Born in Delhi, New York, on January 14, 1819, Frederick Steele graduated from the U. S. Military Academy in 1843, in the same class as Ulysses S. Grant. He fought as a second lieutenant with the 2nd U. S. Infantry in the Mexican-American War.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Steele was serving as a captain at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. He received a promotion to major and lead a battalion of Regular Army soldiers at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek on August 10, 1861. On September 23rd, Steele joined the volunteer service as colonel of the 8th Iowa Volunteer Infantry; he was promoted to brigadier general on January 29, 1862. Assigned to General Samuel Curtis’s Army of the Southwest, he commanded a division in the capture of Helena, Arkansas, on July 12, 1862. On March 17, 1863, Steele was promoted to major general and led a division of the XV Army Corps through the Vicksburg campaign.
After the surrender of Vicksburg, Steele returned to Helena where he assumed command of Union forces in Arkansas. In August 1863, he set out with a force of 12,000 troops to capture Little Rock, which he accomplished on September 10, 1863.
In late March 1864, Steele, now commander of the VII Army Corps and Department of Arkansas, led about 14,000 troops into southwest Arkansas to support General Nathaniel Banks’s march up the Red River toward Texas. Steele captured Camden on April 15, but Confederate forces quickly destroyed Steele’s foraging parties and cut off badly needed supplies. Faced with the approach of enemy infantry, Steele abandoned Camden on April 26 and retreated back to Little Rock. Confederate forces remained in control of southern Arkansas for the remainder of the war.
After the war, Steele served as colonel of the 20th U. S. Infantry and was given command of the Department of Columbia. While on leave in San Mateo, California, he suffered an apoplectic seizure and fell from the carriage he was driving. He died of his injuries on January 12, 1868.
Carte-de-Visite by Unknown Photographer
Image Courtesy Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield; WICR 11511
