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Lot 278
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Horatio Gates Medal Commemorating His Role in British Surrender at Saratoga in 1777
Horatio Gates Medal Commemorating His Role in British Surrender at Saratoga in 1777
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Description:

Horatio Gates
Paris, France; Philadelphia, PA, ca. 1777-1880
Horatio Gates Medal Commemorating His Role in British Surrender at Saratoga in 1777
Medal/Coin
[HORATIO GATES.] Nicholas-Marie Gatteaux, Commemorative Medal, n.d. [1777-1880]. 2.125" in diameter. ¼" hole in top center, perhaps for use as a necklace. In a gilt frame with stand.

This commemorative medal of Horatio Gates features a profile head-and-shoulders portrait of Gates on the front, together with the inscriptions "Horatio Gates Duci Strenuo" and "Comitia Americana." On the verso is an image of General John Burgoyne surrendering the British army to Gates at Saratoga on October 17, 1777, with the inscriptions "Salus Regionum Septentrional" ("Safety in the Northern Regions") and "Hoste ad Saratogam In Dedition Accepto" ("Advancing to the Surrender of the Enemy at Saratoga") with the date of October 17, 1777, in Roman numerals. Congress authorized the medal in November 1777 to acknowledge the role of Gates in the victory over the British at Saratoga. Gates received a gold version in 1787.

The Comitia Americana series of eleven medals memorialized some of the pivotal moments of the Revolutionary War. Congress authorized the 11 medals from 1776 to 1781 and in 1787, and they were created between 1776 and the early nineteenth century, almost exclusively by French artists under commissions from the United States. The name of the series indicates that they were created after the Continental Congress voted to memorialize the actions of key American and French revolutionaries. Each medal was struck either at the Paris Mint or at the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia. French medal engraver Nicholas-Marie Gatteaux designed the Gates medal in Paris, where the original medals were struck. The dies were later brought to the United States, and additional medals were struck from the original French dies by the U.S. Mint. In 1880, the U.S. Mint struck additional Gates medals from copy dies. Nearly one hundred years later, the U.S. Mint issued the medals in a smaller form in pewter for the Bicentennial Celebration of 1976.

Horatio Gates (1727-1806) was born in Essex, England, and served in the British Army in the War of the Austrian Succession and the French and Indian War. In 1769, he sold his commission and settled on a small plantation in Virginia. On the recommendation of George Washington, the Continental Congress made him the Adjutant General of the Continental Army in 1775. He took command of Fort Ticonderoga in 1776 and the Northern Department in 1777. Although he took credit for the American victory at the Battles of Saratoga in 1777, contemporaries and historians have disputed the claim. He was involved in the Conway Cabal in late 1777 and 1778, which attempted to replace General George Washington. In 1780, the Continental Congress placed Gates in charge of the Southern Department, where he gathered Continental forces and militia to face the British forces under Charles Cornwallis. The terrible defeat of his army at the Battle of Camden in 1780, one of the worst defeats the Americans suffered in the Revolutionary War, led to his replacement by Nathanael Greene, and Congress called for a board of inquiry. His allies in Congress got the call repealed in 1782, and he rejoined Washington's staff at Newburgh, New York. After the war, he retired to his estate in Virginia. In 1790, Gates sold his Virginia plantation, Traveller's Rest, and moved to an estate in New York City. As part of the sale, he stipulated that five of his slaves would be freed after five years, and the remaining eleven when they reached the age of twenty-eight. He served a single term in the New York legislature in 1800.

Nicholas-Marie Gatteaux (1751-1832) was a French medal engraver. In 1781, he was appointed as engraver of the King's medals. He designed a great number of medals in commemoration of public events from the death of Louis XV through the various figures of the French Revolution and the French Empire. He is also credited with the invention of the pointing machine, a tool used in copying sculpture, and he designed playing cards.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 2.125" diameter
  • Medium: Medal/Coin

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