William Brimage BATE, Congress, TN (1826-1905)

BATE, William Brimage, a Senator from Tennessee; born near Castalian Springs, Sumner County, Tenn., October 7, 1826; completed an academic course of study; served as a private in Louisiana and Tennessee regiments throughout the Mexican War; member, State house of representatives 1849-1851; graduated from the law department of Lebanon University, Lebanon, Tenn., in 1852; admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Gallatin, Tenn.; elected attorney general for the Nashville district in 1854; during the Civil War served in the Confederate army, attained the rank of major general, surrendered with the Army of the Tennessee in 1865; after the war returned to Tennessee and resumed the practice of law at Gallatin; elected Governor of Tennessee in 1882 and reelected in 1884; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1887; reelected in 1893, 1899, and again in 1905, and served from March 4, 1887, until his death in Washington, D.C., March 9, 1905; chairman, Committee on the Improvement of the Mississippi River and its Tributaries (Fifty-third Congress), Committee on Military Affairs (Fifty-third Congress), Committee on Public Health and National Quarantine (Fifty-eighth and Fifty-ninth Congresses); funeral services were held in the Chamber of the United States Senate; interment in Mount Olivet Cemetery, Nashville, Tenn.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Marshall, Park. A Life of William Bate, Citizen, Soldier, and Statesman. Nashville: Cumberland Press, 1908; U.S. Congress. Memorial Addresses. 59th Cong., 2nd sess., 1906-1907. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1907; Schlup, Leonard. ”Imperialist Dissenter: William B. Bate and the Battle Against Territorial Acquisitions, 1898-1900.” Southern Studies 6 (Summer 1995): 61-84.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present