Brigadier General Tyree H. Bell, P.A.C.S.
Brigadier-General Tyree H. Bell, one of the many gallant officers given by
the Volunteer State to the Southern Confederacy, entered the service as
captain in the Twelfth Tennessee infantry, June 4, 1861, and was elected
lieutenant-colonel. His military duties during 1861 were with the army
under Maj. Gen. Leonidas Polk at Columbus, Ky. He commanded the
regiment at the battle of Belmont, November 7, 1861, the colonel being
that day in command of a brigade. At Shiloh he was again in command of
his regiment, Col. R. M. Russell having charge of the First brigade, First
division, army of Mississippi. Colonel Russell in his report of the operations
of his brigade at Shiloh says: "Lieutenant Colonel Bell and Maj. R. P.
Caldwell were distinguished by their courage and energy. The former had
two horses shot under him." In July, 1862, Bell was promoted to colonel
of the Twelfth Tennessee and let it in the Kentucky campaign, participating
in the battle of Richmond, Ky. Colonel Bell after this had a cavalry
command operating in Tennessee and Kentucky. He was raiding in rear of
the Union army during the Murfreesboro campaign, and at the time of the
battle of Chickamauga, and afterward, was busy upon the flank and rear of
the Federal troops. On the 25th of January, 1864, Major-General Forrest,
who had assumed command of all the cavalry operating in north Mississippi,
west Tennessee and Kentucky, placed Colonel Bell in command of a brigade
in his division, consisting of the regiments of Russell, Greer, Newsom,
Barteau and Wilson. General Forrest in his account of the battle of Fort
Pillow says: "I cannot compliment too highly the conduct of Colonels Bell
and McCulloch and the officers and men of their brigades which composed
the forces of Brigadier-General Chalmers. They fought with courage and
intrepidity, and without bayonets assaulted and carried one of the strongest
fortifications in the country." In his report of the brilliant victory at
Tishomingo creek, Forrest declares that General Buford "had abundant
reason to be proud of his brigade commanders, Colonels Lyon and Bell, who
displayed great gallantry during the day." Forrest again speaks in a
complimentary manner of Bell at the battle of Harrisburg, in the Tupelo
campaign, a battle in which, though repulsed, Forrest gained the substantial
fruits of victory by breaking up the strongest of all the Federal expeditions
into north Mississippi during 1864. Still later, Forrest made an expedition
along the Tennessee river in October and November, 1864, in which he
destroyed 4 gunboats, 14 transports, 20 barges, and over $6,700,000 of
Federal property, besides capturing 26 pieces of artillery; and in this brilliant
expedition Colonel Bell again won the praise of Forrest. he was soon
afterward commissioned brigadier-general, and continued to act with
Forrest's command until the close of the war.
Source: Evans, Clement, ed. Confederate Military History, Vol.
VIII, Confederate Publishing Company, Atlanta, GA, 1899
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