Adolphus Washington Greely was born into an old New England family in Newburyport, Massachusetts. One of the last so-called "soldier-scientist-adventurers," Greely embraced modern technology as he explored the last remaining wilderness and served his country in battle.

Civil War

According to legend, at the beginning of the Civil War, seventeen-year-old Greely was refused three times at the local enlistment office. Frustrated after his third attempt, he returned home and chalked the numbers one and eight on the soles of his shoes so that he might answer with integrity, "I am over eighteen."

Greely was finally enlisted as a private with the 19th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. He was wounded three times, fighting in some of the fiercest battles of the Civil War, including Antietam and Fredericksburg. Rising in rank from private to sergeant, Greely was commissioned to command the 81st Colored Troops. At the war's end, Greely was a Brevet Major. He commanded Federal black troops from 1865 to 1867 in the city of New Orleans where he faced not only the challenges of occupying a defeated city but yellow fever epidemics as well.

Signal Corps

As a second lieutenant in the 36th Infantry, Greely began to study telegraphy and electricity under Brigadier General Albert Meyer, founder of the Signal Corps. Greely worked establishing telegraph lines on the frontier and assisted Meyer in the organization of the U.S. Weather Bureau. Through the collection of data for the new service, Greely became a skilled meteorologist. He knew that the ability to predict weather patterns would warrant an economic benefit. This fostered Greely's interest in researching storm systems.

Arctic Research

In 1881, Greely volunteered to command an Arctic weather expedition to establish circumpolar research stations. Significant astronomical, meteorological and tidal condition data was collected in the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition, dire circumstances surrounded the mission.

The party had pushed farther north than any prior expedition and encountered harsh conditions that left only seven men, including Greely, alive. The team was stranded at Ellesmere Island, near the North Pole, for three years as relief ships failed to reach them for two consecutive summers. There was national interest in the marooned crew which included criticism of Greely's leadership and rumors of cannibalism. Amazingly, two years worth of the collected data was preserved.

Postage Stamp that honored Greely and his Arctic expedition. Credit: Stephen A. Nesmith (www.naesmyth.com)

Greely was absolved of any charges and he detailed his adventure in his popular 1894 book Three Years of Arctic Service: An Account of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition of 1881-1884 and the Attainment of the Farthest North. Greely dedicated the book "to its dead who suffered much - to its living who suffered more." Based on his official reports to the War Department and his own journal entries, Greely's account is meticulous and stoic in describing both gruesome details and acts of compassion. One crew member, Sergeant Elison, lost both his hands and feet to amputation. The starving expedition members cared for him, noted Greely, "I hardly know now whether most to admire the courage and will which kept Elison alive, or the devotion and charity of his comrades who gave so freely of their strength, food and tender offices, know all the while that their sacrifices were in vain."

The dramatic expedition and rescue propelled Greely into the national spotlight. In 1886 he was promoted from captain to Brigadier General and appointed Chief of the Signal Corps in 1887. He remained with the Signal Corps for nineteen years where he developed the military use of wireless telegraphy, automobiles, and other emerging technologies. In 1898 Greely advanced and received a Congressional appropriation of $50,000 for the Signal Corps development of a "flying machine for war purposes." Greely served as director of Signal Corps' U.S. Weather Bureau from 1887-1891, until the agency was transferred to the Department of Agriculture. During the Spanish American war, he supervised the construction of more than 25,000 miles of telegraph lines in Cuba, Puerto Rico, China and the Philippines. In February 1906, he was promoted to major general, commanding the Pacific Division headquartered at the Presidio of San Francisco.

At the Presidio

Greely arrived at his new post in March of 1906. He was in route to his daughter's wedding on the morning of April 18th when the infamous San Francisco earthquake occurred. Greely's second in command, Brigadier General Frederick Funston, immediately ordered Presidio troops to assist in law enforcement and firefighting responsibilities.

Major General Greely commanding the Pacific Division on the Presidio. Credit: National Archives and Records Center, General Greely Album

Greely returned to the city on April 23rd and found that 4,000 of his troops were in the city, authorized by Mayor Eugene Schmitz to shoot looters. He was concerned about Funston's inclination towards martial law as well as the Army's role in administering relief. Greely assumed command and assigned Funston to managing operations at the Army's Department of California. Despite his refusal to take orders from Mayor Schmitz, Greely immediately met with the Mayor and made it clear that the Army was subordinate to civil authorities.

