, and Lee chatted away so democratically that even his dogs yelped at the statesman's knee buckles.9 Within a few weeks, the American lines and redoubts were strengthened, and a semblance of order rose out of chaos. The men were in fair health and good spirits. General Gates ventured to assure Robert Morris that "rashness itself" would "not dare to attack Us." Even more enthusiastically, he declared that there was "not a doubting or desponding" civilian countenance anywhere. Every one was anxious and impatient to have the British driven from the city. Gates's well-organized intelligence service kept him informed of conditions within the enemy's lines. Desertion was taking its toll. From scores to hundreds of Howe's regulars were daily quitting his ranks. " I should not wonder, at its increasing to a degree alarming to The Ministerial Generals," Gates observed to Congressman Morris. "Bad Salt Pork and Dry Pease is all their Soldiers have had to Eat since the beginning of May." T h e water in and near the British camp was contaminated. Bad food added to bad water was producing "fluxes and scurvy." " T h e Fish," Gates continued, "and all the little Fresh meat they have, goes entirely to the Officers, and the Sick." Indeed, sickness was so prevalent that few British soldiers were well enough for duty. Those off today were on fatigue tomorrow. This "American Gibraltar will cost a sweet Sum," concluded the adjutant general. Boston Dirt will be a Dollar a Bushell to the English Treasury. The Army, the Fleet, seventy Transports, and an Infinity of Cutters &c in constant pay. 10 As the weeks passed, while the physical conditions at the American camp continued to change somewhat for the better, the at-

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mosphere at headquarters was far from that of the deep peace of a June day. Arrows of criticism had begun to dart in and out of the house on Brattle Street; arrows not yet dipped in malice but barbed only with the undercover grumbling common to all armies occasionally shot across the council room if not the commander's office. Action! Action! Action! This was the burden of much of the murmuring outside. T h e word rose on the wings of the morning and was echoed through the graceful doorway of Craigie House. Congressional ears soon heard the cry, and the lesser breed of politicians followed the pack. W h y pay men just for drilling, shouted the taxpayers, and equip their officers with buff and blue for dawdling? Taxes, hated taxes, arched ominous eyebrows. Taxes which had had so large a share in bringing on the fray. General Schuyler was one of the first of the inner circle to be disgruntled. Perhaps he was wiser, or shall one say franker than the others in baring his troubled spirit to Washington. Almost from the beginning he was in a resigning mood, but the commander in chief checked him with a restrained dignity which sharpened rebuke. Schuyler's duty? " T h e cause we are engaged in is so just and righteous," replied Washington on one occasion, "that we must try to rise superior to every obstacle in its support." 1 1 Friendly relations between Washington and General Lee could not be expected to last very long. Lee's tongue was an unruly member. It wagged in season and out of season; sometimes, one imagines, for the sheer pleasure of the exercise. H e wrote page after page of stinging comment to Gates, but there is no evidence that his words weighted the adjutant general's opinions. W h e n L e e remarked that he could not "conceive who the Devil first devis'd the Bauble Excellency" for Washington, or "the more ridiculous" one of " H i s H o n o r " for himself, 1 2 Gates appraised the drivel with a smile and forgot it, shoving Lee's letter, unfortunately for his own fame, into a bureau drawer for some future historian's delight, as he pored over its sentences and charged them to the recipient's debit. Throughout these Boston Siege days Gates cooperated with the commander in chief to the hilt. Not that he was a "yes man." H e

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was never that—not even Robert Monckton's or Sir Jeffrey Amherst's. The differences between Gates and Washington sprang from temperament and background. Charged with great responsibility, Washington developed quickly into the soul of professional decorum. H e seemed to harbor a secret fear of loss of dignity in the presence of Old-World veterans like Gates and Lee. Then, too, he viewed his troops from a different angle. They were not men, but rather instruments committed by Congress to his will to win the war. Discipline, he felt, was the better maintained by an attitude of stern aloofness. Gates, 011 the other hand, gave his time and attention to the individual man—to his body, which must be properly sheltered; to his stomach, which must be wholesomely filled; to his home folks, who must be comforted. Gates could not complacently tolerate conditions such as Washington did, while he himself lived in a comfortable headquarters house. Socially, Washington was ill at ease except with a small group of intimates, who had the wit to be humble and were keyed high in their commander's praise. Gates, on the contrary, was a good mixer with all sorts and conditions of men, though with a readily recognizable strain of aristocratic dignity, relieved by a verbal quip or an engaging smile, with a disarming manner which quickly enabled him to let himself go without stiffness. E v e r y type, every class of men felt a genial warmth when near him. Many were his friends, but few his intimates; none, in the fraternal order sense. T h e early years of Washington and Gates go far to explain these differences. Washington's lot had been cast in a social circle conscious of its superiority over the slaves and the poor whites, yet not quite sure of its standing among equals. Gates's youth had been lived in a deep-rooted society, secure in its position, wide in its contacts with men and affairs and inbred with urbanity itself. Washington never knew the highest social strata of the Old World. H e never crossed the Atlantic. His eyes never gleamed behind the distance glasses of imagination. His world was the narrow, dominant plantation economy of Virginia, only the surface of which was moved by the deeper stirrings of the times. Gates had rubbed shoulders with an age-old nobility; he had mingled freely with

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the liberal Franklin and with the bright young radicals of the N e w Y o r k W h i g Club. T h e true greatness of both Washington and Gates lay in their characters, but Washington's supremacy derived from his steadiness of purpose to do the will of Congress with the most tact and caution. With all of this in mind, it is easy to understand how Washington could quite sincerely write John J a y such a sentence as this: " I discovered very early in the war symptoms of coldness & constraint in General Gates's behavior to m e . " 1 3 T h e "coldness & constraint" were more illusory than real} real at all only to Washington's social timidity, which led to a misreading of Horatio Gates's true nature—a nature cultivated in an aristocratic military as well as social milieu, but warm, friendly, altogether natural and aboveboard in its approach to the daily round of life, and simple enough to want, and to miss, its little human praise. In the spring of 1 7 7 5 two dashing young Vermonters, Ethan Allen and Seth Warner, presented a plan to Congress for an expedition to " w i n " Canada to the Cause. 14 Young Benedict Arnold, one-time drug clerk in N e w H a v e n , also had a plan which he brought to headquarters. Much impressed, Adjutant General Gates laid the matter on Washington's desk with a gracious note. There can be no question that Gates approved of this wistful wishing and did everything he could to forward it to realization. Through the long years, this whole business has become skewed beyond all reason. Historical perspectives may warp judgment, as they surely have in this instance. T h e Green Mountain Boys made no progress as military leaders. F o r one thing, they were what in the West are called mavericks; for another, General Schuyler stood in their way. With all "good Y o r k e r s , " Schuyler was moving heaven and earth to make the Hampshire Grants, the region east of L a k e Champlain, part of N e w Y o r k , to which view Allen and Warner, as staunch New Englanders, never would assent; and N e w Y o r k settlers who drifted eastward soon found it out. T h e first military commissions had not lessened the bitterness of this long-standing dispute, for Schuyler was naturally looked upon as inevitably the comman-

