The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 78, July 1974 - April, 1975 Page: 22
562 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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22 Southwestern Historical Quarterly
and Louisiana and for naval cooperation. Frederick Steele was to march on
Shreveport from Little Rock as one arm of a pincer movement. Banks, with
his own men and Io,ooo on loan from William T. Sherman's Army of the
Tennessee, was to make his way up the Red with aid from Commodore
David D. Porter's river gunboats. The two were to meet at Shreveport, the
headquarters of the Trans-Mississippi Department.2
On March 2 the expedition started up the Red River, the long lines of
soldiers staying close to the river and the comforting presence of the trans-
ports and gunboats. The Confederates under General Richard Taylor fell
back before them. Taylor had no choice but to retreat. The Yankees num-
bered about 30,ooo, and he had only about 7,000 men, with no cavalry.a
More troops were on the way from Texas. General Edmund Kirby Smith,
commander of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department, and Taylor
had been watching the enemy concentration closely, and it was not difficult
to determine that the large Federal army was meant for a drive on the Red
River. On March 5 Kirby Smith ordered General John B. Magruder, com-
manding the District of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, to send General
Thomas Green's Texas cavalry to Alexandria. A few days later he ordered
all troops possible to Louisiana. Hamilton P. Bee's command was part of
this exodus to stop the enemy.4
Bee was a Texan of long standing, having come to the state in 1837 at
age fifteen to be with his father, Barnard E. Bee, who had held several
offices in the Republic, including that of secretary of state. Hamilton worked
at various positions before I846-clerk to the comptroller Francis Lubbock,
secretary on a treaty commission to the Comanches, and secretary of the
first state Senate in 1845. During the Mexican War he served in Captain
Benjamin McCulloch's company of cavalry in the battle at Monterrey and,
under Mirabeau B. Lamar, helped bring the Laredo area under United
States and Texas control. After the war Bee settled in Laredo as a merchant
2Harrington, Fighting Politician, 151-153; Johnson, Red River Campaign, 81-85;
Joseph H. Parks, General Edmund Kirby Smith, C.S.A. (Baton Rouge, 1954), 374-376.
3Troop returns, War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the
Union and Confederate Armies (130 vols.; Washington, D.C., I88o-I901), Series I,
XXXIV, pt. I, pp. 167-168; Richard Taylor, Destruction and Reconstruction: Personal
Experiences of the Late War, edited by Charles P. Roland (Waltham, Massachusetts,
1968), 153. The Official Records are hereafter cited as O.R.A., and, unless otherwise in-
dicated, references will be to Series I.
4Samuel S. Anderson to Magruder, March 5, 1864, O.R.A., XXXIV, pt. 2, p. o1027;
William R. Boggs to Magruder, March I , 1864, ibid., 1034; Boggs to Magruder, March
12, 1864, ibid., pt. 1, p. 494; Special Orders, No. 72, March 12, 1864, ibid., pt. 2, pp.
1037-1038; Special Orders, No. 76, March I6, 1864, ibid., 1048; Johnson, Red River
Campaign, 87; Parks, Kirby Smith, 372.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 78, July 1974 - April, 1975, periodical, 1974/1975; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117149/m1/40/?rotate=90: accessed April 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.