During the aftermath of the earthquake and fire, Greely was in command of almost every aspect of the relief effort. Local and state municipal authorities did not have the manpower, supplies, or experience to provide for a refugee population of more than 300,000. The army's initial law enforcement and firefighting contributions soon expanded to establishing medical facilities, sanitation regulation, housing, food stations, and supply distribution (see Relief Efforts). The Signal Corps literally rewired the city for communication with the outside world. The Medical Corps set up field hospitals. The Quartermaster organized and distributed donations of clothing and supplies. The army constructed and maintained 21 refugee camps.

Greely maintained the army would only assist civil authorities, not supervise in maintaining order. According to army regulations, the military was to protect Federal property only. Greely was aware of the army's role and authority in a civil disaster, but advocated a return to civil authorities in matters of relief and law enforcement. Mindful of the controversy over Funston's early actions to mobilize troops, conflicting reports about the behavior of the troops, and the inherent contentiousness of the army's role in the city, Greely requested army responsibilities be transferred to local civil authorities and the Red Cross. Edward T. Devine, the Red Cross director, declined, "The Army had the organization, the equipment, the trained officers and the men for dealing with the situation, and no one else had it or could create it."

Greely initially refused Schmitz's request to manage food distribution. It was only after prodding by members of the civilian Committee of Fifty that Greely agreed to set up the nine food depots on April 26th. Each civilian was fed the equivalent of three-quarters of an Army enlisted man's rations. On April 30th more than 300,000 people were fed at these commissary food stations. Army officers were appointed to work with the Red Cross and the Mayor's committee.

The U.S. Army operated 21 of the refugee camps, housing 20,000 in military style tent villages. Four camps housing 16,000 were in the Presidio. The Presidio camps were the first to close, and the other military camps quickly followed. Civil authorities soon controlled refugee housing efforts, including the construction of the earthquake shacks.

Greely's hesitancy in accepting leadership for relief responsibilities may have stemmed from his broad political scope. It may not have been the Army's organizational skills that the civilian leaders sought, but the potential for blame had relief efforts gone awry. Discussing the civilian relief authorities, Greely wrote that they "look to me for final decisions and full responsibility which I am regularly assuming thus obviating embarrassments which surround men in civil life and subject to political and personal criticism." Aware of political implications, Greely nevertheless retained his integrity. When a woman complained that she was "forced to eat at the same table with a Negro" in a relief kitchen, the former commander of 81st Colored Troops gave no consolation. "Doubtless they are hungry. The Negro who sat next to me as I took my luncheon yesterday ate enormously," he replied.

Later Life

In 1908, at the age of 64, Greely retired from active military service, but continued his adventures. Greely and his family began a yearlong trip around the world, and even took up the craft of bookbinding. Settling in Washington, D.C., Greely wrote hundreds of articles for popular magazines and several books, the last of which was published when he was 84. He helped found the National Geographic Society. He accepted an unsalaried Chair of Geography at George Washington University. On his 91st birthday, March 27, 1935, Greely was awarded a special Medal of Honor for "his life of splendid public service." He died later that year and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

When he was asked what most important work he had accomplished was, Greely would joke, "Bringing up six children on Army pay." However, a protégé in the Signal Corps noted, "His most interesting service and the one in which he thought he accomplished the most was the earthquake in San Francisco."

Resources:

"Army Headquarters and the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire," Presidio file.

"Evolution of the National Weather Service," http://www.nws.noaa.gov/er/gyx/timeline.html (1 June 2001).

"General Adolphus W. Greely," http://www.gordon.army.mil/regtmktg/regtnco/greely.htlm (1 June 2001).

Greely, Adolphus W. Three Years of Arctic Service: An Account of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition of 1881-1884 and the Attainment of the Farthest North. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1894), iv.

Greely telegram to the Military Secretary, 11 May 1906, file 1121191, Record Group, 94, NA.

Mitchell, General William. General Greely: The Story of a Great American, (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1936).

Strobridge, William. "Soldiers in the Streets, 1906." The Pacific Historian, Spring 1978 (vol. 22, no. 1).

"The commissary and the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire," Presidio file.

"The Situation in San Francisco," Charities 16 (1906).

Thompson, Erwin N. Defender of the Gate: The Presidio of San Francisco, A History from 1846 to 1995, (Golden Gate National Recreation Area, California, National Park Service, 1995).