- Hamilton P. Bee
Infobox Military Person
name= Hamilton Prioleau Bee
lived= July 22, 1822 – death date and age|1897|10|3|1822|8|22|
caption=
nickname=
placeofbirth=Charleston, South Carolina
placeofdeath=San Antonio, Texas
allegiance=Confederate States of America
branch=
serviceyears= 1862–65
rank=Brigadier General
unit=
commands=
battles=American Civil War -Red River Campaign
awards=
relations=
laterwork= Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, 1855–57Hamilton Prioleau Bee (
July 22 ,1822 –October 3 ,1897 ) was an American politician in earlyTexas who served one term asSpeaker of the Texas House of Representatives and later was aConfederate States Army general during theAmerican Civil War .Early life
Bee was born on
22 July 1822 in Charleston,South Carolina , to Ann Wragg Fayssoux and Barnard E. Bee, Sr. His family moved to Texas when he was 14. At age 17, Bee served as secretary for the boundary commission which determined the United States-Republic of Texas boundaries.Sam Houston sent Bee,Joseph C. Eldridge , andThomas S. Torrey to open negotiations with theComanche s in 1843, which eventually resulted in the Treaty of Tehuacana Creek. Bee was secretary of theTexas Senate in theFirst Texas Legislature in 1846.Bee served under
Benjamin McCulloch ’s Company A of Col. Jack Hays' 1st Regiment of Texas Mounted Volunteers for a time, but then transferred toMirabeau B. Lamar ’s Texas cavalry company as asecond lieutenant . Bee signed up for a second term in 1847 — this time asfirst lieutenant — in Lamar’s Company, which was by then a component of Col.Peter Hansborough Bell ’s regiment of Texas volunteers.Bee moved to Laredo after the war and ran for a seat in the
Texas House of Representatives for theThird Texas Legislature in 1849. He served through the end of the Seventh Legislature for a total of ten years in the House. In the Sixth Legislature, Bee was decisively elected Speaker of the House with 78 votes, to 1 vote each forN. B. Charlton andPleasant Williams Kittrell .cite book | others = Texas. Legislature. House of Representatives | title = Journal of the House of Representatives of the State of Texas, Sixth Legislature. | year = 1855 | url = http://www.lrl.state.tx.us/scanned/members/speeches/speakers/6_0_Bee.pdf | format = pdf | accessdate = 2007-01-16 | publisher = Marshall & Oldham, State Printers | location = Austin, Texas | pages = 5–6]Civil War
In 1861, Bee was elected brigadier general of the Texas militia and appointed as a brigadier general in the Confederate Army on
4 March 1862 . Bee commanded the brigade that consisted ofCarl Buchel ’s First, Nicholas C. Gould’s Twenty-third,Xavier Blanchard Debray ’s Twenty-sixth, James B. Likin’s Thirty-fifth,Peter Cavanaugh Woods ’ Thirty-sixth, andAlexander Watkins Terrell ’s Texas cavalry regiments.Bee was headquartered in Brownsville and facilitated the trade of cotton for munitions through
Mexico . On4 November 1863 he captured a Union expeditionary force under Gen.Nathaniel P. Banks , which reportedly saved millions of dollars of Confederatemateriel . Bee was transferred to a field command in 1864 under Lt. Gen.Richard Taylor in theRed River Campaign . In the Battle of Pleasant Hill, Bee had two different horses shot out from under him during a cavalry charge, but was only slightly wounded. One of Bee’s brigade commanders at this time wasArthur P. Bagby, Jr. , who later replaced him in command. Later, despite intense criticism of his handling of his troops, Bee was given command of Thomas Green’s division in Gen.John A. Wharton ’s cavalry corps in February 1865. After that time, he commanded an infantry brigade in Gen.Samuel B. Maxey ’s division.Postbellum
After the war, Bee lived in a self-imposed exile in Mexico until 1876. He returned to live in
San Antonio , where he died on3 October 1897 , and is buried in the Confederate Cemetery. Bee married Mildred Tarver on21 May 1854 , [cite web | url = http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=tfconner&id=I11285 | title = Tim Conner’s Database: Hamilton Prioleau Bee | accessdate = 2007-01-16 | last = Conner | first = Tim | date = 2006-10-21 | format = Family group sheet] and together they had six children.He was the brother of
Barnard Elliott Bee, Jr. , also a Confederate Army general.References
*Handbook of Texas|id=BB/fbe24|name=Hamilton Prioleau Bee
* [http://www.tarver-genealogy.net/records/bios/tx/bio_hambee.html/ Hamilton P Bee Texas Biography]
* [http://www.multied.com/Bio/CWcGENS/CSABEE.html/ Hamilton P Bee Confederate General]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.