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{{Infobox military person |name= William Brimage Bate |born= {{birth date|1826|10|7}} |died = {{death date and age|1905|3|09|1826|10|7}} |image=[[File:William B. Bate.jpg]] |caption=William B. Bate |nickname= |placeofbirth= [[Castalian Springs, Tennessee|Bledsoe's Lick, Tennessee]] |placeofdeath= [[Washington, D.C.]] |placeofburial= [[Mt. Olivet Cemetery (Nashville)|Mount Olivet Cemetery]], [[Nashville, Tennessee]] |placeofburial_label= Place of burial |allegiance= [[United States|United States of America]]<br/>[[Confederate States of America]] |branch= [[Confederate States Army]] [[United States Army]]<br/>[[Confederate States Army]] |serviceyears= 1846–1848 (USA)<br/>1861–1865 (CSA) |rank= [[First Lieutenant#United States|First Lieutenant]] (USA)<br/>[[Major General (CSA)]] |unit= [[Army of Tennessee]] |commands= Bate's Division |battles= [[American Civil War]] *[[First Battle of Manassas]] *[[Battle of Shiloh]] *[[Tullahoma Campaign]] *[[Battle of Chickamauga]] *[[Third Battle of Chattanooga|Chattanooga Campaign]] *[[Atlanta Campaign]] *[[Carolinas Campaign]] |awards= |relations= |laterwork= Governor of Tennessee, U.S. Senator, attorney }} '''William Brimage Bate''' (October 7, 1826{{ndash}} March 9, 1905) was the [[List of Governors of Tennessee|governor of Tennessee]] from 1883 to 1887 and subsequently a [[United States Senate|United States Senator]] from [[Tennessee]] from 1887 until his death. He served in the [[Confederate States Army|Confederate]] forces in the [[American Civil War]], attaining the [[Military rank|rank]] of [[Major General (CSA)|major general]] and commanding a [[division (military)|division]] in the [[Army of Tennessee]].<ref name=Warner19>Warner, pp. 19-20.</ref> ==Early life and career== William Bate was born in Bledsoe's Lick (now [[Castalian Springs, Tennessee]]). He was a clerk for a steamboat company and edited a newspaper. He served in the [[Mexican-American War|Mexican War]] (1846–48) as a [[first lieutenant#United States|first lieutenant]] in the 3rd Tennessee Volunteer Infantry. He served in the [[Tennessee House of Representatives]] from 1849 to 1851. He graduated from [[law school]] in [[Lebanon, Tennessee]] in 1852 and was admitted to the [[bar (law)|bar]] in that year, establishing his practice in [[Gallatin, Tennessee]]. He became [[district attorney]] general for the [[Nashville, Tennessee|Nashville]] [[district]] in 1854. ==Civil War== Following the passage of Tennessee's [[ordinance of secession]] and the outbreak of the Civil War, Bate became the [[Colonel (United States)|colonel]] of the [[2nd Tennessee Infantry]]. He first saw combat action in July 1861 at the [[First Battle of Manassas]] in the reserve brigade of [[Theophilus Holmes]] in the [[Confederate Army of the Potomac]]. Returning to the [[Western Theater of the American Civil War|Western Theater]] later in 1861, Bate led the 2nd Tennessee in the [[Army of Mississippi]] at the [[Battle of Shiloh]] in April 1862. He was wounded severely in the leg during the first day's fighting, and an Army surgeon told him it would be necessary to amputate his leg to save his life. Bate drew his pistol, threatening to shoot the surgeon, and kept his leg. Although he survived, he was incapacitated for several months, and walked with a limp the rest of his life<ref name=congress>{{Cite book | last = United States Congress | title = William Brimage Bate (late a senator from Tennessee) Memorial addresses: Fifty-ninth Congress, second session, Senate of the United States, January 17, 1907. House of representatives, January 20, 1907 | publisher = Government Printing Office | date = 1907 | pages = 74-75 | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=iEkYAAAAYAAJ&ots=QQwnjozd-e&dq=william%20brimage%20bate%20late%20a%20senator%20from%20tennessee&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q&f=false }}</ref>. He was promoted to [[Brigadier General (CSA)|brigadier general]] on October 2, 1862, subsequently commanded a [[brigade]] of [[infantry]] in numerous battles and campaigns of the Army of Tennessee, including the [[Tullahoma Campaign]] and the [[Battle of Chickamauga]].