Horatio Gates Research Paper

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Timeer Mehta
Professor
Literature of the American Revolution
9 March 2016
The Gentleman’s General
Horatio Gates and the American Revolution
Horatio Gates was born on July 26th, 1727 in Maldon, England. A military man from a young age, he served as a lieutenant in the British Army and then later served as a captain during the French and Indian War, where he fought in the North American campaign. Though he would return to his native England following the conclusion of the war, he sympathized with the restive colonial protests against the British government in the following years resulting from the high taxes imposed on the colonies to pay for their defense. Gates eventually moved to Virginia in 1772 not long before the break out of the American Revolutionary War, where he was appointed an officer in the Continental Army. Warren characterizes gates as “an officer of bravery, punctuality, and a nice sense of military honor, but with the fine feelings of humanity, and the delicacy of the gentleman” (2009, p. 240).
Throughout Warren’s work, Warren characterizes Gates in this way by speaking about Gates respectfully and alluding to his gentlemanly acts. This contrasts with how other sources depict Gates. Consider external sources such as the Louisiana State University Press’ biography of …show more content…

He became famous following the decisive Battle of Saratoga in New York, where he was able to take take the British General Burgoyne and the whole of his forces prisoner. As Burgoyne and the rest of the British forces were then escorted to their camp, Warren notes that “they were everywhere treated with such humanity, and even delicacy, that themselves acknowledged, the civil deportment of the inhabitants of the country, was without a parallel that they thought it remarkable, that not an insult was offered.” (Warren, 2009, p.

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