Major General Frederick Steele and Staff

SWMODave

Sergeant Major
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Jul 23, 2017
Location
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frederick steele and staff.jpg

I couldn't find this photo floating around on the net but it is taken from the Americana Magazine Vol 5 (1910), which is free on Google Books. This photo was owned by a family member of one of the men pictured in 1910.

Steele spent most of his time in the Trans-Mississippi theatre and died just a few years after the war ended. You can find biographical threads on him elsewhere on cwt.

Before leaving Little Rock the group which accompanies this sketch was taken at the Ashley Mansion, where Steele had his headquarters, by a photographer named Brown.
General Steele is seated and from the left to right the names, ranks, assignments and in some cases other data are as follows:
(1) Lt. Col. George 0. Sokalski, Inspector General, was the son of a Polish patriot and a regular army man, having been graduated in 1861 at the Military Academy at West Point. (personal note - Sokalski met his future wife while in 'occupied' Little Rock)
(2) Lt. Col. William D. Green, Assistant Adjutant General was of the Tenth Illinois Infantry.
(3) Major Junius B. Wheeler, the Chief Engineer, was from 1871 to 1884 a professor of Engineering at the Military Academy at West Point, from which he was graduated in 1855, and died July 15, 1886.
(4) Lt. Col. Jabez B. Rogers, Assistant Inspector General, was an officer of "Merrills 'Horse." A Missouri Regiment.
(5) Dr. Joseph R. Smith, Medical Director, was a son of an officer with whom General Steele served in the Mexican War and remained longer on this staff than any other member. He continued in the regular army serving in several departments until his retirement in 1895 with the rank of Colonel. In 1904 he was appointed Brigadier General.
(6) Lt. Col. Jules C. Webber, Aid-de-Camp, was of the Eighteenth Illinois Infantry, and in 1865 was breveted Brigadier General.
(7) Lt. Col. Spencer 0. Benham, Commissary of Subsistence, was appointed by the President.
(8) Major Charles T. Scammon, Aid-de-Camp, a brilliant officer, was the sou of John Y. Scammon, a distinguished lawyer of Chicago.
(9) Lt. Col. John L. Chandler, Provost Marshal General, was of the Seventh Missouri Cavalry.
(10) Cal. Byron 0. Carr, Chief Quarter Master, appointed by the President, is a brother of General E. A. Carr, of the retired list, and of Clark E. Carr, of Illinois.
(11) Captain Alexander Mackenzie, Assistant to the Chief Engineer was a graduate of the Military Academy at West Point in 1864, became Chief of the Corps of Engineers of the United States Army, and retired in 1908, with the rank of Major General.
(12) Lt. Thomas D. Witt, Chief Ordnance Officer, was of the First Missouri Light Artillery.
(13) Major Edmund L. Joy, Judge Advocate, appointed by the President, was a lawyer and a captain in the Thirty-sixth Iowa Infantry. He died in New Jersey, February 14, 1892, having been a member of the State Legislature 1871-2; Delegate to the Republican National Convention 1880; and a government director of the Union Pacific Railroad Company 1884-5.
(14) Captain James Marr, Chief of Artillery, was a Captain in a Missouri Battery.
(15) Major John F. Lacey, Assistant Adjutant General, had served in the Third and Thirty-third Regiments of Iowa Infantry, and he remained with General Steele till the end of the war, being his Adjutant General in the Mobile Campaign and in Texas. He is the author of Lacey's Railway Digest and the Third Iowa Digest and has recently closed sixteen years of service in Congress.






 
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That's a LOT of war, between all of them, thank you!

Wonder if the Chester Ashley mansion is the same house? You can never be sure because old, established families tended to build through generations. Hang on- I can't find the original source- saved from Pinterest ( not exactly a reliable source but you can find accurate stuff there - sometimes. )

little rock chester ashely mansion crop.jpg


Mom spent a lot of her childhood in Little Rock, will ask her if the name is familiar. She may have been here, who knows?
 
As a resident of Little Rock, I can assure you that that the Chester Ashley house and the Ashley house were the same building. It was located on the south side of Markham Street, between Scott and Cumblerland Streets. If you ever are in Little Rock, be sure to eat at Iriana's pizza parlor - you are on the site of the Ashley House.
 
An excerpt from a letter to the New Albany Daily Ledger after the battle of Fort Blakely

"and we must award to the colored soldiers under Gen. Steele much bravery. Their portion of the line was assigned them, and they did their duty gallantly. No more can men say “Negroes will not fight.” We have found them to be, in the hour of peril, “as true as Steele,” and Steele was their motto."

From a "Sylvester" in the 24th Indiana Infantry.
 
As a resident of Little Rock, I can assure you that that the Chester Ashley house and the Ashley house were the same building. It was located on the south side of Markham Street, between Scott and Cumblerland Streets. If you ever are in Little Rock, be sure to eat at Iriana's pizza parlor - you are on the site of the Ashley House.


Thank you! Good to know! It just never pays to assume this stuff- been wrong so often jumping to some conclusion that seems well founded I've learned to be awfully careful.
 
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