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der in the North. H i s views, not less than the Boys', were sectional rather than national or continental, as the word was in that period. Vermonters must be content with the crumbs from this rich man's table. Much wrangling left a lasting bad taste in Ethan Allen's mobile mouth, but he condescended to serve as a "gentleman volunteer" under Schuyler, to whom Congress intrusted one of the two expeditions planned to add Canada to the thirteen revolted colonies. T o Colonel Arnold went the command of the second foray. General Schuyler chose to march by way of the Hudson and the Lakes to the Richelieu R i v e r ; thence to Montreal. Colonel Arnold elected to follow the Kennebec watercourse through the thick forests of Maine. W h e n Schuyler reached the sandy, inhospitable banks of the Sorel River, near St. John's, he was physically unable to go on and had to give place to General Montgomery. 1 5 Really, it was something more than gout from which Philip Schuyler suffered. T h e unseemly haste of the N e w England troops "to get to their firesides" rightly riled his domineering spirit. Unlike General Gates, he needed a spiritually invigorating climate to brace him for his tasks. In private, Gates could picturesquely growl; that was his inheritance through a long line of English forebears. But he did not publicly lose heart as Schuyler did. A f t e r two months' delay in reducing the defenses of St. John's, Montgomery at last took up the march to Montreal. T h e city yielded ten days later. With restless vigor he pressed toward Quebec, where he and the intrepid Arnold met at Christmas time. On the last day of the year, Montgomery led a furious assault upon the enemy stronghold. H e lost his life, only to save it for his adopted country's book of remembrance. T h e wounded Arnold 1 8 saved his life only to lose it. T h e citadel of Quebec did not change masters. In magnanimous mood, General L e e suggested that Congress erect two statues of gold: one to Montgomery, the other to Arnold; but Congress had something else to do at the moment. In late September a special committee of three was appointed at Philadelphia to confer with Washington upon the military pros-

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pects. T h e aging Benjamin F r a n k l i n was a m e m b e r of it. T w o days afterwards, a second committee of five was directed to draw up instructions for the first committee. T h e main decision advised W a s h i n g t o n to launch an offensive before the close of t h e year, if he thought it practicable. T o o long a wait m i g h t prove disastrous. British reinforcements f r o m overseas m i g h t t h w a r t all effort to drive Sir W i l l i a m H o w e out of Boston. T o make the recommendation not too hard to swallow, the Philadelphia statesmen expressed complete confidence in the courage and good conduct of the general and his officers, as well as in the spirit and bravery of their men. 1 7 As usual, Washington d e f e r r e d to the wishes of his civilian superiors and called a meeting of his council. General Gates, forthright as ever, believed that an attack was " i m p r o p e r " ; and, at the risk of offending Congress, bluntly said so. All of the other officers present agreed with him. T h e words, "if he thought it practicable," gave W a s h i n g t o n a way out of the situation. H e acquiesced. I t was his own view anyway. T h e offensive was accordingly put off to a more convenient season. By the turn of the year the Continental A r m y had withstood several weeks of bitter winter. A d j u t a n t General Gates had been working night and day to build up the morale, but wide gaps glared through the ranks. Desertion, expiration of service, sickness, and death had been rampant. Reflecting Gates's view as much as his own, W a s h i n g t o n wrote President Hancock that t h e pages of history could scarcely furnish a parallel to his bedraggled a r m y , forever recruiting and disbanding, holding a post within musketshot of Britain's seasoned regulars. W h a t other commander ever had so impossible a task? T o Colonel R e e d , his military secretary, W a s h i n g t o n confided: How it will end, God in his great goodness will direct. I am thankful for his protection to this time. T h e commander in chief had banked upon refilling the ranks with fresh recruits, but now he despaired of a n y t h i n g so good as t h a t :

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" I have been told so many things which have never come to pass, that I distrust every thing." 1 8 Was it his adjutant general who told Washington "so many things" that had never come to pass? One wonders. Did Gates ever learn of these critical words? It is not impossible that here may lie hidden one early reason why Horatio Gates showed himself growingly cold and constrained toward his great chief. Gentleman that he was, loyal alike to the Cause and to its leader, he held his peace and kept the secret to himself. Happily, now and then, the Indians provided a diverting interlude. In January, " G . Washington and Gates and their ladies" dined with John Adams at Cambridge. F a r more entertaining than generals were the half dozen sachems and warriors of the French Caghnawaga tribe, whom General Washington introduced to the young delegate from Braintree, one of the Great Council Fire at Philadelphia. T h e painted warriors bowed and bowed: to all, or so they imagined, a "cordial reception." Squaws and papooses dabbed their own bright colors on the scene. W h o could fail to enjoy so private an audience? T h e Caghnawaga aristocracy were "wondrous polite." W a s Bob there? Most certainly, at seventeen, if not sick abed. T h e Indians' part in this social affair impressed the youth's parents, as it did their host—"a savage feast" of "carnivorous animals devouring their prey." 1 9 T h e realities of warfare permitted all too little time for such pleasantries. In February Washington called upon his council of officers once more to discuss the offensive that the Congressional committee had advised. General Ward entered an objection, and General Gates backed him. T h e time was not yet opportune. There were not enough arms and powder; the artillery was almost of no practical use. W h y not be content with seizing Dorchester Neck, which commanded Boston? Gates maintained with Ward that if an attack were made at all, it must be either to bring on an engagement or to expel the enemy from the city. In any event, it would be much better to take Dorchester Heights first. Division in counsel led to postponement of action. Washington accepted his officers' decision, but to Governor Jonathan Trumbull,

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of Connecticut, he expressed his personal opinion that a golden opportunity had been lost, perhaps not to come again that year. 20 If the commander had only known Sir William Howe's optimistic state of mind as far back as December, he might have brought his officers round to his viewpoint. Like the people of Laish of old, the enemy felt secure from attack and in their security were vulnerable. As early as January they were thinking of evacuation. 21 B y direction of the commander in chief, probably after consultation with General Gates, who was well acquainted with N e w Y o r k , General L e e picked up his few belongings and departed from Cambridge to erect defenses on the North River, which Washington believed would be in danger of attack if the British left Boston. Americans on Manhattan or York Island, as it was often called, were as sad and solemn about the miseries and distresses of their town as the people of Boston about theirs. Everybody missed the colorful L e e ; everybody except Washington, possibly. Though decorum gained with Lee's leaving, wit and humor of the robust and hearty sort were needed at headquarters. Happily, Horatio Gates stayed on. Younger officers, especially M a j o r Mifflin and the medical director, D r . John Morgan, the eminent Philadelphia physician, took to Gates, whose temperament checked professional seriousness when it ran too high at times. Within the British lines, filthy foodstuffs and impure water were killing scores, and smallpox hundreds. General John Burgoyne, one of Howe's experienced officers, tried to keep up the morale by writing and producing a dramatic skit. While the hour and the occasion called for realistic acting, the British rank and file craved relief from grim, stark facts; the women camp followers looked for more and greater thrills. Despite his personal views, Washington took the suggestion about seizing Dorchester Heights under advisement. Maybe it would be best as a first step. But if so, when? H e reconvened his council. Quartermaster General Mifflin, recently elevated in rank, called attention to the fact that March 5 would be the anniversary of the "Boston Massacre." W h y not set the attack for

