Adolphus W. Greely | |
|---|---|
 Greely in uniform, 1890 | |
| Birth name | Adolphus Washington Greely |
| Born | (1844-03-27)March 27, 1844 |
| Died | October 20, 1935(1935-10-20) (aged 91) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Buried | |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Branch | United States Army |
| Service years | 1861–1908 |
| Rank | Major General |
| Commands | Lady Franklin Bay Expedition Chief Signal Officer of the U.S. Army Pacific Division Northern Division Department of the Columbia Department of Dakota |
| Battles / wars | American Civil War American Indian Wars Spanish–American War Philippine–American War |
| Awards | Medal of Honor |
| Spouse | Henrietta Nesmith (m. 1878-1918, her death) |
| Children | 7 (includingRose Greely) |
| Signature |  |
Adolphus Washington GreelyFRSGS (March 27, 1844 – October 20, 1935) was aUnited States Army officer andpolar explorer. He attained the rank ofmajor general and was a recipient of theMedal of Honor.
A native ofNewburyport, Massachusetts, and an 1860 graduate of Brown High School (nowNewburyport High School), in 1861 he enlisted in theUnion Army for theAmerican Civil War. He received his commission as asecond lieutenant in 1863 and was promoted tofirst lieutenant in 1864 andcaptain in 1865. At the end of the war he received abrevet promotion tomajor in recognition of his wartime accomplishments.
After the war, Greely accepted a second lieutenant's commission in the regular army. In 1881, he was appointed to command theLady Franklin Bay Expedition, a 25-man expedition organized to carry outArctic explorations. The expedition ran short of food and several resupply and rescue missions were unsuccessful, and by the time Greely and his men were rescued in 1884, there were only six survivors.
In March 1887, Greely was serving as a captain when PresidentGrover Cleveland appointed him as the Army'sChief Signal Officer with the rank ofbrigadier general. As Signal chief, he was responsible for creating and maintaining the worldwide communications networks required during and after theSpanish–American War and during thePhilippine–American War. Greely was promoted tomajor general in February 1906. In April 1906, he was assigned to command relief efforts following theSan Francisco earthquake. Greely left the Army in 1908 after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 64.
In retirement, Greely authored numerous magazine articles and books on his Arctic experiences. In March 1935, he was awarded theMedal of Honor in recognition of "his life of splendid public service." Greely died inWashington, D.C., on October 20, 1935. He was buried atArlington National Cemetery.
Greely was born inNewburyport, Massachusetts, on March 27, 1844, the son of John Balch Greeley and Frances Dunn Cobb Greely.[1] He was educated in Newburyport and was an 1860 graduate of Brown High School (nowNewburyport High School).[1]
After having been rejected twice, on 26 July 1861, he joined theUnion Army for theAmerican Civil War, enlisting in the19th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment.[1] Over the next two years he worked his way up the enlisted ranks to firstsergeant.[1] On 18 March 1863, he was commissioned as asecond lieutenant in the 81st United States Colored Infantry.[1] He was promoted tofirst lieutenant on 26 April 1864 and tocaptain on 4 April 1865.[1] After the war he received abrevet promotion to major in recognition of his meritorious service.[1] He was mustered out of theVolunteer Army on 22 March 1867.[1]
During his Civil War service, Greely took part in several battles, includingBall's Bluff,Antietam, andFredericksburg.[2] From 1865 to 1867, Greely took part in the post-war occupation ofNew Orleans.[2]
He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the36th Infantry Regiment of theRegular Army on 7 March 1867 and was reassigned to the5th Cavalry Regiment on 14 July 1869 after the 36th Infantry was disbanded.[1] Greely was detailed for service with theSignal Corps from 1871 to 1880, and he was promoted to first lieutenant on 27 May 1873.[1][3]
With the Signal Corps, which also included theWeather Bureau, Greely was recognized as an expert weather forecaster.[1] His efforts helped establish thefloodplains of theMississippi,Missouri, andOhio Rivers, which facilitatedCorps of Engineers flood control projects.[1] In addition, he oversaw planning, construction, and maintenance of severaltelegraph lines, including lines in remote areas ofIndian Territory,Texas,Dakota Territory, andMontana Territory.[1]
In 1881, First Lieutenant Greely was named to command theLady Franklin Bay Expedition.[1] Promoted byHenry W. Howgate, its purpose was to establish one of a chain of meteorological-observation stations as part of the FirstInternational Polar Year.[4] The expedition also was commissioned by the US government to collect astronomical and polar magnetic data, which was carried out by the astronomerEdward Israel, who was part of Greely's crew.[5] Another goal of the expedition was to search for any clues ofUSS Jeannette, lost in the Arctic two years earlier.[6]
The expedition sailed on the steamship SSProteus.[1] Greely was without previous Arctic experience, but he and his party succeeded in discovering and exploring much of the coast of northwestGreenland.[1] The expedition also crossedEllesmere Island from east to west, andJames B. Lockwood andDavid Legge Brainard achieved a new "farthest north" record of 83° 23' 8" onLockwood Island.[7] In 1882, Greely sighted amountain range during a dog sledding exploration to the interior of northern Ellesmere Island and named it theConger Range.[8] He also sighted theInnuitian Mountains fromLake Hazen.[9]
Greely's party ran into difficulty when two supply parties failed to reach Greely's encampment atFort Conger onEllesmere Island in 1882 and 1883.[1] In accordance with his instructions, Greely decided in August 1883 to abandon Fort Conger and travel south.[10] His team reachedCape Sabine expecting to find food and equipment left by the supply ships, but these had not been provided.[1] With winter setting in Greely and his men were forced to remain at Cape Sabine with inadequate rations and little fuel.[11]
