Palestine daily herald. [volume] (Palestine, Tex.) 1902-1949, 1908-03-27
Major General Greedy, Famous Arctic
Explorer, Placed on the Retired
List of the Army Today.
Special to the Herald.

Dakota, with headquarters at st. Paul
where he was recently succeeded by
Brigadier General Winfield S. Edgerly
Few if any officers of the United
States army have enjoyed such wide
measure of fame during recent years
as has General Greedy. 1t is now
something more than a quarter of a
century ago that he attracted world
wide attention by polar expedition,
of which he was the chief This ex-
petition sailed northward in 1881. 1t
contained twenty-five members, of
whom only seven came back. Two re-
lief expeditions failed to find the
Greedy party, and when finally rescued
by the third expedition, sent under
command of Captain Winfield S.
Schley, the survivors of the party
were nearly crazed with hunger. At
the time he made this expedition to
the polar seas General Greedy was a
lieutenant in the Fifth cavalry. The
expedition reached a point farther
north than any previous record.
Before going to the Arctic Lieuten-
ant Greedy had built thousands of
miles of military telegraph lines in
Texas and the Southwest and had
acted as an officer of the signal
corps, then commanded by Brigadier
General Albert ]. Myer. The latter
organized the corps, which was after
ward commanded by Brigadier Gen
eral w. B. Hazen, and later, following
the death of General Hazen, in 1886,
by the returned Arctic hero, who had
been made a captain in the regular
course of regimental promotions in the
Fifth cavalry.
General Greedy had the distinction
of being the first man who entered the
civil war as a private soldier to be
promoted to the rank of brigadier gen.
eral. He was born in Newburyport,
Mass, March 81, 1914, and received a
common school education. In 1861,
when but a few months over seven
teen years of age-he enlisted as a
private and became a member of the
Byfield Rifles. Greedy continued with
his command until March, 1868.
When call was made for non-com-
missioned officers to officer the col
ored troops then being organized, Ser
geant Greedy was one of the number
to respond, and was commissioned as
first lieutenant in the Eigthy-first U.
S. colored infantry. He served with
this command until the fall of 1866,
rising to the grade of major
He entered the regular army as a
second lieutenant in 1873. AS evil
dence of the slowness of promotion in
the army at that time is the fact that
he served thirteen years as a first
lieutenant before securing promotion,
and during that period attracted the
favorable attention of the world by
his efforts to gain knowledge of the
Arctic zone
Between 1876 and 1879 young
Greedy proved himself to be one of
the most untiring workers in the
army. During that period he con-
structed two thousand miles of mill
tary telegraph in Texas, Montana and
Dakota. This unprecedented feat
made him marked man in American
military circles. Then came the eX-
petition to the far north. In 1881, in
pursuance of the recommendation of
the Hamburg international geographi-
cal congress, he was given command
of the United States expedition to es-
tablish one of chain of thirteen cir
cumpolar stations. The trying expe-
riences of Grely and his little band
are we'll known to all readers of his
tory.
During and after the Spanish war
General Greedy had further opportu-
nifty to show his great ability as a
builder of telegraph lines. Under his
immediate direction there were built
and operated one thousand miles in
Porto Rico, one thousand eight hun
bred miles in Cuba, two hundred and
fifty miles in China during the Boxer
outbreak and ten thousand miles of
lines and cables in the Philippines.
He afterwards installed system of
three thousand nine hundred miles of
telegraph lines in Alaska, one of these
lines being the first wireless system
to be put to commercial use.
One of General Greely's most bril-.
liant achievements was the reorgani.
cation on its present efficient basis
of the national weather bureau. Pre-
vious to his encumbency the service
was of most crude and untrust-
worthy character. He began at once
to gather meteorological data from
every reliable source, and in the
course of time he was able to arrive
at something definite. He establish
ed complete system of weather sta