WASHINGTON'S RIGHT

HAND

61

the day before? A s we might put it, the enemy's surrender or evacuation on the fifth should have a psychological effect. But General Gates again stood out for postponement. Ammunition was too badly needed for action. It was a characteristic note of opposition. N o one at headquarters liked young Mifflin more than Gates. But friendship and regard were one thing; professional duty, another. Washington privately agreed with Mifflin. When a vote was taken, the adjutant general's view had lost by a majority of one. "Attack" now became the order of the day. T h o u g h he disapproved, General Gates gave it his heartiest support. Washington drove ahead. In time, Gates believed, the decision to attack would be reversed. During a feint of cannonading in the night, hundreds of American soldiers sweated over pick and shovel. In the morning, the British high command took stock of the situation and found that what they had expected for some time had happened. T h e Americans appeared well intrenched. Not willing to risk a bombardment, General H o w e issued a secret order to evacuate, with a few random shots to save his face. H e had no fear that Washington would fire the city, though Sir H e n r y Clinton was not so sure. Representatives of both forces met and entered into a sort of gentlemen's agreement. With General Putnam commanding the strategic sector on the Charles R i v e r and under the hovering eye of General Benjamin Lincoln, big and sensible—two of Gates's loyal but very different friends—the enemy were permitted to depart in peace, though in the greatest uproar and confusion, as it turned out. Safe passage was provided for T o r y citizens, pathetically hard-pressed, who took to the British men-of-war, "upwards of 1 7 0 sail." John Adams's wife, Abigail, counted them from her rooftop for posterity. 22 General Gates rode with Washington into smallpox-stricken Boston. H o w he managed to escape the disease only a miracle can explain. Unlike the commander, who had been stricken in early life, Gates was not immune. T h e army's entry was delayed until a thorough cleansing had been effected. Gates's interest in the sani-

62

WASHINGTON'S RIGHT

HAND

tary side of warfare was deep and probably influenced the commander in chief to take his precautionary step. The adjutant general had not forgotten Sir John Pringle's great service to the British armies on the Continent during the Seven Years' War. Whenever he had the opportunity, Gates rode over to Roxbury, combining an inspection tour with a social hour at the parsonage of the Reverend William Gordon. An Englishman by birth, a convinced American Whig at this time, the 393i differences between Washington and, explained, 55, 59) influence upon, of close association with Washington, 56, 11 g; attitude toward plan of Green Mountain Boys, 5 6 ; advises against taking offensive at Boston, 58, J9, 61; liked by officers in his military family, 60, 87, 120, 127, 130, 148, 170, 204, 2741 Rev. William Gordon an unofficial chaplain to, 61, 89, 131, 214, 328; parts company with John Adams upon political basis of the Union and definition of republican government, 64, 379; with Washington in New York, 64 f. 1 elected a m a j o r general, 6 6 ; failure of petition to have Gates and Mifflin sent to command in New England, 67; the command in Canada, 67 ff.; relations with Benedict Arnold, 67, 78. 79. 9 ' . 93-98. 147. i59" 6 3> 168, 185, 220; difficulties growing out of divided responsibilities with Schuyler, 68, 70, 72 ff., 109, 122, 119, 131; constructive methods in building army order, discipline, and morale, 72, 78, 88, 130; relations with Hancock suffer a shock, 7 4 ; belief that British intended invasion of New York, 76, 124, 258; why trusted by provincial leaders, 7 7 ; marauding and pillaging rare in camps of, 78; goes over the heads of superiors to get medical aid for soldiers, 81; correspondence on Crown Point issue, with Washington, 84; with Putnam, 86; efforts to provision troops, 88, 90, 107, 123,

149. ' 5 ° . i5 8 > >65. '9>> 316; advised by, and rebukes, Chase, 9 2 ; Arnold's preparations to meet Carleton, 94; Battle of Valcour Island, 96; estimate of militia, 100; his part in the Carleton episode forgotten, 104; directed to lead troops southward to join Washington, 104; spurns suggestions that he head independent army, 105, 107, n o , 192; health poor, request to Washington for relief from active duty, 108; proofs of Washington's deep respect for. 43-4. 3 ' 4 , 319. 33*. visits Congress determined to win unhampered command of Northern Army, 109; friendships and influence in Congress, n o , i n , 204; in command at Philadelphia at Washington's request, i n ; handling of foreign commission seekers, 113, 114, 117; resumes adjutant generalcy, conditions granted, 115 ff.; sent to Ticonderoga in command of Northern Department, 118 ff.; activities from Albany headquarters, 121 ff.; insists that Ticonderoga must be held, 124; goes over Washington's head and wins consent of Congress, 126; campaign against, by Schuyler faction in Congress, 126, 129; New Englanders in Gates faction, 127; makes Ticonderoga ready against attack, 128; other problems, 128; congressional vote gives Schuyler precedence in Northern Department, 129; determined not to remain subordinate under Schuyler, 131: appeals in person to Congress, 132; failure of appeal, 134; as "officer without portfolio," waiting at Philadelphia, 139; elected commandant at Philadelphia, 141; elected to replace Schuyler as commandant of Northern Department, 143; resumes active command, 144 ff.; exchange of accusations with Burgoyne, 1 4 7 ;

INDEX completes plant for an offensive, 1 4 9 - 5 2 ; first Battle of Stillwater, 1 5 2 , 153 f . ; thanked by Congress, 1 5 4 ; writes Congress, disclaiming all personal glory, 1554 armed truce with Burgoyne, 1 5 6 ; treatment of enemy prisoners and wounded, 156, 1 6 9 ; removes Arnold from his command, 1 6 3 ; preparations to repel Burgoyne and cut off his retreat, 1 6 5 ; second Battle of Stillwater (of Saratoga), 166-74; aftermath of criticism, 1 7 1 , 185, 220; answers Burgoyne's request for an armistice, 1 7 5 ; resulting negotiations, 1 7 5 ff.; terms of surrender: the ceremony, 1 go; had turned the tide of the Revolution: effects abroad, 1 8 4 ; becomes military hero, 185 ff. ; angry protest to Clinton about burning of Kingston, 1 9 0 ; interest and faith in the French, 192, 258, 3 7 2 ; official report on victory, 1 9 2 ) unfortunate delay by messenger, 195 j message to Washington about victory, 1 9 6 ; receives the thanks of Congress for himself and army, 197 f . j lectured by Hamilton, 197$ relations with Laurens, 198, 208, 224, 227, 248, 253, 292; gold medal, 198, 292, 359; other honors, 1991 the "Conway Cabal," 200-50, 266 ff. j did not seek Washington's post, 200, 209, 219, 2 2 ; ; partisans of, 203-16 passim-, pro-Gates members of Congress, 209 f f . ; Conway's letter to, made public by Wilkinson, 2 1 8 ; resulting difficulties between Washington and, 219 ff.; unwise handling of the affair, 220, 224, 226, 2 2 7 ; failure to win adherence of J a y , 220; correspondence with Washington re Conway letter, 223, 224, 227, 238247; reply to Conway, 224; nonaffiliation with Masons, 2 3 1 ; to his credit that Washington was not shouldered out for him, 233, 3 9 3 ; political

