Adolphus Greely Adolphus Washington Greely ( March 27 , 1844 – October 20 , 1935 ) , was an American Polar explorer , a United States Army officer and a recipient of the Medal of Honor . Early military career . Greely was born March 27 , 1844 , in Newburyport , Massachusetts . He entered the United States Army at the age of 17 , after having been rejected twice before . He had achieved the rank of brevet Major by the end of the Civil War . Greely joined the regular Army in 1866 as a Second Lieutenant of Infantry ; in 1873 , Greely was promoted to First Lieutenant . Lady Franklin Bay Expedition . In 1881 , First Lieutenant Greely was given command of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition on the ship " Proteus " . Promoted by Henry W . Howgate , its purpose was to establish one of a chain of meteorological - observation stations as part of the First International Polar Year . 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 the , lost north of Ellesmere Island . Greely was without previous Arctic experience , but he and his party were able to discover many hitherto unknown miles along the coast of northwest Greenland . The expedition also crossed Ellesmere Island from east to west and Lt . James B . Lockwood and David L . Brainard achieved a new " farthest north " record of 83°23 ' 8 " . In 1882 , Greely sighted a mountain range during a dog sledding exploration to the interior of northern Ellesmere Island and named them the Conger Range . He also sighted the Innuitian Mountains from Lake Hazen . Two consecutive supply parties failed to reach Greely ' s party encamped at Fort Conger on Ellesmere Island in 1882 and 1883 . In accordance with his instructions for this case , Greely decided in August 1883 to abandon Fort Conger and retreat south with his team . They reached Cape Sabine expecting to find food and equipment depots from the supply ships , but these had not been provided . With winter setting in Greely and his men were forced to winter at Cape Sabine with inadequate rations and little fuel . A rescue expedition , led by Capt . Winfield Scott Schley on the USRC " Bear " ( a former whaler built in Greenock , Scotland ) , was sent to rescue the Greely party . By the time the " Bear " and ships " Thetis " and " Alert " arrived on June 22 , 1884 , to rescue the expedition , nineteen of Greely ' s 25 - man crew had perished from starvation , drowning , hypothermia , and , in one case , gunshot wounds from an execution ordered by Greely . Greely and the other survivors were themselves near death ; one of the survivors died on the homeward journey . The returning survivors were venerated as heroes , though the heroism was tainted by sensational accusations of cannibalism during the remaining days of low food . Later career . In June 1886 , he was promoted to Captain after serving twenty years as a Lieutenant and , in March 1887 , President Grover Cleveland appointed him as Chief Signal Officer of the U . S . Army with the rank of Brigadier General . During his tenure as Chief Signal Officer of the Army , the following military telegraph lines were constructed , operated and maintained during the Spanish American War : Puerto Rico , 800 miles ; Cuba , 3 , 000 miles ; the Philippines , 10 , 200 miles . In connection with Alaska , then General Greely had constructed under very adverse conditions a telegraph system of nearly 4 , 000 miles , consisting of submarine cables , landcables and wireless telegraphy , the latter covering a distance of 107 miles , which at the time of installation was the longest commercial system regularly working in the world . In 1906 , he served as military commander over the emergency situation created by the San Francisco earthquake . On February 10 , 1906 , he was promoted to Major General and on March 27 , 1908 , reached the mandatory retirement age of 64 . In 1911 he represented the United States Army at the coronation of King George V . He died October 20 , 1935 , in Washington , D . C . and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery , Arlington , Virginia . His grave can be found in section 1 , lot 129 grid N / O - 32 . 5 . Personal life . He attended the First Presbyterian Church , Newburyport and married Henrietta Nesmith in 1878 . In 1905 , he accepted the honor of serving as the first president of The Explorers Club and in 1915 , he invited the Italian polar geographer Arnaldo Faustini to the United States for a lecture tour . Honors and awards . He was awarded an Honorary Fellowship and the Daly Medal by the American Geographical Society in 1922 . On May 28 , 1986 , the United States Postal Service issued a 22 cent postage stamp in his honor . Medal of Honor citation . He received the Medal of Honor in 1935 . Rank and organization : Major General , U . S . Army , retired . Place and date : - - - - . Entered service at : Louisiana . Born : March 27 , 1844 , Newburyport , Mass . G . O . No . : 3 , W . D . , 1935 . Act of Congress , March 21 , 1935 . Citation : For his life of splendid public service , begun on March 27 , 1844 , having enlisted as a private in the U . S . Army on July 26 , 1861 , and by successive promotions was commissioned as major general February 10 , 1906 , and retired by operation of law on his 64th birthday . Greely ' s medal was awarded in contradiction to the revised 1916 Army warrant requiring combat action and risk of life " above and beyond the call of duty . " However , his Medal was the second Army presentation contrary to the combat requirement , as Charles Lindbergh ( an Army reservist not on active duty ) received the award for his solo transatlantic flight eight years before , in 1927 . Until after WW II the Navy Medal of Honor could be awarded for noncombat actions , reflecting different criteria within the United States armed forces . USS " General A . W . Greely " ( AP - 141 ) . The , launched November 1944 , was named in his honor . Fort Greely . Big Delta Air Force Base , Alaska , was designated Fort Greely on August 6 , 1955 , in honor of Major General Adolphus Washington Greely .