Two army lieutenants, Lockwood and Klingsbury, and twenty men from the rank and file of the army and signal corps, were selected to form the party.

An astronomer was needed, and Edward Israel, a young graduate of the University of Michigan, volunteered.

George W.Rice volunteered as photographer.

Both were enlisted in the army and given the rank of sergeant.
It is doubtful if any polar expedition was ever more circumstantially planned--none has resulted more disastrously, save Sir John Franklin's last voyage.

The instructions of the War Department were as explicit as human foresight and a genius for detail could make them.