455

coups played no part in career, 2 3 3 ; Congress desired that he remain in command on Hudson, 2 3 4 ; mentioned for war board's presidency, 2 3 4 ; president of the war board, 2 35> 2 5 1 - 7 2 ; "unpardonable sin," 2 3 8 ; debt owed for his service at Y o r k , 2 4 7 ; Laurens's view of his part in Conway affair, 2 4 8 ; on committee to consult at Valley Forge upon campaign, 2 5 1 ; at Y o r k , 2 5 3 ) surpassed only by Washington in continuous service, 253, 3 9 3 ; attitude toward use of Indians in armed forces, 2 5 6 ; desire for harmony, 256, 266, 2 6 7 ; letter re instruction of artillery officers at Carlisle, 2 5 7 1 given authority over all troops in New York, 2 5 8 ; Canadian project, 258 ff., 288, 299; attempt to aid Conway, 268; challenged by Wilkinson, 2 7 1 ) attitude toward defeated enemy: note to Burgoyne, 2721 finished job as war board's president, 2 7 3 ; post in Highlands: at Peekskill, 2 7 3 ; friction with Washington, 275, 289 f . j support of Washington's attempt to frustrate Clinton, 2 7 7 ; scurrilous remark about Wilkinson, 280; duel: apology, 2 8 1 ; preparation to go to New England, 2 8 1 ; banquet at Hartford, 2 8 3 ; letter to Trumbull, 2 8 3 ; Boston cold to, 284; won over by his kindliness, 2 8 5 ; declined to lead punitive expedition against Indians, 286 f . ; conviction re central point of British military strategy, 288; request for defense of Boston harbor, 289; Washington's accusation against, 290; J a y ' s criticism, 2 9 1 ; honorary degree from Harvard, 2 9 1 ; transferred to Rhode Island, 2 9 3 ; headquarters, 294; steps to purge Providence of racketeers, 294; granted authority to make reprisals against British, 2 9 5 ; at T r a v eller's Rest, 298 ff.; Southern De-

456

INDEX

Gates, Horatio (Continued) partment committed to, 3 0 1 ; request for men, money, and supplies, 3 0 2 ; at Fredericksburg, 3 0 3 ; letter to Lincoln, 3 0 3 ; suddenness of marching order, 304; criticized, 305 (see also A r m y ) j letters to Jefferson and Caswell on failure to send supplies, 306; Battle of Camden, 308 ff.; dismay at unequal strength of his and Cornwallis's armies, 309; flight from Camden, ; i i | criticism of behavior at Camden, 3 1 2 ff. •, report to Washington, 3 1 3 ; relieved of command, 3 1 4 1 called upon for advice and counsel, 3 1 5 ; demand for money for army, 3 1 5 ; bitterest experiences, 3 1 6 ; did not know he had been superseded: manly resignation, 3 1 8 ; anxious for inquiry into conduct, 3 1 8 , 323, 3 2 4 j name excluded from Congressional thanks to Southern Army, 3 1 9 , 3 2 5 ; in defeat and bereavement, 3 2 2 } no charges against him ever lodged, 3 2 3 ) letter to President of Congress, 3 2 5 ; letters to Washington, 326, 328, 3 3 1 ; unquiet mental state, 3 2 8 ; mentioned for post of secretary of war, 3 3 1 ; committee to consider reinstatement of, 3 3 2 ; resolution calling for court of inquiry revoked, 3 3 2 ; command on Hudson River: New Windsor cantonment, 332 ff.; views upon objectives of the Revolution, 333 f. j Orderly Book: excerpts, 337, 3 3 8 ; attitude toward moral and military codes, 338) last official act: resigned commission in Continental Army, 3 4 4 ; no record of his service in files of War Department, 344) "Papers" in interest of his comrades-in-arms, 3 5 4 ; Order of the Cincinnati, 354 ff., 370 j interest in inland waterway systems: steamboat, 358; interest in Negro, 358; primary concern, 360; entitled to be called a Founding

Father, 360, 395; interest in Constitutional Convention, 3 6 0 8 . ; belief in central authority, 3 6 2 ; attitude toward concept of governing class, 363, 379; feels isolation of Traveller's Rest, 364; land in Kentucky, 365, 3 7 6 ; never a silent partner in conference, 366; given freedom of City of New York, 3 7 0 ; letters to Madison, 373 f. ; a militant Whig, 3 7 8 ; elected to assembly, 382; Adams's attitude, 382; retired from state assembly and from public life, 3 8 j ; anticipation of Monroe Doctrine, 3 8 8 ; influence in affairs of state, 388, 3 9 5 ; death: funeral, 391 j oblivion, 3 9 2 ; estimate of his character and services, 393 f. Gates, M a r y Vallance, 3 5 1 ; feels loneliness of Traveller's Rest, 364; social life, 368; at Rose Hill Farm, 369 ff. Gates, Robert (father), 5, 33 Gates, Robert (son), 22, 26, 36, 59, 75, 1 3 1 , 1 8 9 ; birth, 1 8 ; name: widely loved, 1 9 ; education, 36, 39, 1 1 2 ; urges father to quit service, 1 3 1 ; wild oats : duel, 284 ; death, 3 1 9 Gates County, N. C., named for Gates, 303 Genêt, E. C. E., 371 "Gentleman Johnny," see Burgoyne, John Georgia, in British hands, 299 Germain, George S., Lord (Viscount Sackville), 18, 1 3 5 , 145 German Flatts, 17 f. German mercenaries, desertion to Grand Army, 1 5 8 , 278 Germantown, defeat at, 1 7 3 , 186, 206, 2 1 0 , 2 1 2 , 2 1 5 , 224 Gerry, Elbridge, 67, 68, 208, 230 Gibbon, Edward, quoted, 184 Giles, William B., 379 Gist, Mordecai, at Camden, 3 1 0 , 3 1 1 Glover, John, 156, 197, 272, 287 Gordon, William, 365, 3 7 8 ; unofficial

INDEX chaplain to Gates, 62, 89, 1 3 1 , 2 1 4 , 328) history of the Revolution, 62 Green, Timothy, 282 Greene, Nathanael, 49, 204, 2 1 2 , 273, 330; results of Gates's efforts in behalf of army inherited by, 3 1 6 , 3 1 7 ; suggested as Gates's successor, 3 1 7 ; takes over command, 3 1 8 ; defense of Gates, 323, 3 3 2 ; defeat at Guilford Court House, 323 Greene, Mrs. Nathanael, 204 Green Mountain Boys, 56; see also Allen, Ethan Gregory, Isaac, at Camden, 3 1 0 Guilford Court House, 323 Gum Swamp, 308, 309 Hale, John, 32, 35, 36, 37, 4 3 ! quoted, 371 Halifax, Earl of, 6 Halket, Sir Peter, 13, 15, 16 Hall-Stevenson, John, 3 1 , 35 Hamilton, Alexander, 196, 2 1 2 , 363; arrogance toward Gates, 1 9 7 ; on Gates's retreat from Camden, 3 1 2 ; concept of governing class, 363; secretary of treasury, 364; power to dictate policy, 380; astute pupil of Philip Schuyler, 3 8 1 ; political intuition, 383; scheme to let federalist legislature choose presidential electors, 383; political body blow against Burr, 385 Hampshire Grants, 56, 100 Hancock, John, 47» 73. 93. " 8 , 196; made President of Congress, 4 2 ; character, personality, 42, 74; Gates's relations and correspondence with, 67. 74. 1 1 5 > 1^4, 150. l 6 > . reports to, on Stillwater, 145, 155, 165, 167, 172, 1 9 2 ; coldness to Gates, 284 Hanging Rock, 3 1 2 Harrison, Benjamin, 7 1 , 2 1 5 , 2 1 6 Harrison, Robert H., declined to aid in reorganizing war board, 234

