Giles B. Harber, the first Naval Academy cadet James A. Garfield appointed

The last entry in President James A. Garfield's diary, dated Sunday, June 26, 1881, mentions a visit from a young Navy officer: "Lieut. Harber came and spent part of the day." Giles Bates Harber was more than a guest. A park ranger's profile at James A. Garfield National Historic Site traces how the Navy's first cadet from Garfield's appointments became a friend of the family, and later a rear admiral.

The first cadet

Harber, born September 24, 1849, in Youngstown, Ohio, was the first Naval Academy cadet appointed by Congressman Garfield. On July 19, 1878, Garfield wrote in his diary that Lieutenant Harber had come to visit and was "a noble fellow, my first cadet at the Naval Academy." Other entries show how close the families were. On Sunday, July 21, 1878, Harber helped answer letters and then swam in the lake breakers with the Garfield boys and the Congressman. On a December 25th he took Christmas dinner with the family and stayed the afternoon.

Giles Bates Harber as a young U.S. Navy officer. Image from the National Park Service's page, which credits Wikipedia.

In the late 1870s Harber was an ordnance instructor at the Washington Navy Yard and a frequent guest at the Garfields' table at their home on 13th and I Streets, sometimes going to church with them. In May 1881, at the end of a three-day visit to Washington, Garfield noted that Harber had left for New York to take command of his first ship, the Alarm. On the diary's final day, at Elberon, New Jersey, where Garfield had taken his wife Lucretia to recover from malaria, Harber again spent part of the day with them.

A vase from Asia

Harber was stationed in Asia from 1871 to 1875. From there he sent a pair of Chinese vases to the Congressman and Mrs. Garfield. One was irreparably damaged on the voyage, but the other survived and stands today in the parlor of the Garfield home.

The vase Harber sent the Garfields, in the parlor of the Garfield home. NPS photo.

A recovery in the Arctic

Harber rose to rear admiral. The profile calls one episode of his career macabre. He was chosen to lead an expedition to recover the bodies of George Washington DeLong, commander of the USS Jeannette, and members of his crew, who had starved to death on a scientific expedition in 1881. The Jeannette became trapped in ice on its way to the Arctic, and the commander and crew abandoned it, wandered across the terrain and soon died. Harber led the recovery three years later, in 1884.

George Washington DeLong, leader of the Jeannette expedition. Image from the National Park Service's page, which credits Wikipedia.

That was three years after the death of Harber's mentor and friend. Soon after the President's funeral in September 1881, Harber wrote Mrs. Garfield a seven-page letter. In it he said he had been proud of being called the Garfields' "adopted" son, that it was a joy to think the President regarded him as a son, and that he hoped to prove worthy of it.

Harber died in 1925. His obituary called his recovery of DeLong and the crew "a magnificent example of the historic pluck and daring of the American naval officer." The profile concludes that this shows Garfield's belief in his young friend was not misplaced.

Sources

• National Park Service, "Giles B. Harber: Navy Cadet, Admiral, Friend of James & Lucretia Garfield" (https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/giles-b-harber-navy-cadet-admiral-friend-of-james-lucretia-garfield.htm), written by Alan Gephardt, park ranger, James A. Garfield National Historic Site, in August 2016 for the Garfield Observer. The quotations come from Garfield's diary and from Harber's obituary. The source's "ordinance instructor" is corrected here to "ordnance instructor". A later portrait credited to a genealogy project is left out.
• National Park Service's page; rewritten in hubnx's own words.