Hamilton P . Bee Hamilton Prioleau Bee ( July 22 , 1822 – October 3 , 1897 ) was an American politician in early Texas who served one term as Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives and later was a Confederate States Army general during the American Civil War . Early life . Bee was born in Charleston , South Carolina , to Ann Wragg Fayssoux and Barnard E . Bee , Sr , from a political family . His family moved to Texas when he was 14 . Political career . At age 17 , Bee served as secretary for the commission that determined the border between the United States and the Republic of Texas . Sam Houston sent Bee , Joseph C . Eldridge , and Thomas S . Torrey to open negotiations with the Comanche in 1843 . They achieved the Treaty of Tehuacana Creek . Bee served as secretary of the Texas Senate in the First Texas Legislature in 1846 . During the Mexican - American War , Bee served under Benjamin McCulloch ' s Company A of Col . Jack Hays ' s 1st Regiment of Texas Mounted Volunteers for a time , but then transferred to Mirabeau B . Lamar ' s Texas cavalry company as a second lieutenant . Bee signed up for a second term in 1847 — this time as first lieutenant — in Lamar ' s Company , which was by then a component of Col . Peter Hansborough Bell ' s regiment of Texas volunteers . Bee moved to Laredo after the war and ran for a seat in the Texas House of Representatives for the Third Texas Legislature in 1849 . He was repeatedly re - elected and served through the end of the Seventh Legislature , for a total of ten years in the House . In the Sixth Legislature , Bee was decisively elected Speaker of the House with 78 votes , to 1 vote each for N . B . Charlton and Pleasant Williams Kittrell . Marriage and family . After becoming established in the legislature , at the age of 32 Bee married Mildred Tarver , on May 21 , 1854 . Together they had six children . Their son Carlos Bee was later elected as a US Congressman . Civil War . In 1861 , Bee was elected brigadier general of the Texas militia and appointed as a brigadier general in the Confederate Army on March 4 , 1862 . Bee commanded the brigade that consisted of Carl Buchel ' s First , Nicholas C . Gould ' s Twenty - third , Xavier Blanchard Debray ' s Twenty - sixth , James B . Likin ' s Thirty - fifth , Peter Cavanaugh Woods ' s Thirty - sixth , and Alexander Watkins Terrell ' s Texas cavalry regiments . Bee was headquartered in Brownsville and facilitated the trade of cotton for munitions through Mexico . On November 4 , 1863 , he was forced to abandon Brownsville in the face of a Union expeditionary force under Maj . Gen . Nathaniel P . Banks . Bee was transferred to a field command in 1864 under Lt . Gen . Richard Taylor in the Red River Campaign . In the Battle of Pleasant Hill , Bee had two different horses shot out from under him during a cavalry charge , but was only slightly wounded . One of Bee ' s brigade commanders at this time was Arthur P . Bagby , Jr . , who later replaced him in command . Later , despite intense criticism of his handling of his troops , Bee was given command of Thomas Green ' s division in Maj . Gen . John A . Wharton ' s cavalry corps in February 1865 . After that time , he commanded an infantry brigade in Gen . Samuel B . Maxey ' s division . Postbellum . After the war , Bee moved his family to Saltillo , Mexico , where they lived in a self - imposed exile in Mexico until 1874 . They returned to live in San Antonio , where he practiced law . After Bee died in 1897 , he was buried in the Confederate Cemetery . He was the older brother of Barnard Elliott Bee , Jr . , also a Confederate Army general . Their father , Barnard Elliott Bee , Sr . , a leader in the Texas Revolution , was the namesake of Beeville and Bee County , Texas .