Steele, Frederick, 1819-1868

Frederick Steele (1819-1868) was a career military officer in the United States Army and a major general during the U.S. Civil War. A native of Delhi, N.Y., Steele graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and participated in numerous battles in the Mexican-American War. During the Civil War he played a crucial role in the Union military effort throughout the Trans-Mississippi Theater and was promoted to major general in April 1863. He successfully captured Confederate-held Little Rock in September 1863 and subsequently pushed official Union boundaries south through the state. He later led the ill-fated Camden Expedition, a two-pronged military campaign that was supposed to unite northward-marching soldiers led by Generals Nathaniel P. Banks and David D. Porter and Steele's own Arkansas-based troops for a strike into Texas.

Frederick Steele was born at Delhi, Delaware County, New York, January 14, 1819. He was appointed cadet at West Point in 1839 and commissioned as 2nd lieutenant, 2nd infantry in 1843. He fought in the Mexican War, 1847-1848 and served in California, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Alabama. In 1862 he was made Major General of Volunteers and served in that capacity in the Civil War. He died in San Mateo, California in January 1868.

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