Major General Horatio Gates was appointed by Congress as Commander of the Southern Army on June 13, 1780. He replaced Major General Benjamin Lincoln who was captured when Charles Town fell on May 12, 1780. 

Gates is best known for his humiliating defeat at the Battle of Camden on August 16, 1780, where 900 patriots were killed or wounded, and over 1,000 captured. He made a baffling tactical error by placing his untested militia directly in front of the British’s best trained forces. When the militia line predictably collapsed and fled the battlefield, Gates was right behind them, leaving his army to suffer a devastating defeat.

Soon after, Gates was relieved of command.