Major General Francis Vinton Greene

Major General Francis Vinton Greene (USA)

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General Greene was a United States Army officer who fought in the Spanish-American War. He came from the Greene family of Rhode Island, noted for its long line of participants in American military history.

Greene was born in Providence, Rhode Island on June 27, 1850. He attended the United States Military Academy at West Point and graduated in 1870. He first served in the U.S. artillery and then transferred to the Corps of Engineers. He next served as an attaché from the War Department to the U.S. legation in St. Petersburg, Russia. While there he served in the Russian army during its war with Turkey. He returned to the U.S. and was a civil engineer to the city of Washington, D.C. and was a professor of artillery at West Point before resigning from the army in 1886.

When the Spanish-American War broke out he raised the 7th New York Infantry and was quickly promoted to brigadier general of volunteers. He commanded the second Philippine Expeditionary Force which became the 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, VIII Corps. Greene took a prominent part in the Battle of Manila in 1898. He assisted in the surrender negotiations for Manila. In August, 1898 he was promoted major general of volunteers and resigned in February, 1899.

After the war he held a variety of jobs. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1899. He served as the New York City Police Commissioner until 1904 and was president of the Niagara-Lockport and Ontario Power Company. He died on May 13, 1921 in New York City.

Greene's family holds a distinguished place in American military history. His father was Civil War general, George S. Greene, famous for his defense of Culp's Hill at the Battle of Gettysburg. His older brother, Samuel Dana Greene, was the executive officer of the USS Monitor during the Battle of Hampton Roads. All were from Rhode Island.

His publications include a series of works on military campaigns, including:

The Russian Army and its Campaigns in Turkey (two volumes, 1879) Army Life in Russia (1881) The Mississippi Campaigns of the Civil War (1882) Life of Nathanael Greene, Major-General in the Army of the Revolution (1893) The Revolutionary War and the Military Policy of the United States (1911)

Greene also wrote a biographical sketch in a collection of Theodore Roosevelt's political writings entitled, "American Ideals," originally published 1897 and subsequently republished for Roosevelt's presidential campaign in 1900.