History:The artist's signature is evident in the lower left corner. This is an upper torso view of the subject. The painting was removed from the War Memorial Building in 1995. It has paint splatters on the upper left and upper right sections of the painting.
Notes:William Brimage Bate (1826-1905) was born near Castalian Springs, TN. He joined the volunteers when the Mexican War began and was said to have been one of the first Tennesseans to reach the front. After the war, he established a newspaper, the Tenth Legion and in 1849 was elected to the state legislature. When the Civil War erupted, he joined the Confederate Army and ended up a brigadier-general, narrowly escaping the loss of a leg from a wound he received at Shiloh. The Democratic legislature, anxious to settle the debt question, supported Bate, the Tennessee governor elected in 1883, and the matter was resolved. This resulted in his re-election in 1885. He served in the United States Senate until his death in 1905. Tennessee Blue Book
