William Steele (May 1, 1819 – January 12, 1885) was a career military officer and businessman who served as the 16th adjutant general of Texas from 1874 until 1879.

He previously served as a senior officer of the Confederate States Army who commanded cavalry in the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the American Civil War.

[1] He attended the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1836, graduating four years later standing 31st out of 42 cadets.

[2] Steele served at the Cavalry School for Practice at the Carlisle Barracks in Pennsylvania in 1840 and 1841, during which he was promoted to second lieutenant on February 2, 1841.

Steele and the 2nd Dragoons were on frontier duty at Fort Jesup in Louisiana from 1842 to 1844, and then in garrison at Jefferson Barracks in Missouri in 1844 and 1845.

He was also the adjutant of the 2d Dragoons from December 20, 1847, to April 10, 1849, during which the 2nd was in garrison duty at East Pascagoula, Mississippi in 1848.

Steele was part of the expedition against the Kiowa and Comanche in 1860, then stationed once at Fort Scott in Kansas from 1860 to early 1861.

[5] He commanded the department's Eastern Sub-district of the District of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona beginning on March 18, 1864, participating in the Red River Campaign that spring under General Richard Taylor.