Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-08-26
GENERAL w. b. BATE.
A Brief Reference to HiSBriIIiant
and Gallant Career.


and Gallant Career.
From the Gallatin Examincr.l D3
We publish elsewhere in the Examiner
letter from Gen. Bate to Col. Coleman,
of Memphis, declining to become can
didate for Governor of TENNESSEE The
letter is full of moral and political cour-
age, patriotic eloquence and self-sacri-
fee. With general feeling in his favor
all over the State, especially ON the close
of the late Judicial Convention, which
practically ignored the question of polit-
ical disabilities in State offices, he does
that in declining which but few men in
Tennessee, under the circumstances,
would do. In this he evinces the same
spirit that actuated him when his friends
at the Winchester convention, during the
war, in 1868 (knowing him to be in
condition from wounds that would make
most men quit the field and seek the
ease and emoluments of civil life), pre-
sented his name for the nomination for
Governor. Though in the camp on
crutches, he peremptorily refused TO seek
or have any civil office, and we well
remember his famous telegram in
answer to one sent him, when it
was evident that the nomination was at
his asking, and with what a burst of en-
thusiasm it was received and read to the
vast assemblage: Il had rather be the
defender than the Governor of Tennes-
see. / will accept no civil Office while
the foot of an enemy presses her soil.
And just the same spirit of devotion and
self-sacri6ce for the good of Tennessee
shines all through the letter to Col. Cole
man, and just such man we wanted for
our Governor when we hoisted his name.
While he says that he does not believe
himself under political disabilities, and
he gives conclusive reasons for the opin-
ion, and in which he is supported by our
first legal men, yet as the powers that
be at Washington are acting under the
idea that he is, he determined not to
hazard the quiet of the State. 1t is not
every day that men can bring themselves
to act in this manner. l
And nov that he is not candidate
and asking for no Office within the gift
of the people, we can, with the greater
freedom, allude to the anteeedents of
Gen. Bate, who is a native of old Sum
ner. Springing from a chivalrous and
generous pioneer stock, who subdued the
forests and the Indian, and reared and
educated among onr people, he gave
them, at an early age, an example of the
pluck and talent, the untiring energy
and resistless will which has since
marked his career in life. He is emf
nently a self-made man, his father dying
when he was but fifteen years of age,
with an embarrassed estate, and young
Bate, the eldest of the family with an
unfinished education. Feeling the abso-
lutte necessity of personal exertion, he
readily surrendered his boyish dream of
q college life, and plunged at once into
the struggles of real life. Engaging as a
clerk on steamer plying between Nash
vile and New Orleans he did his part
well until the breaking out of the war
with Mexico, when he enlisted as pri
vite ia Louisiana company and served
with distinction to its close, taking
part in q number of the greatest battles.
At the close Of the war he returned to
Sumner county, aud, in a short time, be- 1
came connected with the Tenth Legion, 4.
a newspaper published at Gallatin, in
which he proved himself on able and
trenchant as well as graceful writer. In /
l849 he was elected to the Lower House |
of the Legislature, being then in his /
twssty-second year, and served with dis
tincti9n, takiDg at once high position
as a debater. This is ihe only political
Office he ever filed except that'of Elso- /
tor on the Breckenridge ticket in 1860 |
Aiaer the close of the session, he com
msBced ibe study of the law, and com
pleted his eolESe At tho Lebanon Law |
School. In 1854 be was eiseted kttor- |
ney General for the Nashville district, |
which gave him fine field for the dis
play Of his talents as an advocate. His
Success as States Attorney was unex-
ampled. 30 nan ever held the position,
to law-breakers, and more speeessfpl in !
convicting them. There are those about
Nashville now who have very vivid recol-
Isctipns of his sleepless vigilance
as . Law officer and prosecutor,
but who cherish 20 feelings of
resentment for his swern dnhes, Al the
close of his term he declined re-eleltion
and resumed the practice Of his profes-
sion. In 1861 when the storm clouds of
var burst over the land he at once en-
listed ss q private in company being
formed ip tbs e9pptyi was elected its
captain and. on the tormat9n Of the
Second Tennessee, its colonel, and h4g-
ried it off at once to Virginia, then the
seat of war, and was engaged in the bat
tie Of A6pia Creek, the first fought after
Sumter, particiestiEg, also, in the great
battle Of Manassas Serving bis first
year in Virginia, he was sent West at
bis ewH request, and just in time to take
q heroic paTt IN the great conflict at
shiloh, when he received wound in the
leg, shatteging it and laming him for
life. From this date Hutil the last fold
ing of the flag his history is that of the
Army of Tennessee. He had risen from
rank TO rank, from private to Major
commanding . corps in the
last battle Of the army in Old North
Carolina. Had we space we might give
q number Of instances in which General
Bate exhibited the very loftiest moral and
physical courage, and 9 marked clear I
Who can forget the scene I
after the battle Of Shiloh, when six Of his I
family lay upon the Geld-three dead, /
and among them his gallant brother. (
Captain Humphrey Bate, and three badly {
while near by stretched his
dead war-horse, as if to complete the out I
line Of the sad group. When, after the {