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HAMILTON PRIOLEAU BEE
1822 - 1897
Hamilton P Bee was born in Charleston, SC on July 22, 1822, and is the older brother of Barnard Elliott Bee who served the CSA after graduating from West Point. Bee removed to texas when he was a youth. He was secretary of the commission for establishing the boundary between the U S and the Republic of Texas in 1839 and then the secretary of the Texas senate in 1846. After service in the Mexican War as a 2nd lieutenant of the Texas Rangers, he was a member of the Texas legislature, and speaker of the house for one term.
Elected brigadier general of the Provisional Army of Texas commanding state troop on the Texas coast in 1861, Bee was appointed brigadier general in the Confederate Army to rank from March 4, 1862. He was placed in command at Brownsville, Texas, where he handled importation of munitions from overseas through Mexico and the return exportation of cotton in payment. In this capacity he functioned largely in an administrative position until he took the field with Texas troops facing N P Banks in the Red River campaign of 1864. This was his initial field command and he was subject to some criticism. In February 1865 he was assigned to command a division of cavalry under Gen. John A Wharton, and was later given a brigade of infantry in Gen. S B Maxey's division.
At the close of the war he went to Mexico for a time, but returned to San Antonio in 1876 where he lived until his death, Oct. 3, 1897. He is buried in the Confederate Cemetery in San Antonio.
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