Major General Horatio Lloyd Gates (July 26, 1727 – April 10, 1806) was a British-born American army officer and politician who served in the British Army and Continental Army. During the American Revolutionary War, he played a major role at the American victory at the 1777 Battles of Saratoga. Gates' career was subsequently tarnished when he was decisively defeated by the British at the 1780 Battle of Camden. He has been described as "one of the Revolution's most controversial military figures" due to his role in the Conway Cabal, which attempted to discredit and replace George Washington as the Continental Army's commander-in-chief, along with his controversial actions at Saratoga and Camden.
Born in Maldon, Essex, Gates served as a British army officer during the War of the Austrian Succession and the French and Indian War. Frustrated by his inability to advance in rank, Gates sold his commission and bought a slave plantation in Virginia. On Washington's recommendation, the Continental Congress made Gates the Adjutant General of the Continental Army in 1775. He was made the commander of Fort Ticonderoga in 1776 and of Northern Department in 1777.