in 1778. However, his scandalous behavior at
Monmouth in June 1778 resulted in his court martial. He was finally
dismissed from the service by Congress in 1780.

Gates was the son of an English servant. Somehow he received a regular
army commission, serving in the colonies during the French and Indian
War. He resigned as a major in 1772 and moved to Virginia. Whereas Lee
was haughty, Gates was pleasant and amiable. He also was ambitious and
constantly sought military commands whose demands exceeded his talents.
Commander of the northern army which won the great victory at Saratoga in
1777, Gates was willing to take over as commander in chief in the dark
days of 1777-1778, but his friends in Congress could not displace
Washington. Over Washington's recommendation, Congress elected him
commander of the southern armies in 1780. He left that command after the
blundering defeat at Camden, South Carolina, in August 1780. Gates
retired to Virginia where he lived to an old age, much honored as an
Englishman who loyally supported independence.

The English generals from Virginia did not give Washington his eventual
victories, however. His command strength came from Virginians who learned
by experience, were devoted to the Revolutionary cause, and were loyal to
the general. They were with the Continental Army in its darkest days at
Morristown in the winter of 1776-1777 and Valley Forge in 1777-1778.
These included Colonel Theodorick Bland and his cavalry who fought at
Brandywine in 1777 and Charleston in 1780; General William Woodford, the
victor at Great Bridge, who commanded Virginia Continentals fighting at
Brandywine and Germantown in 1777, and Monmouth in 1778, was captured at
Charleston in 1780 and died in a New York prison that December; Colonel
William Washington and his cavalry who fought in nearly all the battles
in southern campaigns; Colonel Peter Muhlenberg, who raised the German
Regiment from the Valley and Piedmont around his Woodstock home and
commanded them with distinction at Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, and
Stony Point, and later led Virginia militia against Cornwallis in 1781;
and the gallant Colonel Edward Porterfield, who died with many of his
troops, called "Porterfield's Virginians" at Camden.

There also was a distinguished group of young men like John Marshall,
James Monroe, and Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee who achieved distinction
and displayed loyalty to the national cause which they never surre