Captain Tyree Harris Bell, Civil War Veteran, Sumner Co., TN
Brig. Gen. Tyree Harris Bell 5 Sept 1815---1 Sept 1902
"...these dead shall not have died in vain."
Abraham Lincoln, 1863
"Captain of the 12th Tennessee Infantry. In battles of Belmont, MO and Shiloh, Tennessee. In July 1862, made Colonel of regiment and led it in the Kentucky Campaign. Then made Brigadier General. Served with General Forrest in Cavalry. Lived on Station Camp Creek in Sumner County until Nov. 1875, then moved to Dyer County in West Tennessee."---Ferguson's Sumner County in the Civil War
"Tyree Harris Bell, CSA b. Covington, KY 5 Sept 1815. Bell was reared on his family's TN plantation and, some years before the Civil War, began one of his own in the same state. Early in 1861 he recruited a company for the 12th Tennessee Infantry and was elected its captain 4 June.
An enthusiastic Confederate and a fighter, Bell quickly advanced to lieutenant colonel of the 12th before leading the regiment at the Battles of Belmont, MO and Shiloh. In July 1862 he was commissioned colonel and in August participated in the Battle of Richmond, KY. He then transferred to cavalry command, taking part in operations at the Battles of Perryville and Stone's River.
When Maj. Gen. Nathan B. Forrest was given authority to organize an independent command in West Tennessee and northern Mississippi in late 1863, he recruited Bell, who served with the famous commander until the end of the war. Under Forrest, Bell was first a recruiting and conscript officer, then was given command of a brigade of Tennessee regiments, though it was not until 28 Feb. 1865 that he received his commission as brigadier general for recognition of actions in the Tennessee campaigns, the Battle of Brice's Cross Roads, and combat in Misissippi. Following the defeats around Selma, AL, he was surrendered with the rest of Forrest's force.
In the postwar years, he migrated to Fresno, CA, and became a farmer. He died while traveling through New Orleans, 1 Sept. 1902."--- Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Civil War
Patricia L. Faust, Editor;
Harper Perennial Publisher, 1991;
p. 54
