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 stationed at Fort Conrad in the New Mexico Territory from 1852 to 1853, and was on scouting duty in 1853, during which Steele was engaged against Apache in a skirmish near Fort Conrad on July 28, 1853.