457

Hartford, banquet to Gates, 283 Hartley, Thomas, 82, 93, 376 Harvard College, honorary degree to Gates, 291 Haverstraw, 280 Hazen, Moses, 263; quoted, 2j8 Heath, William, 49, 70, 1 5 0 1 agreements between Burgoyne and, 2 7 2 ; Boston's loyalty to, 284 Henry, Patrick, 1 1 4 , 363; resolution in Gates's honor, 320 Herkimer, Hans Yost, 18 Herkimer, Nicholas, 18, 149 Herkimer, Fort, 17 Hessian conscripts, desertion to Grand Army, 278 Highlands, 125, 144, 1 5 1 ; Gates's post in the, 2 7 3 ; Congress wished Gates to stay in, 281 Hillsboro, Virginia militiamen at, 304 Holland, "American party" in, 18 j Holland, Henry Fox, Lord, 27 Hopkinson, Francis, 71 Hospitals, military, 206; Congressional committee of inquiry into, 256 Howe, Richard, Lord, 77, 79, 88, 94, • 4 i . 145 Howe, Sir William 53, 58, 60, 61, 77, 79. 88, 94, 108, 138, 140, 1 4 1 , 145, 146, 150, 157, 173, 177, 197, 2 1 2 , 229; victory at the Brandywine, 1 5 0 ; command at Philadelphia turned over to Clinton, 276 Hudson, Thomas, Gates's portrait, 373 Hudson River cantonment, 332 ff.; disciplinary troubles: officers' petition to Congress, 339; "Newburgh Addresses," 340 ff.; Gates's resignation, 344 Huntington, Samuel, president of Continental Congress, 301 Independent Independent Freedom, Independent

Company, 22, 29 Gazetteer, or Chronicle of 3 61 f. Reflector, 10, 11

458

INDEX

Indians, Braddock's expedition against French and, 13 ff. j liquor traffic with, 18} Gates's treatment of, solicitude for, and relations with, 20, 4 1 , 12», 128, 130, 1 3 3 , 146, 1 J 7 , 172, 186, 357, 3J9 f.; Charles Lee's "marriage" to daughter of chief, 401 French, at Cambridge, 591 Carleton's allies, 97} in Burgoyne's service, 135, 136, 138, 147, Tj2, 166, 167, 1 8 1 ) use of, in armed forces approved by war board, 256; Gates's influence with, 286} Congress resolved to send punitive expedition against, 286 Inspector-generalship, 234) creation of office: separation from authority of commander in chief recommended, 236; an expansion of adjutant-generalcy, 237 Ireland, Volunteers of, 309, 3 1 1 "Irruption into Canada," set Canada James River, Gates's interest in development of, 358 Jay, John, 142, 186} marriage: influence, 2201 Gates's unsuccessful effort to win favor of, 221 j inquiry re rumors about military service, 290; criticism of Gates, 2911 attitude toward Cincinnati, 354) made chief justice, 364) host to Gates, 3 7 1 ; ignored partisan plea of Hamilton, 384 Jay, Sarah Livingston, 220, 371 Jefferson, Thomas, 1 1 , 87, 355, 358 3 751 committee to draft a declaration of principles, 2 1 3 j re Doctor Rush, 330J secretary of foreign affairs (or state), 3641 a political idol of Gates's, 374} trade policy espoused by Madison, 374; Vice President, 376; friendship with Gates, 377, 395 j freethinking dinner, 378) needed to pilot ship of state, 380) tied with Burr for Presidency, 3841 presidential choice, 3 8 j j majority in favor of administration of, 389

Jeffersonians, time for partisan coup by, 380 Johnson, Sir John, i j i Johnson, Sir William, 18, 156, 286 Joscelyn, Sir Thomas and Mary, 3 Kalb, Johann, Baron de, 259, 274j criticism of Washington, 2 J 2 1 easily discouraged, 262; belief that a treaty for a suspension of arms was on foot, 263) in the Carolina», 3001 relieved of command, 30 n turned over authority: served Gates to the end, 304; at Camden, 3 1 0 ; death, 3 1 1 Kentucky, Gates's land in, 365, 376 King, Rufus, 390 King's College, 10, 36 King's Ferry, 279 Kingston, 179; burning of, 190 Knox, Henry, 68, 236, 254, 261, 273, 2 8 7 > 3 3 1 ) close association with Washington, 212, 228, 229; quoted, 32oj draft for the Order of the Cincinnati, 3545 office, 355 Kosciuszko, Thaddeus, 1 2 1 , 1 5 1 , 280, 199» 3*7. 3*9> 3j8) 3^5, 3«5i release for service with Southern Army asked for, 305 ; at Camden, 308 ; high regard for Gates, 395 Lafayette, 187, 192, 2 3 1 , 273, 327; assigned to command in Northern New York, 259; attitude toward Washington and Gates, 260; not a republican at heart, 2611 at Albany, 2 6 1 ; skirmishes with Troup, 2631 regard for Gates, 39s Lafayette Escadrille, 1 1 5 Landers, H. L., opinion of Camden, 321 Langdon, Samuel, 291 Laurens, Henry, 253, 266; president of Congress, 195; forwards resolution of Congress to Gates, 1981 part in Conway incident, 208, 224, 227; Gates's relations with, 248, 292 Laurens, John, 186, 206, 292; admiration for Washington, 248

INDEX Learned, Ebenezer, at Stillwater, 153, 154, 1 6 1 , 167, 168 Lee, Arthur, 184, 2 1 4 Lee, Charles, 16, 33, 47, 48, 49, 53, 57, I O J , 1 1 0 , 199, 204, 284, 321, 329, 330, 3641 characteristics, 40, 60, 69) friendship with Gates, 40, 106 f . j and Washington, 54, 69, 106, 1 1 0 ; in New York, 60, 64; sent to the South, 69; captured by British, 107; order to retreat at Monmouth, 278 Lee, "Light Horse Harry," on Gates's retreat from Camden, 312 Lee, Richard Henry, 43, 7 1 , 139, 186, 2 33> 3 58; advanced social thinking, 44; relations with Gates, 44, 70, 213, 2 1 4 ; attitude toward Conway incident, 209, 213 (., 215, 2 1 6 ; resolution of June 1776, 213 ( attitude toward Deane, 2 1 4 ; quoted, 234 Lee, Thomas S., 314 Leeds family and Gates's parents, 3, 5 Letters from a Farmer (Dickinson), 34 Letter-writing, Congress and officers, 200; the Adamses, 209 Leutze, Emanuel, 109 Lewis, Francis, 13, 28, 30 Lewis, Morgan, 13, 127, 128, 181 Liberty, doctrine proclaimed by Whigs, 11 Liberty, Sons of, 35 Liberty Boys, 43 Ligonier, John, Lord, 23 Lincoln, Benjamin, 61, 1 4 1 , 148, 149, 1 6 1 , 230, 261; at Stillwater, 149, ' 5 ' i 153, 172, 1 7 3 ; thanked by Congress, 198; attacked Savannah, repulsed, 299; surrendered Charleston, 300; received Cornwallis's sword, 327; appointed secretary of war, 3 3 1 ; service in behalf of Gates, 332) collector of port of Boston, 364 Little Lynches Creek, 307 Little Turtle, Gates's attitude toward campaign against, 359 Livingston, Alida, 367 Livingston, Beekman, 190

