The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 78, July 1974 - April, 1975 Page: 32
562 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
count in his criticism. The infantry had a clear field. Bee had been at
Pleasant Grove and had taken part in the fighting there, but there had
been much confusion in the disorganized commands, and Bee, who usually
mentioned the generals he met, did not indicate even seeing Walker on the
field.
Bee gave no indication that he received an order from Walker to be in
line of battle before daylight, only that at dawn he was ordered to pursue
the enemy. If Bee did receive an order from Walker, it could easily have
been vague as to time. "Dawn" or "daylight" mean different things to dif-
ferent people. Bee had no idea, at least in his reports, that he had not fol-
lowed this order or that Walker was displeased about his actions that morn-
ing or the previous day. Walker was also writing after the action at Mon-
ett's Ferry and may have been influenced by Bee's conduct there. With no
real evidence to the contrary, Walker's judgment that an important com-
mand for Bee would be a "public calamity,"" based on his actions on the
eighth and morning of the ninth, seems harsher than necessary. If nothing
else, Bee's tardiness could be blamed on inexperience, not nonaggressiveness.
Bee wanted to fight.
In February, 1864, Bee had been appraised in an inspection report as an
"excellent man," although one with "but little service."38 The battles of
Mansfield and Pleasant Hill were his first real face-to-face encounters with
the enemy since the Mexican War-he had not stayed long enough to fight
at Brownsville--and his reports indicated a certain naive attitude toward
the enemy. His surprise at the "extraordinary show of force" by the Yankees
drawn up before Pleasant Hill was too great."9 He was too willing to assume
from the remnants of retreat and rout that the enemy was incapable of bat-
tle. He also seemed to make too quickly assumptions that the enemy would
do what he wanted him to do. But Bee was not the only one with these ten-
dencies. Taylor also had thought the enemy more demoralized than he
really was. The test for Bee would come when he was on his own again.
Hamilton Bee, on the field at Pleasant Hill, did not hear any criticism or
consider his own shortcomings. He was convinced both battles had been
victories and all had behaved gallantly. He and his men remained at their
forward posts through the cold night of the ninth of April. At dawn, when
they advanced, they learned that the enemy had indeed retreated from the
field, and without taking their wounded with them. Bee moved into the
37Ibid.
3SInspection report, February 16, 1864, ibid., XXII, pt. 2, p. I I 3.
39Bee to Hart, report, April Io, 1864, ibid., XXXIV, pt. I, p. 607.
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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/m1/50/: accessed May 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.