William Oats was born in Pike County, Alabama in 1831. He taught school for a time, until he had a fight that ended with his hitting the man in the head with a shovel. He fled the area and spent that time in the gulf states and Texas. Later Oats returned to Alabama after having problems with some "escapades involving young women". He settled down and became a school teacher in Henry County, Alabama while he studied law. He passed the bar in 1858.

Oats began military service as a captain in Company G 15th Alabama Infantry Regiment. That regiment campaigned with "Stonewall" Jackson in the Valley. He missed the battle of Antietam due to illness. When he returned to the army he found himself in command of the regiment and prompted to it's colonelcy, in May 1863.

Of the fight for Little Round Top he had this to say:

I saw no enemy until within forty or fifty steps of an irregular ledge of rocks - a splendid line of natural breastworks... From behind this ledge, unexpectedly to us, because concealed, they poured into us the most destructive fire I ever saw. Our line halted, but it did not break... As men fell their comrades closed the gap, returning the fire most spiritedly. I could see through the smoke men of the Twentieth Maine in front of my right wing running from tree to tree...

When the Fifteenth was driven back, Colonel Bulger was left sitting by a tree, sword in hand, shot through one lung and bleeding profusely. A captain of the Forty-fourth New York approached and demanded his sword. The old Colonel said, "What is your rank?" The reply was, "I am a captain." Bulger said, "Well, I am a lieutenant-colonel, and I will not surrender my sword except to an officer of equal rank." The captain then said, "Surrender your sword, or I will kill you." Colonel Bulger promptly replied, "You may kill and be dammed! I shall never surrender my sword to an officer of lower rank." The captain was so amused at the old Colonel's high notions of military etiquette that he went for his colonel, Rice, to whom the sword was gracefully surrendered.

Colonel Bulger survived his wounds. After the war Oats became governor of Alabama and served two terms in the U.S. Congress.