Castalian Springs in Sumner County, Tennessee — The American South (East South Central)

Hawthorne Hill

Birthplace of William B. Bate

Photographed by Don Morfe, July 23, 2013

1. Hawthorne Hill Marker

Inscription. William Brimage Bate was born here in 1826, and during the Civil War he rose to the rank of major general. He left home at the age of sixteen to be a clerk on a steamboat. During the Mexican War, he served as a lieutenant, then became a journalist, a lawyer, and a state legislature. As the Civil War approached, he raised a militia company in Castalian Springs and was soon elected colonel of the 2nd Tennessee Infantry. Arriving in Virginia with his regiment in time for the First Battle of Manassas, he captured a Congressman from New York who had come out to see the action. In February 1862, he and his men reenlisted and returned to Tennessee. In the Battle of Shiloh on April 6-7, he received a severe leg wound that incapacitated him for several months. Commissioned brigadier general in October 1862 and major general in February 1864, he led a brigade and then a division in the Army of Tennessee in all of the major battles in the western theater, including Stones River, Chickamauga, Franklin, and Nashville. Bate declined the offer of a nomination for Tennessee governor, saying “I would feel dishonored in this hour of

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trial to quit the field”---a commitment to duty that voters later remembered. Bate surrendered with his old regiment at Greensboro, North Carolina, in April 1865.

After practicing law in Nashville, Bate was elected governor of Tennessee in 1882 and held office for two terms. In 1886, he was elected United States Senator and served until his death in 1905.

Bate’s cousin, Eugenia Bate, was also born here at Hawthorne Hill. After being widowed during the war, she later married an Italian diplomat. She became Countess Bertinatti and resided in Italy and in Mississippi where she owned a plantation.

(Side Bar) “I never felt so overpowered with responsibility before, for all them seem to look up to me. I feel determined on one thing, never to take my neighbors’ children under me again. That simple fact gives me more anxious hours than all else here.”
–Col. William B. Bate, September 12, 1861.

James P. Taylor and Humphrey Bate constructed Hawthorne Hill for John Beardon before 1817, when Bate purchased the house and the surrounding 208 acres. It remained the Bate family home place for more than a century.

(Inscription under the photo on the bottom left)
General

Photographed by Don Morfe, July 23, 2013

2. Hawthorne Hill Marker

William B. Bate -- Courtesy Allen Haynes.

(Inscription under the photo in the upper right)
Countess Eugenia Bate Bass Bertinatti -- Courtesy Allen Haynes.

Erected by Civil War Trails.

Topics and series. This memorial is listed in these topic lists: Settlements & Settlers • War, Mexican-American • War, US Civil. In addition, it is included in the Tennessee Civil War Trails series list. A significant historical month for this entry is February 1862.

Location. 36° 23.4′ N, 86° 17.833′ W. Memorial is in Castalian Springs, Tennessee, in Sumner County. It is on Old Highway 25 west of Canoe Branch Road, on the left when traveling west. Touch for map. Memorial is in this post office area: Castalian Springs TN 37031, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this memorial is in Middle Tennessee

and in Greater Nashville.

It is also in the American South

and specifically in the Upper South.

Globally, it is in North America,

the Western Hemisphere,

the Western World,

and the Anglosphere.

Historically, it finds itself in what was once the territory of the Mississippian Culture,

one of the Confederate States of

Photographed by Don Morfe, July 23, 2013

3. Hawthorne Hill Marker

America,

and the Antebellum South.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 2 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies: Morgan and Johnson (approx. half a mile away); General William Hall (approx. 0.9 miles away); Thomas Sharpe Spencer Memorial (approx. one mile away); Wynnewood (approx. 1.1 miles away); William Brimage Bate (approx. 1.2 miles away); Bledsoe's Lick (approx. 1.2 miles away); A Typical Settler's Cabin (approx. 1.4 miles away); Unsettled and Dangerous Years (approx. 1.4 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Castalian Springs.

Credits. This page was last revised on June 16, 2016. It was originally submitted on September 7, 2013, by Don Morfe of Baltimore, Maryland. This page has been viewed 1,144 times since then and 45 times this year. Last updated on May 5, 2015, by J. Makali Bruton of Washington, District of Columbia. Photos: 1, 2, 3. submitted on September 7, 2013, by Don Morfe of Baltimore, Maryland. • Bernard Fisher was the editor who published this page.