Background

Francis Vinton Greene was born on June 27, 1850 in Providence, Rhode Island, the youngest son of George Sears Greene and his second wife, Martha Barrett Dana, daughter of Hon. Samuel Dana of Boston. He was a brother of George Sears Greene, Jr. , and of Samuel Dana Greene.

Education

His early education was received at Trinity School, in New York, and Burlington College, New Jersey.

Entering West Point in 1866, he graduated in 1870 at the head of his class.

Career

Greene was commissioned in the 4th Artillery, and served for two years at coastal forts in the South. He was transferred to the Corps of Engineers in 1872 and was engaged for four years upon the survey of the Canadian boundary, being promoted to first lieutenant in 1874.

After a period of duty in the office of the secretary of war, 1876-77, he was sent abroad to observe and report on the Russo-Turkish War then in progress. From June 1877 to December 1878 he was with the Russian headquarters in the field, being present at the battles before Plevna, at Shipka Pass, and elsewhere, and for courage in action was decorated with the orders of St. Anne and St. Vladimir.

On his return to the United States he was employed for some time in the preparation of his report, which, after its submission to the War Department, was published in 1879 under the title of The Russian Army and Its Campaigns in Turkey in 1877-78. It immediately became and still remains the standard work on the subject, and is studied as constantly in foreign armies as in that of the United States.

For six years he was in charge of public works in the city of Washington, as assistant to the engineer commissioner, and was then an instructor in practical military engineering at West Point for a short time. He had been promoted captain in Resigning from the army, December 31, 1886, he became vice-president and afterward president of the Barber Asphalt Paving Company, engaged in an industry which was then in its infancy. He joined the New York National Guard as a major in 1889, and had become a colonel before the war with Spain.

He entered the volunteer army as colonel of the 716t New York Infantry, May 2, 1898, but served with it only a few days, being appointed brigadier-general of volunteers on May 27, 1898. In charge of the second expedition to the Philippines, he arrived at Manilla on July 17, commanded a brigade in the trenches and at the attack and capture of the city, and was senior member of the commission which drew up the terms of capitulation of the Spanish army.

He was appointed majorgeneral of volunteers, August 13, 1898. In the next month he returned to the United States and was soon sent to Havana, having been selected as governor of the city. This assignment he declined, but he prepared a comprehensive report on the condition of the city, which served as the basis for the extensive works of rehabilitation carried out during the American occupation. He resigned from the volunteer army, Feburary 28, 1899, and after serving as chairman of the committee appointed to examine into the canal question in New York, became managing director of the New Trinidad Lake Asphalt Company.

From 1903 to 1904 he was police commissioner of the city of New York. “He lost no time in forcing the fight against graft and incompetency. He dismissed many high officers, shook up the bureaus, transferred idle wardmen to patrol duty, established military discipline, and in a few months raised the police army to a state of discipline it had not known before. It soon became a vigilant, efficient, dependable force”.

From 1905 to 1915 he lived in Buffalo, where he was president of the Niagara, Lockport & Ontario Power Company and the Ontario Power Company. After his withdrawal from active practise he returned to New York and there spent the remainder of his life. He was an active director of the New York Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb from 1893 and its president, 1919-21.

He died on May 13, 1921 in New York City.

Achievements

• Greene has been called the best commissioner the city ever had. Greene took a prominent part in the Battle of Manila in 1898. He assisted in the surrender negotiations for Manila. His reputation as a military historian rests chiefly upon his notable work on the Russo-Turkish War, but in addition to numerous short articles he wrote several other books, including: Sketches of Army Life in Russia; The Mississippi, in Scribners’ series, Campaigns of the Civil War; a biography, General Greene, in the Great Commanders Series; The Revolutionary War and the Military Policy of the United States; Our First Year in the Great War.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Sketches of Army Life in Russia

    (This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)

  • Our First Year in the Great War

    (This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)

  • The Revolutionary War and the Military Policy of the United States

Personality

Of his personal characteristics his friend, Gen. Tillman, said: “He was of very striking and attractive physical appearance and of impressive personality, a man of wide reading and general culture. His mind worked with astonishing rapidity; though remembering all details and considering every factor of the problems before him, his conclusions were always lucidly set forth and shown to rest only on the principles involved”.

Connections

On Feburary 25, 1879, Greene was married, in Washington, to Belle Eugenie, daughter of Henry Chevallie of Richmond, Virginia, whose first American ancestor came to America from France in 1790.

Fie had six children-four daughters and two sons, one of whom, Warwick Greene, was director of public works in Manila for several years, served as a major and lieutenant-colonel in the World War, and was chief of a mission sent to Finland and neighboring countries in connection with the peace settlement.

Father:

George Sears Greene

Mother:

Martha Barrett Dana

Spouse:

Belle Eugenie

Son:

Warwick Greene