Adolphus Washington Greely: A Man of Indomitable Courage

By Paul D. Walker

Adolphus Washington Greely was one of the most forward-thinking people ever to grace the field of public service. He was the oldest person ever to receive the United States Congressional Medal of Honor at the advanced age of ninety-one, and during his lifetime he brought about some of the most significant changes to American scientific and military exploration. He was at one time the most well-known person in the world, and his acquaintance was coveted by royalty and leaders around the globe. And yet, nearly eighty years after his death, he is relatively unknown. This is the story of his remarkable life, which began in 1844 and ended in 1935.

From his service in the 19th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War, Greely moved on to work in the Signal Corps—;a military signaling and communication organization of which he later became chief—;constructing telegraph lines across the country. His travels took him to Paris, where he met inventors, intellectuals, and political figures, including Samuel Morse and Adolphe Thiers. Greely gained worldwide fame for his ill-fated 1881 Arctic exploration. Although his team set numerous records and gathered a trove of scientific data, Greely was one of only six men who survived long enough to be rescued two years later. In his later years, Greely was no less active. He organized the Weather Bureau, took a large role in the recovery of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake, quelled the last Native American uprising, and left an indelible scientific legacy by founding the National Geographic Society. In word and deed, this larger-than-life man of adventure and knowledge forged today’s world. Author Paul D. Walker has spent years researching Greely’s life in order to re-introduce this amazing man to a twenty-first century audience.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pelican Publishing
• Release date: Mar 10, 2015
• ISBN: 9781455619993

Paul D. Walker

A distinguished military graduate of Missouri State University, Paul D. Walker served two tours in Vietnam and went on to a thirty-year career in the armored cavalry division, earning sixteen awards for valor and achievement. He earned master’s degrees in both international relations and public administration from Shippensburg University and taught political science and history at a local university in Salt Lake City. He is a member of the Civil War Round Table, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Purple Heart Society, Vietnam Veterans of America, and American Legion. He has published two additional books on military strategy and history with Pelican: The Cavalry Battle That Saved the Union: Custer vs. Stuart at Gettysburg and Truman’s Dilemma: Invasion or The Bomb. Walker resides in Salt Lake City, Utah.

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Adolphus

Washington

Greely

A Man of Indomitable Courage

PAUL D. WALKER

PELICAN PUBLISHING COMPANY

Gretna 2015

Copyright © 2015

By Paul D. Walker

All rights reserved

The word Pelican and the depiction of a pelican are

trademarks of Pelican Publishing Company, Inc., and are registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

ISBN 9781455619986

E-book ISBN 9781455619993

5459.jpg

Printed in the United States of America

Published by Pelican Publishing Company, Inc.

1000 Burmaster Street, Gretna, Louisiana 70053

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1   The Early Years

Chapter 2   Leadership Training

Chapter 3   Joining the Signal Corps

Chapter 4   The Arctic Expedition

Chapter 5   Life at Fort Conger

Chapter 6   The Farthest North

Chapter 7   Rescue Attempts

Chapter 8   Self-Rescue

Chapter 9   Desperation

Chapter 10   Leading the Signal Corps

Chapter 11   Promotion and Retirement

Epilogue

Recommendations

Notes

Bibliography

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to express his gratitude to those who have contributed to the success of this book. First, I want to thank my wife, Virgilia, who stood by me throughout the writing process with unwavering support even when a computer virus destroyed more than four chapters and then years later when she encouraged me to finish the book. Virgilia also provided administrative support and suggestions in designing the book.

In the spring of 2013, I invited a group of fifty individuals into my home to hear a first draft of the Greely story and make suggestions for improvement. The original telling of the story took two hours. I appreciate their patience and suggestions; I incorporated many of their ideas into the book, and this has made for a better story.

My thanks also to Jerry McClure, a former navy pilot of four-engine P-3s, for his editing and suggestions. John C. Purtell, historian of American history and the Civil War, has been immensely helpful in providing research on the various regiments that fought with Greely. John Walker is not related to me, but our paths have crossed many times. He is a good and trusted friend. A history major in college, he hosted a local radio program some time ago and now presents history lectures, primarily about the Battle of Wilson’s Creek and the Civil War, to various groups. John has provided a great deal of insight on what military service was like during the Civil War.