459

Livingston, Brockholst, 147, 148, 155, 160, 162, 220, 382 Livingston, Robert R., 7 1 , 105, 348 Livingston, William, 9, 10, i t , 16, 2 1 , 65, 147, 148, 220, 382; at Constitutional convention, 361 Lovell, James, 127, 226, 2 5 1 , 378; Gates's forceful advocate, 209, 2 1 1 ) abilities, 2 1 1 ; criticism of Washington, 2 1 2 f . ; quoted, 238, 291 Lynches Creek, 307, 308 McCrea, Jane, 152 McDougall, Alexander, 1 5 1 , 266, 344 Macneven, W. J . , 390, 392; quoted, 368 Madison, Dolly, 376, 391, 392 Madison, James, 332, 357; genius impressed on Constitution, 361 j espousal of Jefferson's trade policy, 374; friendship with Gates, 374, 37^> 395 i correspondence with Gates, 388 Mahan, Alfred T . , 81, 94, 103, 104 Malmedy, Francis de, 166, 192 Marion, Francis, on Gates's retreat from Camden, 3 1 2 ; loyalty, 316 Marylanders, at Camden, 307, 308, 3 1 1 Masonic affiliations, 230 f. Massachusetts, Provincial Congress of, 4* Mathews, John, 317 Medal, gold, 198, 292, 359 Mercury, 10 Methodism, 31 Mifflin, Thomas, 24, 49, 60, 61, 66, 67. 7>> 87. 1*4, 189. ^ 13, 217, 226, 2 SS, *73> 357. 393 i attachment to Gates: lack of confidence in Washington, 203 j relations with "Conway Cabal," 204, 222-25 fassim-, part in reorganization of war board, 234, 2 3 j ; at Constitutional Convention, 3 6 1 ; death, 376 Militia, relative value of regular troops and, 100, 125

460

INDEX

Mohawk Indians, 40; Congress resolved to send punitive expedition against, 286; villages laid waste, 288 Monckton, Robert, friendship with Gates, 7, 19, 22, 26, 33 i Gates names son for, 1 9 ; military career, 19, 2 4 ; governor of New York, 20; blamed for activities of Gates, 2 1 ; in Martinique, 21 f. j character, 22, 3 1 ; Gates ends friendship with, 37 Money, worth of Continental dollar, 3'5 Monmouth, 278; Washington's hopes frustrated, 279 Monroe, James, 2 1 7 , 3 5 0 ; friendship with Gates, 3 7 4 ; Minister Extraordinary to Spain and France, 389 Montgomery, Janet L., 190, 348 ff., 386 Montgomery, Richard, 49, 7 3 ; Canadian expedition: death, 57 Montreal, surrender, 57 Mooney, Michael, 381 Morale, public: weakened, 232 Morgan, Daniel, I J , 144, 196, 378; at Stillwater, 1 5 3 , 160, 167, 169, 170, 1 2 7 > 1 7 3 ; made a brigadier, 304 Morgan, John, 34, 60, 8 1 , 207 Morris, Gouverneur, 142, 354, 383 Morris, Lewis, 280 Morris, Robert, 7 1 , 76, 330, 335, 366i character, 1 0 1 f . ; Gates's correspondence with, i o 2 ; advice to Gates, 324; at Constitutional Convention, 361 Morristown, 1 1 1 ff141, 297 Moultrie, Fort, fall of, 300 Nash, Abner, 302, 303 Negroes, not wanted in army, 5 2 ; see also Slaves; Gates's interest in, 358 Nelson, Thomas, J r . , 109 Newark, 280 "Newburgh Addresses," 340 ff. Newcastle, Duke of, 12 New England, relations'with Schuyler, 56, 100, 1 4 2 ; confidence in Gates, 67, 68; furnishes aid for service in

North, 126, 1 3 3 ; climax of war expected in, 2 8 1 ; continued fear of invasion, 289; political leadership, 37» New Englanders, 100, 1 2 7 , 187, 374 Newspapers, Burgoyne's opinion of, I J 6 New Windsor, 176; cantonment, 332 ff.; disciplinary trouble, 3 3 9 ; dissension persisted at, 352 New York, City, prewar social and political life, 9, 16, 20, 3 1 ; fortification, 60, 64; taken by British, 96; Congress removed from, 3 6 7 ; Rose Hill Farm near, 369 ff.; Gates's interest in first water system, 3 8 1 ; New York State, belief that British planned invasion of, 76, IOJ, 1 2 4 , 258; authority over all troops invested in one officer, 2 5 7 ; Gates appointed to command, 258; J . Q. Adams on politics in, 381 Nixon, John, 144 North Carolina, Kalb in, 300; Gates in command, 3 0 3 ; militiamen in battle of Camden, 3 1 1 Northern Department, see Army, American Nova Scotia, Gates in, 7 Ohio Company, 14 Ohio lands, Washington's interest in, 286 Oneida Indians, 17, 94, 1 5 7 , 1 7 2 , 186 Osgood, Samuel, 382 Oswald, Eleazer, 3 6 1 , 3 6 5 ; quoted, 362 Otis, James, 68 Otis, Mercy Warren, 240 Paca, William, 1 3 2 , 1 3 3 , 1 3 4 Paine, Robert Treat, 67 Paine, Thomas, 6 5 ; meeting with Gates, 6 5 ; relations with Washington, 229 Palfrey, William, 195 Paramus, 280 Paris, Treaty of: problems following, 353

INDEX Parker, Thomas, 7 Patterson, John, tz8, 197, 281, 308 Peale, Charles Willson, 50, 373 Peedee River, 306 Peekskill, Putnam's headquarters at, 144; Gates appointed to, 273 Penfold, Private, aids the wounded Gates, 16; Gates's offer of home to, 293 Pennsylvania Gazette, 312 Peters, Richard, 235, 2 j i , 316 Philadelphia, prewar, 19; Congress obliged to leave, 94, 108, 109, 150; defense of, 108; Gates in command, i n 9., 141; removal of military stores from, 113} military failure at, 185, 2 30 j British command at ¡evacuation, 276; capture of, not prime objective of British, 288; nation's capital, 367 Philipps, Mrs., 298; lost at sea, 299 Philipps, Ann (Ann Fenwick), 8, 298, 2 99> 347> 3*8 Philipps, Elizabeth, 7; marriage, 8 j see under Gates, Elizabeth Phillips, William, 136, 137, : j 4 , 166, 174, 181, 188 Phinney, Edmund, 88 Pickering, Timothy, 52, 195, 196, 342; aided in reorganizing war board, 234; joined Federalists, 378 Pinckney, Charles C., federalist candidate for Vice Presidency, 384 Pinckney, Thomas, 305, 329; at battle of Camden, 310; joined Federalists, 378 Pine, Robert Edge, 373 Pintard, John, 370 Politicians, place-hunting, 232 Politics, in New York, 9, 16, 31, 381; divergent ideas of Gates and John Adams, 64; Schuyler, Gates cabals, 126 ff. j the "Conway Cabal," 200250; Congress reeked with, 200 Poor, Enoch, 91, 161, 167, 281 Potomac, Gates's interest in development, 358

