CONFEDERATE BIOGRAPHY: HAMILTON P. BEE, Smith County, TX

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Submitted by Mary Love Berryman - marylove@tyler.net
28 August 2001
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TEXANS WHO WORE THE GRAY by Sid S. Johnson

HAMILTON P. BEE.

Hamilton P. Bee, of San Antonio, was born in Charles­ton, South 
Carolina, July 21, 1822.  His father, Gen. Barn­ard Elliott Bee, 
hastened from the Palmetto State in 1836 and joined the Texas army in 
the fight for independence. Soon he was made Secretary of the 
Treasury of the Republic of Texas, and in 1837 President Sam Houston 
appointed him Secretary of War which portfolio he held until 1839 
when President Lamar promoted him to Secretary of State. In 1840-42 
he was Minister Plenipotentiary from the Republic of Texas to the 
United States and under him the Texas legation became one of the most 
influential and popular in Washington.  Hamilton P. Bee joined his 
father in Texas in October 1837 and became a surveyor of lands. He was 
in several expeditions against the Comanche Indians.  When the first 
State legislature assembled on February 16, 1846 he was elected 
Secretary of the Senate, but on the call of Gen. Zachary Taylor for 
volunteers in May he resigned the office and enlisted as a private in 
Capt. Ben McCulloch's company A, of Col. Hay's 1st Texas cavalry and 
fought at Monterey and in various other battles, being promoted to 
first lieuten­ant.  For ten years following the peace he was largely 
en­gaged in commercial pursuits at Laredo.  He represented Webb county 
for eight years in the legislature, and through the dual sessions of 
1855 and 1856 was Speaker of the House and won real distinction as 
such.  Upon the outbreak of the war in 1861 he promptly volunteered 
and was commissioned colonel of a Texas regiment, and in 1862 was 
promoted to be Bngadier-General in the Confederate army. At the 
battle of Mansfield while leading a daring charge he had two horses 
killed under him, received a severe wound in the face and lost more 
than half of his men including the dauntless Prussian, Col. Augustus 
Buchel. He fought throughout the en­tire war and at its end was in 
command of a division of cavalry. It was his brother, Gen. Barnard E. 
Bee, who at the battle of the first Manassas exclaimed, "Look, there 
is Jack­son standing like a stone wall!" and who an hour later fell at 
the head of his troops just as defeat was being changed to victory. 
After the war Gen. Hamilton P. Bee lived in; San Antonio until his 
death, being largely interested in mining and cattle properties. He 
was married in Seguin in 1854 to Miss Mildred Tarver, of an old 
Virginia family, and they are survived by several children. Their 
son, Hon. Carlos Bee, of San Antonio, has been district attorney and 
is one of the leading lawyers of the State.