Gates was born in England to a servant couple in 1727. Enjoying the patronage of the Duke of Bolton, his parents' employer, Gates entered the British Army as an ensign in 1745. Gates saw extensive service in the French and Indian War, surviving Braddock's Defeat and attaining the rank of major. Lacking the money or influence to rise higher, Gates retired from the army in 1769.

Assisted by George Washington, a wartime friend, Gates moved to Virginia in 1772 and purchased an estate called "Traveller's Rest." Gates supported colonial resistance to British imperial policies, and he offered his sword to the Patriot cause after the Revolution began in April 1775. When the Continental Congress named Washington commander-in-chief of the Continental Army on June 17, 1775, it made Gates a brigadier general and the army's adjutant general. Gates performed well as an administrator during the war's first year, but he yearned for a more active role.

On May 16, 1776, Congress promoted Gates to major general and subsequently sent him to take charge of the deteriorating Canadian front. Arriving in upstate New York, Gates quarreled with Major General Philip Schuyler, commander of the Northern Department. After Major General John Burgoyne's invading British army captured the Patriot stronghold at Ticonderoga, Congress named Gates to supplant Schuyler on August 4, 1777. Reinforced by Continental units supplied by Washington and large drafts of New England militia, Gates assembled a formidable fighting force. Burgoyne's tactical incompetence allowed Gates to win battles at Freeman's Farm and Bemis Heights and compel his opponent's surrender at Saratoga on October 17, 1777.

Following Saratoga, some congressmen and Continental officers conspired unsuccessfully to replace Washington with Gates. Gates eventually took command of a 4,100-man army sent to liberate South Carolina, but he was soundly defeated by Lord Charles Cornwallis and 2,200 British troops at Camden on August 16, 1780.

In his postwar years, Gates sold his Virginia estate, emancipated his slaves, and moved to New York, where he served briefly in the state legislature. He died on April 10, 1806.

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