Elias Ezekiel Bates was the son of General John Bates. His mother was Barbara Granger. Elias was born about 1842 in South Carolina.

By 1850 Elias had a family of his own living in Murray County, Georgia. The 1850 Census listed the family as: Elias Bates, age 44; Margaret Bates, age 40; Mary A. Bates, age 21; James M. Bates, age 20; Louisa Bates, age 14; John Bates, age 12; Susan A. Bates, age 9; Elias N. Bates, age 8; James B. Bates, age 6; and Margaret Bates, age 7. Census indicated that the mother and father had been born in South Carolina and all of the children in Georgia.

The family had moved to Dalton, Whitfield County, during the 1850s. The 1860 Census listed the family members as: Elias Bates, age 53; Margaret Bates, age 48; Mary Bates, age 32; Eliza Bates, age 24; John Bates, age 22; Susan Bates, age 18; Nelson Bates, age 17; James B. Bates, age 16; and Margaret Bates, age 13.

The boy listed as Nelson Bates in 1860 has to be the same that was listed as Elias N. Bates in 1850, hence Elias Nelson Bates.

Elias Nelson Bates enlisted as a Private in Company B, Georgia State Troops, January 3, 1862. He was mustered out on May 15, 1862 and immediately enlisted in Company A, 34th Georgia Infantry Regiment. Some four months later he died of illness at his parents' home in Whitfield County. He was buried in Westhill Cemetery at Dalton.

Whether the body was actually moved later to Murray County is not known but there is a Confederate military marker in Bates Family Cemetery, Eton, Georgia, inscribed: Pvt. Elias Nelson Bates, Co. A., 34th Ga. Infantry, 1842 to 9-20-1862.

 

Murray County Families