Alexander E. Steen - Military Career

Military Career

Steen graduated from the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, and was assigned as a second lieutenant to the 12th U.S. Infantry. He served at Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis, Missouri, beginning in May 1846. By the mid-1850s, Steen was promoted to first lieutenant in the 3rd U.S. Infantry and assigned to duty at Fort Union in the New Mexico Territory, where he led several lengthy reconnaissance patrols scouting for hostile Indians.

With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, many Missourians were forced to choose sides, especially after the state's neutrality came under test when pro-secessionist forces began organizing, and fighting between Unionists and secessionists became imminent. Steen returned to Missouri and was commissioned as the Lt Colonel of the Second Regiment, Missouri Volunteer Militia (MVM), a position he held concurrently with his commission in the U.S. Army. The Second Regiment, MVM, was composed primarily of members of the pro-secession "Minutemen" paramilitary organization. This unit was arrested by U.S. troops at Camp Jackson, on the out skirts of St. Louis on May 10, 1861 on suspicion of disloyal activities. Steen avoided arrest at Camp Jackson and reportedly submitted his resignation from the U.S. Army the same day. Steen was subsequently appointed as a brigadier general in the secessionist Missouri State Guard (MSG) under its commander, Major General Sterling Price, serving as drillmaster at the State Guard encampment at Cowskin Prairie near the Arkansas border. He also commanded the Fifth Division of the Missouri State Guard (mostly raw recruits) early in the war. In January 1862, he received an appointment as a captain in the Regular Confederate Army's Corps of Infantry, to date to March 16, 1861.