BEDFORD COUNTY, TN - BIOGRAPHIES - W. Carrol Cates, 13 Aug 1840-14 Nov 1902
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W. C. Cates was born August 13, 1840, and died November 14, 1902. He 
volunteered August 2, 1861, and became a member of the Forty-First Tennessee 
Regiment, C.S.A. The regiment was surrendered at Fort Donelson in February, 
1862, and the privates were carried to Camp Morton, Indiana, where they were 
kept till the September following, and were then sent to Vicksburg, Miss., for 
exchange. This command was reorganized and participated in many battles. Among 
the severer were Raymond, Miss., Jackson, Port Hudson, Missionary Ridge, 
Chickamauga, Resaca, Ga., New Hope Church, Atlanta, Jonesboro, Franklin and 
Nashville. “Cal” Cates always discharged his duty fully. At Missionary Ridge 
he was severely wounded in the shoulder. On another occasion an exploding 
shell covered his body with earth, and on July 22, 1864, near Atlanta, he 
received an ounce Minie ball in his hip. It lodged near the spine and could 
not be extracted; hence he carried it in his body to the grave. Recovering 
sufficiently, with the ball in his hip, he again joined his command at 
Corinth, Miss., and kept up as best he could until he reached North Carolina, 
and at Greensboro was paroled on April 30, 1865.

No man ever lived who was more loyal to the cause he espoused and for which he 
fought so long and bled so freely; no man ever lived who was prouder of his 
record. It is said they could neither take his life nor shake his integrity. 
After the surrender he of course made a quiet, worthy citizen. “He was honest 
to the penny.” Comrade Cates belonged to Frierson Bivouac, of Shelbyville, 
Tenn., which passed memorial resolutions in his honor.

The editor of the VETERAN was his comrade, knew him intimately, and had his 
patronage and his blessing from its beginning. He made and held friends 
without effort. There was a subtle wit in his ordinary conversation which made 
his company most agreeable. He was faithful to his friends; would continue to 
buy from the same merchant, never looking for better bargains from others. On 
one occasion he was going by a store to purchase an article, when a solicitor 
for trade said to him: “We keep that.” “Yes,” he replied, “and Carney sells 
it.”

He was amusingly economical. For instance, he carried in his knapsack a pair 
of blue trousers issued to him in prison, 1862, through the severe eventful 
campaigns that followed quite on to the end of the war.

The picture here given will interest those who knew him.

Since the above was ready for the press, a report of proceedings of William 
Frierson Bivouac (Camp) has been received, in which a committee comprised of 
Robert Singleton, Joe H. Hastings, and J.F. Johnston presented a highly 
eulogistic tribute to Comrade Cates as a man true to all the responsibilities 
of life.

Article appeared in Confederate Veteran, February, 1903

A related brief note appeared in Confederate Veteran, February, 1894:

CARROL CATES’ YANKEE BREECHES. – The peculiarities of men were brought out in 
high degree during the war. W.C. Cates, who was a member of my regiment, was 
conspicuously careful, and the fact that he “wore out” a pair of blue pants, 
issued to him in prison during February, 1862, when back in the service, by 
carrying them in his knapsack, is a vivid illustration. He writes: “I tried 
them on once, and they proved to be knee pants. I kept them until the fall of 
’63, when I exchanged them for two pairs of rebel gray pants. The other fellow 
wanted the blue ones for Sunday.” The average Confederate would not have 
carried them so long for their weight in gold.