Potts, Jonathan, 89, 156, 189, 193, 217 Presidential election, thrown into lap of House, 385 Presidential electors, Hamilton's scheme to let federalist legislature choose, 383 Princeton, battle at, u t Pringle, Sir John, 62 Profiteering, 294 Providence, disaffection in, 2931 Gates's headquarters, 294; steps to purge of racketeers, 294; harbor patrol, 195 Provincial Congress, 42 Provoost, Samuel, 383, 391 Pulaski, Count Casimir, 299 Putnam, Israel, 61, 144, 151, 158, 160, 173, 187, 261, 277, 336; commission, 48} character and ability, 48; on Crown Point issue, 86; sends supplies to Gates, 1491 evaluated, 221 Quartermaster's department in need of attention, 302 Quebec, battle at, 57 Radicals, see Whigs Ramsay, David, on Gates's retreat from Camden, 312 Randolph, Edmund, Secretary of State, 376 Rawdon, Francis, Lord, 300, 308 Raymontis, Chevalier de, 292 Reading, Pa., 274; social life, 2171 Conway incident at, 218 Reed, Joseph, 49, 110, 188, 212, 213 Reed, William, 319 Reflector, Independent, 10, 11 Religious freedom, 11 Republican-democrats, 381; see also Burr, Aaron Republics, alliance of three great, possible, 375 Rhode Island, Gates transferred to : conditions, 293 Riedesel, Baron von, 136, 154, 15$, 157, 166, 168, 174, 181

462

INDEX

Riedesel, Baroness von, 1 3 5 , 1 6 5 , 1 6 8 , 182 Rivington, James, on Gates's retreat f r o m Camden, 3 1 2 Rochambeau, Count de, 3 2 $ ; ordered to America, 3 0 0 j contribution to outcome of Revolution, 327 Rogers's Rangers, 148 Rose H i l l F a r m , 369-96 R o y a l Americans, 29 Rugeley, Colonel, estate o f , 307 Rumsey, James, steamboat, 358 Rush, Benjamin, 34, 78, 2 0 5 , 226, 3 2 9 , 33°> 35&, 3 9 3 ; critical of Washington, 206-8, 2 2 6 ; joint authorship of " T h o u g h t s of a F r e e m a n " : amanuensis of " C o n w a y C a b a l " ? , 2 0 7 ; Gates's friendship for, 2 5 5 1 quarrel with Washington and Shippen, 2 5 5 1 physician to Gates, 3 9 0 ; Rutledge, E d w a r d , 7 1 , 300, 3 0 3 , 3 3 2 Sackville, L o r d ( L o r d Germain, q. *?.)> 18 St. Clair, Arthur, 82, 1 1 9 , 2 8 0 ; at Ticonderoga, 1 3 7 ; blamed f o r its f a l l , 1 3 8 , 1 3 9 ; Order of the Cincinnati, 3 5 5 , 3 5 6 ; as President of Congress sent medal to Gates, 3 5 9 ; g o v ernor of Northwest T e r r i t o r y , 3 5 9 ) routed by Indians, 3 6 0 ; charges against, 387 St. Leger, B a r r y , 1 3 8 , 1 4 2 , 1 4 6 , 1 4 8 St. Paul's Church ( C h a p e l ) , New Y o r k , 383 Sanders Creek, 308 Sandy Hook, 2 7 9 ; French fleet due o f f , 280 Saratoga (present Schuylerville), Schuyler's move toward, 1 4 1 f . ; Gates's preparations, 1 5 1 ; Battle of Stillwater, first, 1 5 2 f . ; second, 1 6 6 f . | B u r goyne's retreat to, 1 7 0 5 surrender proceedings between Burgoyne and Gates, 1 7 5 ; scene and ceremony of surrender, 1 8 0 j effects o f , in colonies, 1 8 4 ff.j in Europe, 1 8 4 ; Gates'» re-

ports on, to Congress, 1 9 2 ; to Washington, 1 9 5 ) congressional action on, 1 9 7 f . ; Gates ready to forestall any alteration of terms by Burgoyne, 2 2 1 5 American liberties secured at, 364 Saratoga, Convention o f , 1 8 0 , 1 8 4 , 2 2 1 j Congress determined to force London to accept, 272 Savannah, siege o f , 299 Schuyler, Angelica, 284 Schuyler, Philip J o h n , 6, 54, 63, 68, 78, 8 1 , 99, 1 0 4 , 1 1 8 , 1 2 3 , 1 4 1 , 1 4 2 , I J J , 1 5 9 , 1 8 2 , 1 9 7 , 208, 220, 280, 286, 380, 3 8 1 ; prestige, 4 8 ; voted m a j o r general, 4 8 } relations between Gates and, 50, 72, 7 5 , 85, 93, 1 2 2 , 1 3 1 , 1 8 7 , 1 9 1 ; dispute with Hampshire Grants, 56, IOOJ expedition to Canada, 5 7 j divided responsibility with Gates in command of Northern D e partment, 68, 70-96 fasstm, 109; character, 7 3 , 76, 83, 90, 95, 1 0 4 5 offers to resign, 83, 93, 1 0 9 ; commission sent to audit accounts o f , 90, 9 1 ; superseded by Gates, 1 1 8 ; Schuyler, Gates cabals in Congress, 1 2 6 ff.; again in command in the North, 1 2 9 ; criticized f o r f a l l of T i c o n d e r o g a , 1 3 8 , 1 3 9 , 1 4 2 ; retreats as Burgoyne advances, 1 4 1 ; again superseded by Gates, 1 4 3 ; resulting lack of cooperation, 1 4 4 , 1 4 6 ; destruction of estate by British, 1 7 0 , 1 7 6 , 1 8 7 , 1 9 2 ; favored as w a r board's president, 2 3 5 ; indifference, 264 Schuyler, M r s . Philip J . , 1 2 2 , 1 8 2 , 1 8 8 Schuylerville, see Saratoga Scolay, W i l l i a m , 2 3 0 Scott, John M o r i n , 9, 1 0 , 1 6 , 2 1 , 6 j , 135 Sharpies, James, 3 7 3 Shenandoah

Valley,

appeal

to

132,

134,

Gates,

>4. 39 Sherman, R o g e r , 7 1 ,

3631

at Constitutional Convention, 3 6 1 Shippen, P e g g y , 276

INDEX Shippen, W i l l i a m , 206, 207, 232; quarrel with D r . Rush, 2 j $ Shipping, British interference with, 29J Ships, building o f , 79, 81 Six Nations, 112, 130, 133, 172, 285, 287

Skene, Philip, 140, 174 Slaves, purchased by Gates, 3 9 ; abolition advocated by R . H . Lee, 44; Gates's qualms of conscience about, 358i freed and provided f o r , 368 S m a l l p o x , 61, 113, 125, 217 S m a l l w o o d , W i l l i a m , at battle of C a m den, 3 1 0 , 3 1 1 Smith, A b i g a i l A d a m s , 371 Smith, Jonathan B a y a r d , 2 1 6 , 230 Smith, T h o m a s , 64, 65 Smith, T h o m a s ( o f Continental C o n g r e s s ) , 332 Smith, W i l l i a m , S r . , 9, 20 Smith, W i l l i a m , J r . , 9, 10, 16, 21, 28, 64, 65

Society of St. T a m m a n y , 381 Sons of Liberty, 35 South, open to attack, 3 1 3 South C a r o l i n a , in line f o r invasion, 300j Gates in command, 303; soldiers ordered to, without supplies and poorly equipped, 304 Southern A r m y , see A r m y , American Spain, recognition of United States, 185 Sparks, J a r e d , 1 5 5 Stanley, L a d y , 1 3 5 Stanton, E . M . , mentioned, 222 Stanwix, J o h n , 1 9 Stark, J o h n , 148, 153, 259, 268, 277; at Stillwater, 149, 173, 174 Stark's K n o b , 1 74 States, united but separate, 284; fourteenth state, see C a n a d a Stephen, A d a m , 39, 40 Steuben, F . W . v o n , B a r o n , 52, 203, 2 3 1 . 2 74> 1 7 6 . 3 * 7 , 33

