{⋆★⋆} BG Bee, Hamilton P.

Hamilton Prioleau Bee

:CSA1stNat:
General Bee.jpg


Born: July 22, 1822

Birthplace: Charleston, South Carolina

Father: Barnard Elliott Bee 1789 – 1853
(Buried: Saint Paul's Episcopal Churchyard, Pendleton, South Carolina)​

Mother: Ann Wragg Fayssoux 1789 – 1858
(Buried: Saint Paul's Episcopal Churchyard, Pendleton, South Carolina)​

Wife: Mildred Mary Taylor 1832 – 1928
(Buried: Confederate Cemetery, San Antonio, Texas)​

Children:

Lamar Carlota Bee Benavides 1850 – 1921​
(Buried: Cavalry Catholic Cemetery, Laredo, Texas)​
Barnard Elliott Bee 1855 – 1881​
(Buried: San Geronimo Cemetery, Seguin, Texas)​
Clement Stevens Bee 1857 – 1899​
(Buried: Confederate Cemetery, San Antonio, Texas)​
Hamilton Prioleau Bee Jr. 1858 – 1923​
(Buried: Confederate Cemetery, San Antonio, Texas)​
John Tarver Bee 1859 – 1922​
(Buried: Confederate Cemetery, San Antonio, Texas)​
Anne Fayssoux Bee 1862 – 1942​
(Buried: Confederate Cemetery, San Antonio, Texas)​
Carlos Bee 1867 – 1932​
(Buried: Confederate Cemetery, San Antonio, Texas)​
Edward Atenogenes Varea Bee 1869 – 1894​
(Buried: San Geronimo Cemetery, Seguin, Texas)​
Benjamin Elliott Bee 1874 – 1941​
(Buried: San Gabriel Cemetery, San Gabriel, California)​

Occupation before War:

Secretary for Commission that determined border of Texas & U.S.​
1846: Secretary of Texas Republic Senate​
1846 – 1848: Served in the Mexican War rising to rank of 1st Lt.​
1849 – 1857: Texas State Representative​

Civil War Career:


1861 – 1862: Brigadier General of Texas State Militia​
1862 – 1865: Brigadier General of Confederate Army Infantry​
1862 – 1864: Commander of Brownsville, Texas District​
1862 – 1864: Handled the cotton trade with Mexico​
1864: Slightly Wounded in face during the Battle of Pleasant Hill​
1864: Division Commander​
1865: Brigade Commander in Samuel Maxey's Division​

Occupation after War:

1865 – 1876: Lived in Saltillo, Mexico​
1876 – 1897: Attorney in San Antonio, Texas​
1876: Lost Vision in one of his eyes​
1885 – 1886: Texas Commissioner of Insurance, Statistics and History​
Lost Sight from his other eye​

Died: October 3, 1897

Place of Death: San Antonio, Texas

Cause of Death: Organic Disease of the heart, Syncope

Age at time of Death: 75 years old

Burial Place: Confederate Cemetery, San Antonio, Texas

Grave Location: Section 3, Center South half, Lot 49
 
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Older brother to Gen. Bernard Bee, the man who gave Jackson the nickname of "Stonewall". Son of Barnard Bee Sr. Secretary of War in the Republic of Texas. He not only served in the Texas House of Representatives but was speaker of the House, I think. I will have to do some research on this but I believe his oldest daughter married into the Benavides family. Col. Santos Benavides from Laredo was the highest ranking Hispanic in the Confederate Army. Actually there were 2 Hispanic Colonels.
 
I couldn't help but notice the last child Benjamin Elliott born in 1874 when his mother was 42, being the ninth child of the couple. Of course the Missus lived to 96 years of age. Moved to Saltillo Texas at the end of the war?? You know that is where the last fight occurred.
Lubliner.
I thought he moved to Saltillo, Mexico
 
Who was General Bee's immediate supervisor? I'm guessing John Magruder maybe? At one point it was probably Tom Green but I was referring to his time back in Texas after the Red River Campaign. I'm thinking General Slaughter may have been commander of Bee's Texas Sub-distict?
 
In mid-May 1864, Gen H. P. Bee was sacked by Gen Richard Taylor because he failed to prevent Gen Bank's army from crossing the Cane River on April 22 and escaping to Alexandria and the protection of Adm Porter's gunboats. Bee was supposed to keep a Federal army of 25,000 bottled up on Cane Island with 3 small brigades of about 2,000 Texas Cavalry and a couple batteries of artillery. Gen Bee had some advantages defending the crossing, but 12 to 1 odds were a little much even for Texans. Outflanked, Bee decided to retreat. Instead of continuing a delaying action and obstructing Bank's line of retreat south along a narrow piney woods road, Bee retreated 25 miles to the west leaving the road to Alexandria wide open. Gen Bee asked for a hearing or court martial to clear his name, but eventually returned to Texas where he finished out the war.
 
8/15/64 Alexandria, Gen Walker to Boggs-In reply to your communication of the 12th, #3671, I beg leave to say that I differ with you as to the insufficiency of my endorsement on the application of Gen Bee to be reassigned to his former command. If my opinion is deemed of any value in determining the question, I cannot conceive terms that would express it more fully.

My opinion of his entire unfitness for the command of a large body of troops is based upon observations upon the battle-field of Mansfield, where he was acting under my orders, or rather he was nominally subject to them, but failed to carry them out, & to this failure & his general want of appreciation of the necessities of the moment, I have reason to attribute our failure to capture Banks, entire transportation & Arty on the afternoon of 4/8. Having failed on the 8th to take any share in the engagement, or in any manner to contribute to the success of the day, I naturally supposed he would be eager to retrieve his mistake on the following day.

He had orders from me to be in line of battle before daylight on the 9th, in order, if the enemy were still in position in our front, to assist the Infy in a renewed assault upon the hill at the peach orchard, in case Banks had retreated, which could not be certainly ascertained until daylight, to take up the pursuit of the flying enemy. To my surprise & indignation Gen Bee's Bgde was not in line of battle until at least a half hour by sun, by which time Col’s Baylor & Madison, with their Cav Regts, had gotten five or six miles in pursuit & had sent back a number of prisoners.

Of course I know nothing of Gen Bee's conduct subsequent to the period of which I have spoken, but give the above as the grounds of my objections to his being assigned to an important command. So far as this officer's personal character is concerned, his courage, honor, & integrity are universally conceded, & by none more fully than myself, but I would regard it as a public calamity to know of his being assigned to an important command.
 
At the battle of Pleasant Hill where he was slightly wounded in face, Bee also had 2 horses shot out from under him during a cavalry charge. His wounding put Arthur P. Bagby in charge of Bee's brigade. Bagby was one of those "Kirby Smith generals" that were not made official by Jefferson Davis or the CS Senate.
 
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In addition to a brother also reaching the rank of General, Bee had a brother-in-law to make that grade. Clement H. Stevens (Connecticut native), who was a cousin to Bee, married Bee's sister Anne.Stevens was aide-de-camp to Bee's brother, General Barnard Bee at the battle of Manassas.Some of this info is from an online biography of Stevens, so it may or may not be entirely correct.
 
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