William Brimage Bate, Governor of Tennessee, 1883-1887, was
born near Castalian Springs, in Tennessee, October 7, 1826. His
educational advantages were limited. In early manhood he was a clerk on a
steamboat plying between Nashville and New Orleans. When the Mexican war came,
he enlisted in a Louisiana Regiment, and is said to have been the first
Tennessean to reach the front. He reenlisted in the Third Tennessee Infantry,
and was made a First Lieutenant of Company I. At the close of the war he went
to Gallatin and established a paper called The Tenth Legion. In 1849 he was
elected to the Legislature. In 1852 he entered the Lebanon Law School, and two
years later was elected Attorney-General for his district. In 1860 he served as
elector on the Breckinridge and Lane ticket. When the Civil war broke out, Bate
enlisted as a private in a company raised at Gallatin; of this company he was
elected Captain and later Colonel of the regiment. He came out of the war as a
Major-General, having won as much distinction for bravery as any man on either
side. He was three times wounded and had six horses killed under him in battle.
In 1863, while on the battlefield, he was tendered the nomination of Governor
but declined in a letter which has become historic. In 1882 he defeated
Governor Hawkins for Governor and Judge Frank Reid two years later. During his
administration a settlement of the State debt was reached. On March 4, 1887,
Governor Bate became United States Senator, which position he filled with great
credit to his State, until his death in 1905.
SOURCE: John Trotwood Moore and Austin Powers Foster, Tennessee: The Volunteer State, 1769-1923,
Volume 2, p. 28
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