Adolphus Greely

Adolphus Washington Greely (March 27, 1844 – October 20, 1935) was a United States Army officer and polar explorer. He attained the rank of major general and was a recipient of the Medal of Honor.

A native of Newburyport, Massachusetts, and an 1860 graduate of Brown High School (now Newburyport High School), in 1861 he enlisted in the Union Army for the American Civil War. He received his commission as a second lieutenant in 1863 and was promoted to first lieutenant in 1864 and captain in 1865. At the end of the war he received a brevet promotion to major 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 the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition, a 25-man expedition organized to carry out Arctic 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 President Grover Cleveland appointed him as the Army's Chief Signal Officer with the rank of brigadier general. As Signal chief, he was responsible for creating and maintaining the worldwide communications networks required during and after the Spanish–American War and during the Philippine–American War. Greely was promoted to major general in February 1906. In April 1906, he was assigned to command relief efforts following the San 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 the Medal of Honor in recognition of "his life of splendid public service." Greely died in Washington, D.C., on October 20, 1935. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Early life and education Greely was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, on March 27, 1844, the son of John Balch Greeley and Frances Dunn Cobb Greely. He was educated in Newburyport and was an 1860 graduate of Brown High School (now Newburyport High School). From 1865 to 1867, Greely took part in the post-war occupation of New Orleans.

With the Signal Corps, which also included the Weather Bureau, Greely was recognized as an expert weather forecaster. The expedition also was commissioned by the US government to collect astronomical and polar magnetic data, which was carried out by the astronomer Edward Israel, who was part of Greely's crew. Another goal of the expedition was to search for any clues of , lost in the Arctic two years earlier.

The expedition sailed on the steamship SS Proteus. In 1882, Greely sighted a mountain range during a dog sledding exploration to the interior of northern Ellesmere Island and named it the Conger Range. He also sighted the Innuitian Mountains from Lake Hazen.

Greely's party ran into difficulty when two supply parties failed to reach Greely's encampment at Fort Conger on Ellesmere Island in 1882 and 1883. His team reached Cape Sabine expecting to find food and equipment left by the supply ships, but these had not been provided.

The six survivors of the U.S. Army's Greely Arctic expedition with their U.S. Navy rescuers, at Upernavik, Greenland, 2–3 July 1884. Probably photographed on board the USS Thetis. (22: Adolphus Greely, 23: Julius Frederick, 24: David L. Brainard, 25: Henry Bierderbick, 26: Maurice Connell, 27: Francis Long A rescue expedition, led by Capt. Winfield Scott Schley on USRC Bear (a former whaler built in Greenock, Scotland), was sent to rescue the Greely party.

Greely and the other survivors were near death; one died on the homeward journey. They were venerated as heroes, though the heroism was temporarily tainted by sensational accusations of cannibalism, which Greely denied. An exhibition on the Greely expedition was part of the Columbian Exposition in 1893 and was captured on stereoscopic images.

Later career

In June 1886, Greely was promoted to captain. Greely also oversaw construction under adverse conditions a telegraph system for Alaska consisting of nearly of submarine cables, land cables and of wireless telegraphy, which at the time was the longest regularly working commercial system in the world.

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. In 1908, Greely reached the mandatory retirement age of 64.

Personal life In 1890, Greely was a founding member of the District of Columbia Society of the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) and was elected vice president. Upon the death of Admiral David D. Porter in February 1891, Greely became president, and he served until the end of 1892. He was also a member of the General Society of the War of 1812 and Grand Army of the Republic.

Greely was member of Washington's Cosmos Club. In 1904, he was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society. In 1905, he was selected as the first president of The Explorers Club. In 1911, Greely represented the Army at the coronation of King George V. Henrietta Greely was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and one of the founding vice presidents general of the Children of the American Revolution. The Greelys were the parents of seven children, of whom six lived to adulthood:

Antoinette (1879–1968), a social worker who never married and lived in New Hampshire and Texas Adola (1881–1961), the wife of Reverend Charles Lawrence Adams Baby boy (1881–1881), Adola's twin John (1885–1965), a veteran of World War I and World War II who attained the rank of brigadier general in the Army Rose (1887–1969), a noted landscape architect. Adolphus (1889–1956), an engineer and Army veteran of World War I who attained the rank of major Gertrude (1891–1969), the wife of Dr. G. Harold Shedd

Honors , a 20th-century transport ship operated first by the United States Navy and later the Army and the Military Sea Transportation Service, was named for Greely. Fort Greely, located 100 miles southeast of Fairbanks, Alaska, was named for Greely in 1942. An earlier Fort Greely, also named for Adolphus Greely, was located on Kodiak Island, Alaska. With Kodiak Naval Operating Base and Fort Abercrombie, it is now part of Coast Guard Base Kodiak and one of eight national historic landmarks that commemorate World War II in Alaska.

Greely was the second person (after Frederick W. Gerber) to receive the award for lifetime achievement rather than for acts of physical courage at the risk of one's own life.

During the Civil War, Greely was wounded twice, once at the Battle of Glendale, and once at the Battle of Antietam. In 1886, Greely also received the Roquette Medal of the Societe de Geographie.

Dates of rank Greely's effective dates of rank were:

Private, 19th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry – 26 July 1861 Corporal – 15 May 1862 First Sergeant – 1 January 1863 Second Lieutenant, 81st U.S. Colored Infantry – 18 March 1863 First Lieutenant – 26 April 1864 Captain – 4 April 1865 Brevet Major, United States Volunteers – 13 March 1865 Second Lieutenant, 36th Infantry – 7 March 1867 Second Lieutenant, 5th Cavalry – 14 July 1869 First Lieutenant, 5th Cavalry – 27 May 1873 Captain, 5th Cavalry – 11 June 1886 Brigadier General, Chief Signal Officer – 3 March 1887 Major General – 10 February 1906 Retired – 27 March 1908