Major General Horatio Gates to George Washington, 22 May 1781
From Major General Horatio Gates
Philadelphia1 22th May 1781
Sir
I have been Honoured with your Letter of the 12th Inst:, declaring to me, that no charge having been brought against me before your Excellency, The Court of Inquiry into my Conduct could proceed upon no other principle in the Military Way, than the Resolve of Congress of the 5th of October last.2
Having been inform’d, that Congress had no Charge against me, I transmitted to them by the president, your Excellencys last Letter. Their inclosed Resolve is the Result;3 and I conceive that your Intention pointed as it was has been Mistaken.
This evening I wrote to His Excellency the president, that, “Before our Disaster at Camden—had a Resolve of Congress order’d, that every Commanding Officer who shall not beat the Enemy, must be recalled; & Subjected to a Court of Inquiry, whether, or not any Crime be laid to His Charge, I would as patiently Submit to my Fate, as Officers who Surrender a Fort, or loose a Ship; The Special Resolve of Congress dooms me to Temporary Disesteem, and Loss of Confidence.”4
For These reasons Sir, I can neither with Advant[a]ge to the publick, nor Honour to myself, accept under my present Circumstances, the proferred indulgence of Congress.
Convinced that you have done every thing which propriety could admit, to protect Slandered Officers against Anonymous Accusations, I will set out tomorr⟨o⟩w morning for Virginia, where I shall wait for your Excellencys Orders.5 With Sincere thanks for the Army in General, and myself in particular, I have the Honour to be Sir, Your Excellencys most Humble And Most Obedient Servant
Horatio Gates
ALS, DLC:GW; copy, NHi: Gates Papers; copy, NN: Emmet Collection.
1. Gates, who resided on a plantation in Berkeley County, Va., had traveled to Philadelphia in April to seek congressional action regarding the court of inquiry ordered in fall 1780 to investigate his conduct as commander of the southern department (see John Armstrong to GW, 8 March 1781, and n.9; see also Samuel Huntington to GW, 6 Oct. 1780, and n.2 to that document, and GW to Nathanael Greene, 22 Oct.).
2. See GW to Gates, 12 May.
3. The enclosed resolution, which Congress adopted on 21 May, reads: “Resolved That the resolutions of the 5th of October last ‘directing a Court of enquiry to be held on the conduct of Majr General Gates as Commander of the Southern Army, and directing the Commander in Chief to appoint an Officer to command the Southern Army in the room of Genl Gates until such enquiry be made’ did not operate as a suspension of General Gates from his Command in the line of the Army at large as a Major General: And as from the situation of affairs in the Southern department such court of enquiry cannot be speedily held, that Major Genl Gates be informed that he is at liberty to repair to head Quarte[r]s and take such command as the Commander in Chief shall direct” (DLC:GW; see also , 20:521–22, and Huntington’s first letter to GW, 28 May). A letter Gates wrote Samuel Huntington, president of Congress, while in Philadelphia, docketed 17 May but dated 18 May in congressional journals, prompted the resolution to spare “the extravagant Rate” required “for Living” in Philadelphia while Gates awaited proceedings (DNA:PCC, item 154; see also , 20:515, 520–21). Huntington enclosed a copy of the resolution when he wrote Gates on 22 May (see , 17:258).
Gates transmitted GW’s letter written on 12 May when he replied to Huntington from Philadelphia on the same date: “The Letter which you Honour’d me with this day—inclosing the Resolve of the 21st Inst:, is before me; and with Your Excellency I lament those Impediments which prevent Such immediate Inquiry as I wish to take place; I Solicited it before I retired from the Head Quarters of the Southern Army—but Major General Baron Stueben having been Order’d by General Greene on a Distant Command, Since his Excellency the Commander in Chief appointed Him president of the Court of Inquiry, my Hopes were frustrated. General Greene inform’d me before I left him, that no Accusation was brought against me, and I have the satisfaction to learn from General Washingtons Letter of the 12th Inst:, that His Excellency having none to bring, he could not otherwise proceed on any inquiry into my Conduct, than on the principle of the Resolve of the 5th of October last; which Orders the Measure—These are Alleviations of my Misfortunes; but the uninform’d Public Still believe, that the Resolve, which recalled me from the Command of the Southern Army, was grounded on positive Charges. …
“I never Shall cease in my private Capacity to serve our Cause; but convinced that my Efforts in the Line of the Army at large as a Major General, would prove useless, before I am publickly restored to the Esteem of the Soldiers, prudence, and patriotism, equally dissuade me from presuming, under my present Circumstances, to accept the Indulgence of Congress.” Citing costs, Gates continued: “I shall immediately return to my Family and wait for the Orders of Congress, or the Commander in Chief not doubting that ⟨all⟩ possible means will be Generously tried, for doing me the Justice which I confidently expect from the Virtue of my Superiors” (DNA:PCC, item 154).
4. See n.3 above.
5. For GW’s response, see his letter to Huntington, 6 June.