|
Background Information on
By Judy C. Ware 2016
General Hamilton Prioleau Bee
Hamilton Prioleau Bee was born on July 22, 1822 in Charleston, South Carolina,
but his family moved to Texas while he was still a youth. He later served with Sam Houston and
was named secretary of the Texas Senate in 1846 at the age of 24. He served in the military during the
Mexican War and afterwards moved to Laredo where he “was elected to
the Texas legislature, where he
served from 1849 through 1859. From 1855 through 1857 he was speaker of the
House. He was elected brigadier general
of militia in 1861 and appointed brigadier general in the Confederate Army to
rank from March 4, 1862.”
Captain James A. Ware served with General Bee, and as the following records
show, he was given an assignment in November 1862 to report on the strength of
the troops in the Rio Grande area.
Report filed in the Texas State Archives
General Bee was headquartered in Brownsville, where he facilitated the trade of
cotton for munitions through Mexico.
In November of 1863, however, he was forced to abandon Brownsville due to a
Union force commanded by General Nathaniel Banks.
Bee was then transferred to a field command in 1864 under Lt. Gen.
Richard Taylor in the Red River Campaign.
“On December 8, 1863, the 1st Texas
Cavalry along with the rest of Buchel's Brigade found itself assigned to Brig.
Gen. James E. Slaughter’s Division for about a week and then transferred to
Bee’s 2nd Cavalry Division.”
(Ref. 721)
The commanding
officers under General Bee were Colonel August Buchel, Lieutenant Colonel
William O. Yager, and Major Robert A. Myers.
Captain James A. Ware served
in Yager’s unit.
(Capitalization done by author for lineage purposes)
At the Battle of Pleasant Hill, Bee had two different horses shot out from under
him during a cavalry charge, but was only slightly wounded. When the war ended, he went to Mexico
for a time but returned to San Antonio, Texas, in 1876, where he remained until
his death, on October 3, 1897. He is
buried in the Confederate Cemetery in San Antonio.
Grave for General
H.P. Bee – located in San Antonio, Texas
1st (Buchel's-Yager's) Cavalry
(1st Mounted Rifles) Texas C.S.A.
The First Texas Cavalry Regiment, also known as the First Texas Mounted Rifles was organized at
Carreicetas Lake on the Rio Grande by consolidation of Yager's 3rd and Taylor's
8th Cavalry Battalions in May of 1862. The troopers were recruited from San
Antonio, Fredericksburg, Marshall, Belton, and Jackson, and DeWitt counties. The
unit was a part of the 1st Brigade of the 1st Cavalry Division under the command
of Major General Hamilton P. Bee (Bee's Brigade).
721.
Horse Sweat and Powder Smoke – the 1st Texas Cavalry in the Civil War
written by: Stanley S. McGowen
Niblett’s Bluff in the War Between the States
By Michael Dan Jones, transcribed by Leora White April 2007 |
This site maintained by John Reagan and last updated |
