Born in
Roxbury, Massachusetts, Soley graduated from
Harvard College in 1870. He was appointed Assistant Professor of Ethics and English at the
United States Naval Academy on 1 October 1871. Only two years later, he became Head of the Department of English Studies, History, and Law. In 1875 he married Mary Woolsey Howland. On 9 June 1882, Soley was assigned to the
Bureau of Navigation. He served as Superintendent of the naval war records office and he headed the Navy Department Library:
Office of Naval Records and Library. During this duty, Soley began the collection of the naval documents of the
American Civil War and started the editorial work which culminated in the publication of the 31-volume collection, The
Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion. These years also saw the publication of several of Soley's books and articles on American naval history. In 1884, Commodore
Stephen B. Luce appointed Soley instructor in International Law at the newly established
United States Naval War College, thereby becoming that institution's first civilian faculty member. While serving in
Washington, D.C., Soley studied law at Columbian University (now called
George Washington University) and received his law degree in 1890. On 18 July 1890 he resigned his commission to become an
Assistant Secretary of the Navy, dealing with administration of labor in naval shore establishments. He served in this position until March 1893. After his service with the Navy Soley moved to
New York City to practice law, working with his former naval chief,
Benjamin F. Tracy, who had been Secretary of the Navy from 1889 to March 1893. Soley specialized in international law. He served as counsel for
Venezuela during the arbitration at
Paris in 1899, which stemmed from a boundary dispute with the
United Kingdom which had resulted in the
Venezuela Crisis of 1895. Soley died of pneumonia in New York City on 11 September 1911. ==Legacy==