Last updated: July 18, 2019
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Adolphus Washington Greely
A man of eclectic talents and persuasions, Alolphus Washington Greely (1844-1935) was one of the most ambitious figures of his day. Though primarily remembered for his famous North Pole expedition, Greely’s colorful career also included service in the Union army during the Civil War and, later, as commander of the U.S. Army’s Pacific Division. In the latter assignment, he was stationed at the Presidio of San Francisco.
Greely was born into an old New England family in Newburyport, Massachusetts, in 1844. He was seventeen at the outbreak of the Civil War and immediately attempted to enlist in the Union army. Though ineligable on account of his youth, legend has it he persisted and was refused on no less than three occasions. Frustrated after his third attempt, Greely returned home and chalked the numbers "1" and "8" 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 saw action at some of the fiercest battles of the Civil War, including Antietam and Fredericksburg, and was wounded three times. Rising in rank from private to sergeant, Greely was eventually commissioned to command the 81st Colored Troops. At the war's end, Greely was a Brevet Major and continued to command black troops from 1865 to 1867 in the city of New Orleans, where he faced the challenge of occupying a defeated city ravaged by an epidemic of yellow fever.
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. Aware that the ability to predict weather patterns would yield economic rewards, Greely's interest in storm systems continued to grow. Then, in 1881, Greely volunteered to command an Arctic weather expedition to establish circumpolar research stations. Though significant astronomical, meteorological, and tidal data was collected in the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition, the mission was a horrific experience.
Stephen A. Nesmith
Greely’s party 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. During this time, national interest in the marooned crew grew to include criticism of Greely's leadership and rumors of cannibalism. Following the eventual rescue, Greely was absolved of any wrongdoing and detailed his adventure in a 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 its description of both gruesome details and acts of compassion.
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, during which time he developed the military use of wireless telegraphy, automobiles, and other emerging technologies. Greely served as director of Signal Corps' U.S. Weather Bureau from 1887 until 1891, when 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 and given command of the Pacific Division headquartered at the Presidio of San Francisco.Greely was en route to his daughter's wedding on the morning of April 18, 1906, when the infamous San Francisco earthquakeoccurred. Brigadier General Frederick Funston, Greely’s second in command, immediately mobilized Presidio troops. When General Greely returned to the city on April 23, he found that 4,000 of his troops were in the city and authorized by Mayor Eugene Schmitz to shoot looters. Alarmed at the progression towards martial law, Greely assumed command and made it clear that the Army was subordinate to civil authorities.
Greely was reluctant in having the army involved in relief activities. His hesitancy may have stemmed from his broad political scope, as it may not have been the Army's organizational skills that the civilian leaders sought, but rather someone else to take the blame if relief efforts went 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.
National Archives and Records Center, General Greely Album
In 1908, at the age of sixty-four, Greely retired from active military service. In retirement, however, he continued his adventures and took his family on a yearlong trip around the world. Eventually settling in Washington, D.C., Greely took up bookbinding and wrote hundreds of articles for popular magazines as well as several books--the last of which was published when he was eighty-four. He also helped found the National Geographic Society and accepted an unsalaried Chair of Geography at George Washington University. On March 27, 1935—his ninety-first birthday—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.
Resources
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.
Thompson, Erwin N. Defender of the Gate: The Presidio of San Francisco, A History from 1846 to 1995, National Park Service, 1995.
Greely telegram to the Military Secretary, 11 May 1906, file 1121191, Record Group, 94, NA
"The Situation in San Francisco," Charities 16, 1906.
"Evolution of the National Weather Service," http://www.nws.noaa.gov/er/gyx/timeline.html 1 June 2001.