This book has been a long and enlightening journey, more than five years in the making. To all of these fine individuals above, I extend my warmest thanks.

Introduction

Gen. Adolphus Washington Greely lived many years ago, and most Americans have not had the opportunity to learn about him. Sadly, he has become virtually lost to history. It is my hope that through this carefully researched book the current generation will learn about one of America’s greatest citizens, who at one time was one of the most famous men in the world.

During the American Civil War, Greely enlisted in the Union Army at age seventeen, was wounded three times, and fought in some of the bloodiest battles of the war. As casualties mounted, he rose from private to regimental commander before the age of twenty-one. During Reconstruction, he played an important role in protecting the rights of all American citizens.

After the war, Greely built thousands of miles of telegraph line throughout the Southwest and became the nation’s foremost expert in the field of communications. Later he led a scientific expedition to the polar regions, which he discovered as new land. He reached the farthest part of the North while conducting important research on magnetism and the climate.

Abandoned by the relief parties, he kept his military organization intact for almost four years until it was decimated by starvation, freezing temperatures, execution, and unheard-of hardships. In the end only six survivors remained. It is one of the most heroic tales of courage, tenacity, and privation ever recorded. Greely’s contributions to the military were many, including organizing a modern weather bureau, funding and supporting the efforts of the Wright brothers (then purchasing two of their planes), training four pilots, and forming the original American Air Corps. He reorganized the Signal Corps with wire communications down to the battalion level; as a result the Army was better prepared for the Spanish American War. His efforts ended the war much sooner than anticipated.

Under Greely’s command, Alaska was connected to the lower forty-eight states with a deep-sea cable. He purchased the first automobiles for the Army. He installed the first long-distance radio communications ever used for tactical purposes. On his last assignment as commander of the Pacific area, he was present and in command during the Great San Francisco Earthquake and supervised the city’s recovery. He put down the last Native American uprising in the West.

His experiences in the Arctic made him a world celebrity, and he was known by practically every head of state. He went to Europe as America’s representative at several scientific, geographical, and military conferences. In his spare time, he organized the National Geographic Society. After a year of retirement, he was briefly recalled to active duty to attend the coronation of King George V of Great Britain.

This story covers almost a century. When Greely was born, the population of the United States—then an agricultural nation—was a mere twenty million. During his lifetime he witnessed some of the most momentous changes in history and participated in many of them. He was one of the most advanced thinkers to ever grace the field of public service. The nation finally honored him at age ninety-one with the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Adolphus

Washington

Greely

Chapter 1

The Early Years

The future Arctic explorer came of age during a turbulent period in American history. The dislocations of the Industrial Revolution were just beginning to be felt, and talk about states’ rights was starting to get heated. Born in New England in 1844, Adolphus Washington Greely was raised in a working-class family. His father, John Balch Greely, although a shoemaker, was a man of scholarly tastes and cultured manner who supplemented his son’s common education with reading and further study. It was also through him that Adolphus became versed in history and the public questions of the day. These great issues included abolition, religious tolerance, war, and a devotion to family and work.

It was from his mother, who lived to be eighty-one, that Adolphus Greely inherited his rugged physical endurance. When his father contracted tuberculosis, his mother worked ten hours a day in a nearby cotton mill to provide for her family. Before going to work, she would rise at dawn and cook breakfast for the family, which included an invalid stepson, a widowed mother, a sister, a niece, and a nephew. Upon returning home from long hours at the mill, she would cook dinner and do the other necessary household chores. Despite this schedule, she was able to read books and keep up with current events.

