Alexander E. Steen

Alexander Early Steen ( 1827 – December 7, 1862) was a senior officer in the Confederate States Army. He commanded infantry in the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the American Civil War from 1861 until he was killed in action at the Battle of Prairie Grove in 1862.

Mexican–American War Steen was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 12th Infantry Regiment in early 1847. He served at Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis, Missouri, beginning in May 1847. By the mid-1850s, he was first lieutenant in the 3d Infantry Regiment and assigned to duty at Fort Union in the New Mexico Territory, where he led several lengthy reconnaissance patrols scouting for hostile Indians.

American Civil War With the outbreak of the American 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, 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 outskirts 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.

On July 10, 1861, Steen was appointed as a brigadier general in the Missouri State Guard, On August 9, 1861, he accepted an appointment as a captain in the Confederate States Army to date to March 16, 1861.

When his Missouri State Guard brigade was sent to northern Mississippi in April 1862, he became ill at Memphis, Tennessee and returned to Missouri. He is buried in the Fort Smith National Cemetery.