A rescue expedition, led by Capt.Winfield Scott Schley on USRCBear (a formerwhaler built inGreenock, Scotland), was sent to rescue the Greely party.[1] By the timeBear and the shipsThetis andAlert arrived on June 22, 1884, 18 of Greely's 25 men had perished from starvation, drowning, hypothermia, and, in one case, a gunshot from the execution of a soldier ordered by Greely as punishment for repeatedly stealing food.[12][13]
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Greely and the other survivors were near death; one died on the homeward journey.[14] They were venerated as heroes, though the heroism was temporarily tainted by sensational accusations of cannibalism, which Greely denied.[15][16] An exhibition on the Greely expedition was part of theColumbian Exposition in 1893 and was captured onstereoscopic images.[17]
In June 1886, Greely was promoted tocaptain.[2] In March 1887, PresidentGrover Cleveland appointed him as Chief Signal Officer of the U.S. Army with the rank ofbrigadier general.[2] During his tenure as Chief Signal Officer of the Army, he oversaw construction, operation, and maintenance of numeroustelegraph lines during and after theSpanish–American War, including:Puerto Rico, 800 miles (1,300 kilometers);Cuba, 3,000 mi (4,800 km); and thePhilippines, 10,200 mi (16,400 km).[18] Greely also oversaw construction under adverse conditions a telegraph system forAlaska consisting of nearly 4,000 mi (6,400 km) of submarine cables, land cables and 107 mi (172 km) ofwireless telegraphy, which at the time was the longest regularly working commercial system in the world.[18] Greely went aboard the cable shipUSATBurnside in 1903 to personally supervise the laying of submarine cable for the system.[19]
Greely's innovations as Chief Signal Officer led to the Army's fielding of wireless telegraphy, airplanes, motorized automobiles and trucks, and other modern equipment.[2] He represented the United States at the 1903 International Telegraph Congress inLondon and the 1903International Wireless Telegraph Congress inBerlin.[2] As an expert on the telegraph, Greely worked on some of the first international telecommunication treaties.[2]
On February 10, 1906, he was promoted tomajor general and assigned to command thePacific Division.[2] In 1906, he commanded the relief effort that followed theSan Francisco earthquake.[2] As commander of the Northern Division, Greely was responsible for negotiating an end to the 1905-1906 Ute Rebellion.[2] Greely commanded theDepartment of the Columbia in 1907.[2] His terminal assignment was commander of theDepartment of Dakota in late 1907 and early 1908.[20] In 1908, Greely reached the mandatory retirement age of 64.[2]
Greely died inWashington, D.C., on October 20, 1935.[21] He was buried atArlington National Cemetery.[21] Honorary pallbearers includedDavid L. Brainard,Charles McKinley Saltzman,George Sabin Gibbs,Irving J. Carr,Leon Kromer,Billy Mitchell, andGilbert Hovey Grosvenor.[22]
In 1890, Greely was a founding member of the District of Columbia Society of theSons of the American Revolution (SAR) and was elected vice president.[23] Upon the death of AdmiralDavid D. Porter in February 1891, Greely became president, and he served until the end of 1892.[23] Greely was a companion of the District of Columbia Commandery of theMilitary Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States.[24] He was also a member of theGeneral Society of the War of 1812[25] andGrand Army of the Republic.[26]
Greely was member of Washington'sCosmos Club.[27] In 1904, he was elected a member of theAmerican Philosophical Society.[28] In 1905, he was selected as the first president ofThe Explorers Club.[29] In 1911, Greely represented the Army at thecoronation of King George V.[20]
In 1878, Greely married Henrietta Nesmith, and they remained married until her death in 1918.[2][30] Henrietta Greely was a member of theDaughters of the American Revolution and one of the founding vice presidents general of theChildren of the American Revolution.[31][32] The Greelys were the parents of seven children, of whom six lived to adulthood:[21][33]
USS General A. W. Greely (AP-141), a 20th-century transport ship operated first by theUnited States Navy and later the Army and theMilitary Sea Transportation Service, was named for Greely.[35]Fort Greely, located 100 miles southeast of Fairbanks, Alaska, was named for Greely in 1942.[36] An earlier Fort Greely, also named for Adolphus Greely, was located onKodiak Island,Alaska.[37] With Kodiak Naval Operating Base and Fort Abercrombie, it is now part ofCoast Guard Base Kodiak and one of eight national historic landmarks that commemorateWorld War II in Alaska.[37]
Medal of Honor
Purple Heart withoak leaf cluster
Civil War Campaign Medal
Indian Campaign Medal
Spanish War Service MedalGreely received theMedal of Honor in 1935: "For his life of splendid public service, begun on March 27, 1844, having enlisted as a private in the U.S. Army on July 26, 1861, and by successive promotions was commissioned as major general February 10, 1906, and retired by operation of law on his 64th birthday."[38]
Greely was the second person (afterFrederick W. Gerber) to receive the award for lifetime achievement rather than for acts of physical courage at the risk of one's own life.[39]
During the Civil War, Greely was wounded twice, once at the Battle of Glendale, and once at the Battle of Antietam.[20] When thePurple Heart was created in 1932, Greely received the medal with an oak leaf cluster in recognition of his wounds.[20]
Greely was awarded theRoyal Geographical Society'sFounder's Medal in 1886.[40] In 1886, Greely also received the Roquette Medal of theSociete de Geographie.[2] His attendance at George V's coronation was commemorated with award of theKing George V Coronation Medal.[20] In 1922, he received theAmerican Geographical Society'sCharles P. Daly Medal.[41]
Greely's effective dates of rank were:[3][42]
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