William Brimage Bate

Bate won the governorship by taking a side in a quarrel over money. Tennessee had defaulted on bonds issued for railroads and improvements, and Democrats split between paying in full and paying less. Bate ran for the second group in 1882, proposing half payment on bonds held by railroads and full payment on those held by schools, charities and Sarah Childress Polk. He won, signed the settlement, and was reelected in 1884. A planter and slaveholder who had commanded a Confederate division, he later served in the Senate until his death.

What the plaque says

William Brimage Bate Born 1.2 miles north, Oct. 7, 1826. An officer in river steamboats in early life, he was later an officer in the Mexican War. A major general in the Confederate Army of Tennessee. He was Governor of Tennessee from 1883 to 1887 and U.S. Senator from 1887 to 1903. He died in Nashville, March 9, 1905 and is buried there.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Wynnewood State Historic Site — steps away
  A National Historic Landmark log inn at the Bledsoe's Lick springs, beside a Mississippian mound center and tied to the domestic slave trade.
• Andrew Jackson's Hermitage — 21 mi
  Andrew Jackson's cotton plantation east of Nashville, where visitors can walk to the quarters, Alfred's Cabin and the Enslaved Cemetery as well as the mansion.
• Fort Negley — 31 mi
  The largest inland stone fort of the Civil War, built in 1862 on St. Cloud Hill by more than 2,700 conscripted Black laborers, hundreds of whom died.

More markers nearby

• Bledsoe's Lick — steps away
• First Settlers in Middle Tennessee — steps away
• General William Hall — 0.3 mi
• Abraham "Abram" Bledsoe — 0.4 mi