Background
William Brimage was born on October 7, 1826, in Bledsoe's Lick, Sumner County, Tennessee, United States. He was the son of James Henry and Amanda Weathered Bate.
William Brimage was born on October 7, 1826, in Bledsoe's Lick, Sumner County, Tennessee, United States. He was the son of James Henry and Amanda Weathered Bate.
Bate was actually one of those politicians who really did receive the first years of his education in a log cabin schoolhouse. Bate's education was rudely interrupted by the sudden death of his father when he was only fifteen years old.
In 1852, William obtained his law degree from the Cumberland School of Law.
William Bate clerked on a steamboat from 1842 until 1847. During the Mexican War, he served as a private and, later, as a first lieutenant in the 3rd Tennessee Volunteer Infantry from 1847 to 1849. He edited the Democratic newspaper, The Tenth Legion, in Gallatin, Tennessee, in 1849.
A Democrat, he was a member of the Tennessee House from 1849 to 1851. After receiving his law degree from the Lebanon University of Tennessee in 1852, he practiced law in Nashville until 1854. In 1856, he married Julia Peete.
From 1854 to 1860, he was attorney general for the Nashville District. Bate, a staunch secessionist, served as a presidential elector on the Breckinridge ticket in 1860. Upon the outbreak of war, he entered the Confederate Army as a private and later fought with the Army of Tennessee as a colonel of the 2nd Tennessee Regiment.
Wounded at Shiloh in the spring of 1862, he had garrison duty at Huntsville, Alabama, later that year and was promoted to brigadier general on October 3, 1862. In 1863, he fought in the Tullahoma campaign and was a prominent participant at Chickamauga and a division commander at Missionary Ridge. Promoted to major general on February 23, 1864, he was a hero at Resaca, fought under Hood during the Atlanta Campaign, and was cited for heroism during the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee.
In December 1864, he also participated in the defense of Nashville. He refused the office of governor of Tennessee in 1863 in order to remain in the field. He surrendered at Greensboro, North Carolina, in April 1865.
Upon returning home to Nashville, he was disfranchised by the William J. Brownlow administration and retired to private life to practice law. Even so, he worked for the state Democratic party while he was disfranchised. After his restrictions were lifted.
Bate was elected governor of Tennessee in 1882 and served a second term until 1886 when he was elected to the United States Senate and became an influential politician. Bate authored the act of 1893 which removed restrictions on local elections and thus effectively ended Reconstruction. He served continuously in the Senate until his death on March 9, 1905.
William Bate became an ever increasingly partisan Democrat and worked hard for the election of Andrew Johnson to be governor of Tennessee. Bate was chosen to be an elector for presidential candidate John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky in 1860 when the Democratic Party was deeply divided over the question of slavery. The Democratic Party nationally had splintered with Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas representing northern Democrats, while Breckinridge, a former vice president, was more representative of Southern Democrats. Bate turned down the opportunity to go to Congress in 1859 and became one of the leading voices for secession in his area.
An imposing man with a bristling mustache, which gave him a rather fierce appearance, William Brimage Bate was an unreconstructed rebel, firm in his convictions and highly respected and popular with his fellow Tennesseans.
In 1856 William married Julia Peete, daughter of Colonel Samuel Peete of Huntsville, Alabama, a distinguished lawyer and veteran of the War of 1812. They had two children.