He was ordered by the United States Government to establish an observation station on Lady Franklin Bay, and remain there two years, conducting, meanwhile, scientific observations, and pressing exploratory work with all possible zeal.

The enterprise was part of a great international plan, by which each of the great nations was to establish and maintain such an observation station within the Arctic circle, while observations were to be carried on in all at once.

The United States agreed to maintain two such stations, and the one at Point Barrow, north of Alaska, was established, maintained, and its tenants brought home at the end of the allotted time without disaster.
Greely was a lieutenant in the United States Army, and his expedition was under the immediate direction of the Secretary of War--at that time Robert Lincoln, son of the great war President.

Some criticism was expressed at the time and, indeed, still lingers in the books of writers on the subject, concerning the fitness of an army officer to direct an Arctic voyage.

But the purpose of the expedition was largely to collect scientific facts bear-on weather, currents of air and sea, the duration and extent of magnetic and electrical disturbances--in brief, data quite parallel to those which the United States signal service collects at home.
So the Greely expedition was made an adjunct to the signal service, which in its turn is one of the bureaus of the War Department.