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More Trouble with Gates


Thaddeus Kosciuszko

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Not only was Horatio Gates suspected of complicity in the "Conway Cabal" to remove George Washington as Commander in Chief, he also suffered this ignominy:

 

With 900 Continentals from Maryland and Delaware and 2,000 militia from Virginia and North Carolina, Gates led his forces into battle with British General Charles Cornwallis at Camden, South Carolina, on August 16, 1780. The ensuing defeat effectively ended Gate's career. His men ate under-baked bread and spent the night before the engagement suffering from diarrhea. To make matters worse, the militia had no bayonets. The sick and ill-armed militiamen took to panic-stricken flight when confronted by the first British charge. The Continentals stayed to fight, but to no avail.

 

Gates' final action as a commander was to ride 240 miles in order to report total Defeat in a letter to Congress sent from Hillsborough, North Carolina. Gates would never again take the field as a military commander.

 

(http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/general-gates-takes-command-of-the-southern-army)

 

GATES_exb.jpg

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