Gates suffered from a heavy defeat in Camden.
Similar to how the great Napoleon suffered his Waterloo, Horatio Gates' most heartbreaking defeat was at Camden. Gates marched his army toward the British forces at Camden, South Carolina, despite the fact that his men were running low on supplies, abandoning the careful approach he used against Burgoyne in 1777.
Due to this action, the American side suffered one of the war's biggest setbacks in the Battle of Camden on August 16, 1780. Gates rode over 200 miles in three days to desert his men and leave the battlefield as the American soldiers withdrew. Gates' artillery and cargo train were lost when he fled the battlefield. He rode another sixty miles to Charlotte, North Carolina, before dusk after meeting up with the militia at Rugeley's Mill. Gates subsequently claimed that this trip was taken to gather more soldiers and supplies, but his superiors saw it as great cowardice. His reputation was damaged when he was accused of cowardice. In October 1780, Gates was relieved of his position as commander.
Gates ordered his soldiers to travel nearly 270 miles on horses in the days before the assault, so when the two forces eventually fought, they were utterly exhausted. The awful thing about Horatio Gates was his chaotic withdrawal in the face of an unavoidable loss.
