Appointed a midshipman on 4 August 1823, during the next two decades he served afloat in U.S. Atlantic waters, the Mediterranean Sea and the West Indies as an officer of the frigates Constitution and United States; the sloops of war Erie, Vincennes, and Marion; and the schooner Grampus.

He served in the series of campaigns that captured New Orleans and gradually opened the Mississippi River for exploitation by Federal forces.

He was advanced to rear admiral a year later and placed on the retired list in April 1867, but remained active as the Asiatic Squadron's commander.

In summer 1867, Rear Admiral Bell led the Formosan Expedition, a punitive operation in response to the Rover incident, where American sailors had been killed by Taiwanese aborigines.

On 11 January 1868, having passed Tempōzan en route upriver, his boat overturned in heavy seas; Bell and all but three of the craft's other occupants perished in this accident.