Greely’s hometown of Newburyport, Massachusetts, was a typical New England seaport city of approximately ten thousand people with a rich and diverse history. The town was a large fishing village that had changed little since colonial times. Newburyport was a rich, well-educated community with fine schools and a large public library. The church was still the dominating influence in daily life, and most social activities revolved around it. Children growing up in the 1840s and 1850s didn’t have the option of attending co-educational schools. Boys were taught by men at boy’s schools, where discipline was maintained by the rod and not by time-outs or counseling. Parties were typically either all boys or all girls, and any boy who attended a mixed party was thought to be a sissy. To further shape the conduct of young people, a curfew bell called all children off the streets at a certain hour each evening.

These modes of childhood discipline and early development were the ingredients for building a strong body and resolute character in men like Greely. During this time, the nation was undergoing great changes with the Mexican War, the Gold Rush, and westward expansion.

The causes of the Civil War were numerous and varied, extending back to Revolutionary times, when the North and South, although different in culture and enterprise, joined together to rid themselves of the British. Following the end of that war, many national leaders thought that enough similarities existed between them to allow all the former colonies to join together under the Articles of Confederation. Mainly written for a common defense, this document functioned much like the United Nations does today, in that any action required unanimity; all thirteen colonies had to be in agreement.

With the war for independence over, Southern plantation owners resumed trading with Great Britain. This consisted mainly of selling Britain raw materials such as tobacco, cotton, rice, and dyes. In return, the South purchased finished goods such as furniture, porcelain, glass, and cotton cloth. The children of Southern families often studied in England. Consequently, the connections were strong and had been in place for over two hundred years.¹

In 1787 when defects were found in the Articles of Confederation, states were asked to come together and form a new government. In this process, a serious effort was made to abolish slavery. This effort, led by Benjamin Franklin, lacked support from men like George Washington who owned more than one plantation and kept several slaves to maintain his enterprises. He claimed that emphasizing the abolition of slavery would destroy any chance of forming a new nation. The compromise that was reached under the new Constitution allowed no further importation of slaves after 1808. The Southern states signed on to the new document with the understanding that, as under the Articles of Confederation, they would not be forced to do anything harmful to their interests. The states’ common defense was also stressed.²

In the 1840s and 1850s, more states were admitted into the growing nation, most of them consisting of of small farmers and tradesmen who had no interest in the issue of slavery. These new states tended to vote with the Northern manufacturing states on trade matters, eventually joining with the North in imposing tariffs on British imports. In retaliation, Britain placed tariffs on American goods, including those imported from the South. It was this separation of interests and talk of abolition that led directly to the outbreak of war between the manufacturing North and the agricultural South.

Everyone, including young Greely, seemed to have an opinion on the issues that sparked the Civil War, and these political debates were often heated affairs. One question that came up regularly was whether or not to allow slavery in the new states. John Brown a Kansas abolitionist provided some of the sparks that ignited the Civil War. Brown was a preacher of sorts, and his favorite quote from the Bible was, Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. He first gained notoriety by slaughtering pro-slavery men in the dead of night, which started what would later be called Bleeding Kansas. Leaving turmoil in the West, Brown traveled east to cause more trouble. When he and his followers captured Harpers Ferry, it was in hopes of influencing the presidential election of 1860 and causing a slave uprising. Instead, Col. Robert E. Lee and a battalion of cavalry commanded by Lt. Col. J. E. B. Stuart put an end to Brown’s troublemaking. Lee quickly captured Brown and his men, who were soon sent to the gallows. As these monumental issues of abolition and free trade combined to grip the nation, Southern forces attacked Fort Sumter, and the Civil War had begun.

Adolphus Greely was a tall, healthy boy of seventeen when he attempted to enlist in the Army but was told he was too young. One recruiter said, No, no, we want men, not little boys. Not easily discouraged, Greely went to a neighboring town, expanded the truth a little, and was accepted. He was assigned to D company, Nineteenth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry.

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Nineteenth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry (Courtesy U.S. Army Military History Institute)

Massachusetts troops were as well officered and fully equipped as any who entered the war. Emphasizing strict discipline, basic training lasted one month for the new enlistees. The training included marching, military courtesy, marksmanship, and sanitation. As soon as these subjects were mastered, the regiment was ready for the front lines.

