Matthew Forney Steele was born in Huntsville, Alabama on June 19, 1861.  During his school years he read about the lives of great southern military men, including generals Robert E. Lee, Joe Johnston, and Stonewall Jackson.  The emulation of these great generals prompted him to secure an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. He entered the Academy on July 1, 1879, shortly after his eighteenth birthday, and on June 13, 1883 he graduated as a second lieutenant and was assigned to the Eighth Cavalry at Fort Clark, Texas.  He was stationed at Fort Yates, Dakota Territory from 1888 to 1891 and was a member of the Cavalry unit sent to relieve the besieged Indian police who attempted to arrest Sitting Bull. He was involved in the subsequent campaigns against the Sioux in 1890 and 1891.   In the Spanish-American War he served as an aid to General Wheeler in the Santiago Campaign, including the Battle of San Juan Hill. Promoted to Captain in 1899 he served as adjutant of the Sixth Cavalry until 1899. He served in the Philippine Campaign from 1899 to 1900 as a major in the Thirtieth Volunteers and as commander of Troop K. Sixth Cavalry from 1901 to 1903. He served as an instructor at the U.S. Army Command and Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas and at the War College, Washington, D.C. from 1903 until 1909. During this period he authored a collection of books on the American Civil War entitled The American Campaigns.

The Matthew F. Steele Papers consist of newspaper clippings; a short autobiography, reminiscence of his involvement in the death of Sitting Bull; correspondence from January 1899 until October 1907; and diaries covering January 1920 to February 1952.  The Correspondence Series consists primarily of letters written to his mother at Avondale, near Birmingham, Alabama from 1899 until 1907.  The diaries document 1920 to 1952 and describe his daily activities as a Fargo businessman. 
 

Military