<ref name=Warner19/> He distinguished himself in the [[Third Battle of Chattanooga|Chattanooga Campaign]] and was rewarded with a promotion to major general to rank from February 24, 1864. That summer, he commanded a division in the [[Atlanta Campaign]] and the 1865 [[Carolinas Campaign]]. Bate and his men surrendered at [[Bennett Place]] near [[Greensboro, North Carolina]]. During the war, he was wounded three times and had six horses shot from beneath him.<ref name=Warner19/> ==Postbellum career== After the defeat of the Confederacy in 1865, Bate returned to the practice of law; as was the case of many prominent ex-Confederates, full [[civil rights]] were eventually restored to him. He was [[election|elected]] [[governor]] as a [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]] in 1882 over the [[incumbent]] [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]], [[Alvin Hawkins]], and re-elected in 1884 and is credited with having found a satisfactory solution to the [[debt]] problems of the [[U.S. state|state]]. His subsequent four elections to the [[U.S. Senate]] were by the [[Tennessee General Assembly]], the method of choosing U.S. Senators prior to the ratification of the [[Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution]]. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1887, 1893, 1899, and 1905, one of only three Tennessee senators to be elected to more than three terms and one of two prior to the adoption of popular election to the office. As a Senator, he served as the chairman of the Committee on the Improvement of the [[Mississippi River]] and Its Tributaries in the [[Fifty-third United States Congress|53rd Congress]] and the chairman of the Committee on [[Public Health]] and the National Quarantine in two later [[United States Congress|Congresses]]. He died only five days into his fourth term, in [[Washington, D.C.]]. His [[funeral]] was held in the Senate chamber of the [[United States Capitol]], and he is buried in Nashville's [[Mt. Olivet Cemetery (Nashville)|Mount Olivet Cemetery]].<ref name=Warner19/> ==See also== {{portal|American Civil War}} *[[List of American Civil War generals#Confederate-B|List of American Civil War generals]] ==References== * Eicher, John H., and [[David J. Eicher|Eicher, David J.]], ''Civil War High Commands'', Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3. * U.S. War Department, [http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/sources/records/list.cfm ''The War of the Rebellion'']: ''a Compilation of the [[Official Records of the American Civil War|Official Records]] of the Union and Confederate Armies'', U.S. Government Printing Office, 1880–1901. * Warner, Ezra J., ''Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders'', Louisiana State University Press, 1959, ISBN 0-8071-0823-5. * Welsh, Jack D., ''Medical Histories of Confederate Generals'', Kent State University Press, 1999, ISBN 978-0873388535. ==Notes== {{reflist}} {{start box}} {{s-off}} {{succession box | before= [[Alvin Hawkins]] |title=[[Governor of Tennessee]] |years=1883-1887 |after= [[Robert Love Taylor]]}} {{s-par|us-sen}} {{U.S. Senator box |before=[[Washington C. Whitthorne]] |state=Tennessee |class=1 |years=1887-1905 |after=[[James B. Frazier]] |alongside=[[Isham G. Harris]], [[Thomas B. Turley]], [[Edward W. Carmack]]}} {{end box}} {{Governors of Tennessee}} {{USSenTN}} {{Persondata |NAME= Bate, William B. |ALTERNATIVE NAMES= |SHORT DESCRIPTION= [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] [[Confederate Army|Army]] [[General officer|general]] |DATE OF BIRTH= October 7, 1826 |PLACE OF BIRTH= [[Castalian Springs, Tennessee|Bledsoe's Lick, Tennessee]] |DATE OF DEATH= March 9, 1905 |PLACE OF DEATH= [[Washington, D.C.]] }} {{DEFAULTSORT:Bate, William B.}} [[Category:Governors of Tennessee]] [[Category:United States Senators from Tennessee]] [[Category:Members of the Tennessee House of Representatives]] [[Category:People from Sumner County, Tennessee]] [[Category:Confederate States Army generals]] [[Category:People of Tennessee in the American Civil War]] [[Category:American military personnel of the Mexican–American War]] [[Category:Tennessee lawyers]] [[Category:American people of English descent]] [[Category:1826 births]] [[Category:1905 deaths]] [[de:William Brimage Bate]] [[sv:William B. Bate]]
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