Just to clarify matters, I did not mean to suggest that Steele was attempting to move south of Little Rock and cut off Price's retreat, only that it might have APPEARED that way to Price from his vantage point inside the city.
One last half-baked thought: Given the swelling tide of Unionist/defeatist sentiment in Arkansas after the disasters at Prairie Grove, Arkansas Post, and Helena, would it not be likely that Steele received information from INSIDE Little Rock regarding Confederate strength, defenses, intentions?
During his crossing of the Mississippi River and his subsequent overland movement toward Vicksburg, Grant certainly benefitted from the presence of Unionists in Mississippi--of all places!--who provided him with a constant flow of timely information. The existence of intelligence networks of southern Unionists was kept secret for so long after the Civil War (evidently to prevent reprisals) that it was eventually forgotten and only very recently re-discovered. Consequently, much operational Civil War history may have to be re-written. The historiographical situation today is similar to that in the mid-1970s when the existence of ULTRA was finally revealed. Suddenly, a lot of Allied "hunches" and "lucky guesses" and "fortunate coincidences" during WWII looked very different.
I know for a fact that Curtis and Blunt received a great deal of information from cooperative Arkansans (loyal or disloyal, take your pick), and I assume that Steele did as well. Any thoughts?