James D. Porter, Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 7.1, Tennessee
Clement Anselm Evans, Ed.

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[293] such gallantry that he was mentioned with praise in the reports of Cleburne and Hardee, and on October 3, 1862, he was promoted brigadier-general. About this time, though still unable to return to the field, he was on garrison duty at Huntsville, Ala., and was given temporary command of the district of Tennessee. In February, 1863, he was again in the field, assigned to command of Rains' brigade in Polk's army, and in June, commanding the Ninth Alabama, Thirty-seventh Georgia, Fifteenth and Thirty-seventh and Twentieth Tennessee and Caswell's battalion, in the division of A. P. Stewart, he took part in the Tullahoma campaign with much credit, fighting the battle of Hoover's Gap on the 24th, driving the enemy back, and holding at bay the Federal advance. In this action he was in command of the Confederate forces, Stewart not arriving on the field until nightfall. According to Rosecrans' report, Bate delayed his army at this point thirty-six hours, preventing the Federals from getting possession of Bragg's communications and forcing him to disastrous battle. General Bate and his men took a prominent part in the fighting at Chickamauga. They fired the first gun in this historic struggle on ‘the river of death,’ driving the Federal guard from Thedford's ford, in preparation for the Confederate advance. Crossing the stream next morning, they went into action only a third armed, but drove the enemy back toward the position subsequently held with such heroism by Virginian George H. Thomas, the ‘Rock of Chickamauga.’ As a result of this first day's fight, the brigade was fully armed with Enfield rifles. About 11 o'clock Sunday morning, Stewart threw his division again upon the enemy, the brigade of Brown, ‘followed by the gallant Clayton and indomitable Bate,’ pressing on beyond the Chattanooga road and driving the enemy within his line of intrenchments. ‘During this charge, which was truly heroic,’ Stewart reported, ‘General Bate and several of his staff had their horses killed—the second lost by General Bate that ’