The Civil War was a period of transition for the U.S. military. Napoleon developed the tactics used by both sides half a century earlier. Weapons, on the other hand, represented new technology, and they dramatically changed the dynamics of warfare. During Napoleon’s time, soldiers were armed with smoothbore muskets that were accurate out to 25 to 50 yards. This allowed commanders to move units around the battlefield in massed formations and attack in close order without risking huge losses. New technology developed just prior to the Civil War allowed gun manufacturers to produce more precise parts and outfit gun barrels with deep rifling for greater accuracy. This technology allowed rifles to fire with precision out to 400 yards and artillery to several thousand yards. The destructiveness of war increased on both sides as each employed outdated tactics that called for dense formations of soldiers equipped with the new weapons. Casualties were extremely heavy, and wounds inflicted by the new Minié balls were ghastly. If a bone were struck, it usually required the amputation of a limb to save the soldier’s life.

In late summer, Greely’s regiment marched to Washington, D.C. by way of New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. The trip was uneventful until they reached Baltimore. There they were met with menacing gestures, insulting remarks, and rock throwing. Maryland was sympathetic to the Southern cause, and only a few weeks before a Massachusetts regiment had been attacked while marching through the city, suffering several casualties. Greely’s unit passed safely through the city, then proceeded to Washington, traveling in open freight cars as soot and cinders rained down on them. Finally arriving in Washington, they marched a short distance and made camp near the Capitol building. The building was undergoing a major renovation to replace the original dome with a larger, more impressive one. Contractors had piled building materials over a large area, and the regimental boundary took in giant pieces of cast iron used to make the dome.

While stationed in Washington, Greely was able to get passes to explore the city, and he liked to hang out around the White House and try to catch a glimpse of Pres. Abraham Lincoln. On one particularly lucky day, he saw both the president and Gen. Winfield Scott. The old general was riding in a carriage between the White House and the War Department, and as he departed, the president walked him to his carriage.

When Greely’s regiment arrived in Washington, the North had just been routed in the Battle of Bull Run. Confederate troops had attacked without warning, and Northern regiments broke, ran like rabbits, and didn’t stop until they reached the safety of Washington. The War Department was greatly alarmed as these defeated troops milled about the capital without discipline. Fresh regiments flooded the city with no overall plan except to reestablish order among the shattered units.

Eventually calm was restored, and the units set out to guard the approaches to Washington. The Nineteenth Massachusetts was assigned to a position near Darnestown, Maryland. Here the regiment dug fighting positions and made camp around the reservoir that supplied water to the nation’s capital. Then within a few days the men settled into the dull routine of patrol and field duty, and soon the phrase, All’s quiet along the Potomac, became their slogan.

Not long after this, Lincoln appointed Gen. George McClellan commander of the Army of the Potomac. His first act after taking command was to establish a rigorous training program for all units. Regiments were drilled in tactics, trained in marksmanship, and given numerous lectures. They were then formed into brigades and assigned to divisions that would later become the basic fighting units of the famous Army of the Potomac.

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Maj. Gen. George McClellan, Lincoln’s first general in chief (Library of Congress)

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Lincoln as he looked before the Gettysburg Address (Courtesy U.S. Army Military History Institute)

Young Greely’s first actual combat occurred in October 1861 at Leesburg, Virginia. It was known as the Battle of Ball’s Bluff, one of the worst fiascoes of the war. Greely was serving as a crewmember on a barge ferrying troops across the river. As barges in front of Greely neared the far shore, Confederate troops hidden on a high ledge opened fire. Union soldiers were slaughtered before they could reach shore. Observing this disaster, Greely’s barge turned around and headed for safety while his passengers provided the only effective return fire of the day. This scene had a chilling effect on the young, untested soldiers as they witnessed an empty barge attempt to pick up the wounded. When the barge touched shore, there was a rush of panic-stricken men, who filled the craft to overflowing. As the barge returned to mid-river it was swamped by the current and rapidly sank, leaving many to drown.

That same evening, as darkness approached, Greely’s company undertook the gruesome task of burying the dead. He later recalled the half-naked bodies with their death pallor, dirty gaping wounds, swarms of flies, and choking stench. This traumatic