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 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 session 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 Brigadier-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. Bernard 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.from "Texans Who Wore the Gray", Volume I, by Sid S. Johnson; transcribed by Cheryl Quinn