1

1

39> ' + 0 , 1 4 2 , 1 4 4 , 145»

199;

appearance,

6,

48,

50;

49i in

French and Indian W a r , 1 2 , 1 3 , 1 4 , 1 6 ; relationship and cooperation between Gates and, 37, 59, 84,

108,

'.09, 1 : 2 , 1 1 6 , 1 1 8 ,

141,

2

324,

551

342;

123, 125,

276, 282, 296, 307, offer to raise, pay, and

INDEX lead troops to aid Boston, 42, 48; prewar conference with Gates and R. H. Lee, 43; made commander in chief of all the forces, 48, 84, 123; at Cambridge, 50 ff.; military creed, and attitude toward personnel and discipline, 51, 55, 106, 1 1 5 , 1 1 7 , 1 0 6 ; Charles Let and, 54, 69, 106, 1 1 0 ; on the Cause, 5 4 ; social background and attitude, 5 5 ; character, beliefs, traits, 55, 69, 75, 84, 85, 104, 106, 110, 112, 123, 156, 198; true greatness in his character, 56, 394; deference to the wishes of Congress, 56, 58, 328; desire that communications to Congress should be routed through him, 63, 244; in New Y o r k City, 64; petitioned re command in New England, 67, 68; wife and home, 7 5 ; Crown Point issue, 82, 84; distrust of militia, 100, 1 2 5 ; triumphed with regular troops, 1 0 1 ; enthusiasm for, slipping, 101, 110, 1 1 5 , 185, 188, 203®.; Gates's refusal to form army independent of, 105, 107, 110, 1 9 2 ; asks Gates to take command at Philadelphia, 108, i i i ; crossing of Delaware, 109; capture of Trenton, 110, 1 1 1 ; victory at Princeton, 1 1 1 ; leans heavily upon Gates at Philadelphia, n i f f . ; attitude toward foreigners, 113, 215, 224, 258; asks Gates to resume adjutant generalcy, 1 1 6 ; requests Congress to give Gates Philadelphia command, 1 4 1 ; way in which he got first news of Saratoga victory, 194, 195; sends Hamilton as emissary to Gates, 196; the " C o n w a y Cabal," 200-50; Gates did not seek to supersede, 200, 202, 219, 225; defenders and critics of, 201-16 passim, 224, 228-30; plot to unseat? 202, 235; attitude of John Adams toward, 209, 210; Conway's criticism of, made public, 218; resulting difficulties between Gates and, 219 ff.; seriousness

465

with which he took this matter, 2 1 9 ; correspondence with Gates re Conway letter, 223, 224, 227, 238-47; never in greater need of forthright counselors, 228; Masonic affiliation, 230; cause of activity against, 232; temper of time favored looking for another in his place, 233, 393; motives and acts morally beyond reproach, 233; feared Conway's rise in power, 234; influence impaired by Conway's promotion to inspectorgeneralship, 236; cold reception of Conway, 236; human weakness, 237; not a democrat in relations with officers or men, 238; notes to Fitzgerald and Governor Henry, 247 ; Kalb's criticism of, 252; Dr. Rush's quarrel with, 2 5 5 ; attitude toward use of Indians in armed forces, 256; had no liking for Canadian expedition, 259, 264, 288; Canadian fiasco closed with honors to, 265; prevented Conway from actively serving as inspector general, 266; bitterness toward Conway, 270; loneliest figure of his time, 270; invited Gates to conference at Valley Forge, 273; rebuke to Gates, 275; march to intercept Sir Henry Clinton, 276; tenacity of purpose, 278; at White Plains, 281; instructions to Gates re discipline, 282; offered command of punitive expedition to Gates, then to Sullivan, 286; interest in Ohio lands, 286; felt repercussion of Indian massacre, 288; could not play role of statesman-soldier, 289; accusations against Gates, 290; attitude toward Gates after Camden, 314, 324 ff.; bows to pressure group: failure to praise Gates, 3 1 7 ; Yorktown, 326 ff.; personal attack on, 3 4 1 ; view of "Newburgh Addresses," 3 4 1 ; A d dress at Temple Hill, 342 ff.; Order of the Cincinnati, 354 ff.; many calls upon his time, 356; private affairs in

INDEX

466

Washington, George {Continued) a sorry plight, 3 5 6 ; interest in inland navigation, 3 5 8 ; belief in central authority, 3 6 2 ; attitude toward Hamiltonian concept of a governing class, 363 ; elected President, 363 ; proclaimed neutrality in struggle between England and France, 3 7 9 ; death, 3 8 2 ; memorial service, 3 8 3 ; owed much to Gates, 394 Washington, J o h n Augustine, 3 5 1 Washington, Lund, 75, 2 1 5 , 2 1 6 , 356 Washington, M a r t h a , 50, 75, 204. Washington, Samuel, 39 Washington, D. C., 366, 367 Waterbury, David, 79, 80, 87, 1 0 3 , 128 ; at Battle of Valcour Island, 96, 97. 98 Wayne, Anthony, 1 0 4 , 1 2 8 , 205 Webster, James, 3 0 9 ; attack at Camden, 3 1 0 Weekly Journal, 9 Wesley, John, 31 ; influence upon Gates, West Indies, Gates interested menting ties with, 388 Whig Club, 9, 10, 16, 20, 65 Whitcomb, Benjamin, 1 3 7 , 1 9 1 White Plains, 281

in

ce-

Wilkinson, James, 1 0 7 , 1 2 8 , 1 2 9 , 1 3 0 , 1 3 7 . 159»

l6

°.

'7'.

1

7 2 > 17 7, >79>

1 8 0 , 1 8 1 , 1 9 3 , 220, 2 2 6 ; Memoirs, 1 0 7 ; recommended f o r promotion, 1 9 3 ; dalliance in delivering Gates's official report on Saratoga surrender, 1 9 3 - 9 5 ; social assets, 2 1 7 ; " C o n w a y C a b a l " to some extent the outgrowth of his indiscretion, 2 1 8 ff., 2 2 2 , 2 2 4 , 2 3 9 ; odium attaching to name of Gates first etched by, 241 ; stung by furore over Conway's letter, 2 7 0 ; challenge to Gates, 2 7 1 ; second challenge to Gates, 2 8 0 ; duel, 281 Willett, Marinus, 1 4 9 , 276 Williams, Otho H., objected to Gates's marching order, 3 0 4 ; at battle of Camden, 3 1 0 , 3 1 1 ; praise of Gates, 3 1 8 , 3 2 0 ; joined Federalists, 378 Will's Creek, 1 3 , 1 5 Wilson, James, 71 ; at Constitutional Convention, 3 6 1 Witherspoon, J o h n , 1 1 2 , 256, 332 Wynkoop, Jacob, 79 Y e l l o w fever, 385 Y o r k , 186, 194, 1 9 5 , 2 1 8 , 2 3 3 , 248 f f . ; Gates's outstanding work at, 257 Yorktown, Battle of 3 2 7 ; the child of Saratoga, 392 Zenger, John Peter, 9, 10