Steele, Frederick

In the spring of 1864 Steele was directed to advance southward across the state and cooperate with Nathaniel Banks's campaign up the Red River in Louisiana. Steele's command departed from Little Rock on this so-called Camden expedition on 23 March. Steele advanced southwestward, colliding with Confederate forces at Okolona on 3 April before turning eastward and fighting at Prairie d'Ane on 10-13 April and at Poison Spring on 18 April. The Federals occupied Camden for nearly a fortnight before beginning a retreat to Little Rock. At Jenkins Ferry on the Saline River on 30 April, Steele's troops repulsed the attacks of a numerically superior Confederate force, securing their retreat route to the state capital, which they reached on 3 May. Banks's operations along the Red River resulted in failure, but Steele was blameless as the Confederates mobilized troops to prevent his juncture with Banks.

Steele remained in Arkansas as department commander until the winter of 1865, when he commanded a division in Edward R. S. Canby's army in siege operations against Mobile, Alabama. At the close of hostilities, Federal authorities sent Steele to Texas, where he remained for nearly two years.