Littleton Waller - Later Years

Later Years

Conventional wisdom holds that the Manila court-martial cost Waller the post of Commandant of the Marine Corps. Most sources claim that his career was stunted, but an extract from his Officer's Qualification Record tells a different story. Waller's acquittal is dated April 28, 1902. He had been "promoted MAJOR August 28, 1899, to take rank from July 25, 1899". He is "promoted LIEUTENANT COLONEL, U.S.M.C., by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, March 23, 1903, to rank as such from March 3, 1903", and then "promoted COLONEL, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, March 21, 1905, to rank from March 11, 1905".

"On March 28, 1901, appointed Lieutenant-Colonel by brevet, in the Marine Corps of the United States, for distinguished conduct and public service in the presence of the enemy near Tientsin, China, from the 13th day of July, 1900. On March 28, 1901, advanced two (2) numbers in rank on the list of Majors, in the Marine Corps, for eminent and conspicuous conduct in battle on June 21, & 23, and July 3, and 9, 1900, at Tientsin, China, from March 8, 1901. Under suspension for ten days (10) from September 18, 1901, for being under the influence of liquor, and thereby unfit for the proper performance of duty."

Suspended from duty for being drunk, with an official entry made of the event, Waller was still promoted from captain to full colonel in less than six years. This is hardly indicative of a stalled career, especially in the early twentieth century. It becomes hard to believe that the court-martial prevented Waller's appointment to the commandancy, especially since he is promoted less than a year afterward.

But if it was not the reason, it may have been the excuse. Captain Archibald Butt, U.S. Army, military aide to Presidents Roosevelt and Taft, recalls a White House meeting in March 1910. The subject was the next Marine Commandant. Secretary of the Navy George Meyer had the necessary papers to appoint Waller, and President Taft agreed. Then, according to Butt:

"(Waller's) name was practically written, when Senator Penrose of Pennsylvania called on the President, and in five minutes Waller was sidetracked and Biddle elevated to the place in command. (Biddle) happened to be a cousin of the junior Senator from Pennsylvania, George T. Oliver."

With no love for the Marines and no reason to care who their Commandant was, Butt had no reason to lie. Nor is he alone in giving this version of events.

In the Proceedings of the U. S. Naval Institute, November 1986, Lieutenant Colonel Merrill L. Bartlett, U.S. Marine Corps (Retired), discusses the career of Waller's protege Smedley D. Butler. Like Waller, Butler was the choice for Commandant among the rank-and-file of the Corps. Butler, too, was denied the position, because of the influence of politics. Col. Bartlett writes:

"In 1910, following a spate of in-house acrimony between the CMC, Major General George F. Elliott, and the Adjutant and Inspector, the colorful Colonel Charles H. Lauchheimer, Elliott opted for retirement. Most observers -- including Butler -- assumed that the venerable Waller would gain the Corps' highest post. However, in a private meeting with Secretary of the Navy George von Meyer, President William H. Taft bowed to pressure from the powerful Pennsylvania Senator Boise Penrose and appointed his constituent, Philadelphia's William A. Biddle, to the post."

Political influence was even more pronounced in the selection of the next Commandant. Col. Bartlett continues:

"The passage of legislation in 1913 that limited the tenure of each CMC to four years -- unless reappointed -- ended the traditional system of appointment until retirement, which had been in effect since 1798. Instead Josephus Daniels, the new Secretary of the Navy . . . Biddle into retirement and began the search for a new CMC. Excitedly, Butler assumed that Waller would win this time. He generated a flurry of correspondence knowing full well that every letter would be read by his congressman father ... Much to Butler's dismay -- and despite whatever political leverage his father applied -- stronger forces determined the selection of a new CMC in 1913-14. Biddle had hoped to slide in the veteran campaigner, Colonel Lincoln Karmany, before sufficient political forces could be organized to oppose this handpicked successor. But Secretary Daniels eliminated Karmany from the running when he learned of his messy divorce in order to marry another woman. Waller had the endorsement of all 21 Democrats in the Senate, but carried the unacceptable baggage of Samar with him. Secretary Daniels reasoned that it made no sense to appoint an officer with a reputation for callous and inhumane treatment of the Filipino people, just when the Wilson Administration promised a more enlightened and humane government of the Philippines."

Several key points are evident here. Waller had the endorsement of "all 21 Democrats in the Senate", but in 1913 the U.S. had forty-eight states, for a total of ninety-six senators. The Democrats were not only a minority, they were all Southerners. In a capital, and a government, dominated by Yankee Republicans, Waller's chances were hardly helped by the Democratic senators or by the fact that his cousin L.W. Tazewell was the former Democratic governor of Virginia. Col. Bartlett speaks of "the unacceptable baggage of Samar", but as we have seen this did not seem to hamper Waller's rise from Captain to Colonel. Waller's "reputation for callous and inhumane treatment of the Filipino people" was based almost entirely on the editorials in the anti-imperialist press, but these views had been rejected by the public long before. The elections of Roosevelt in 1904 and Taft in 1908 came long after the courts-martial not only of Waller and Day, but also of the Army officers Smith and Glenn.

Waller was also frustrated at being sidelined, as he saw it, from the fighting in France. Relatively few senior Marine officers saw active duty in France, all of them a generation younger than Waller.

On March 22, 1920, Waller appeared before the Retirement Board at Marine Corps Headquarters. The board found that he was "incapacitated for active service by reason of arterial sclerosis, general, and that his incapacity is the result of an incident of the service." On March 27 the finding was made official:

THE WHITE HOUSE

The proceedings and findings of the Retiring Board in this case are approved, and Major General (T) Littleton W.T. Waller, U.S. Marine Corps, will be retired from active service and placed on the retired list with the rank he now temporarily holds, that of Major General, in conformity with the provisions of Sections 1622 and 1251 of the Revised Statutes, and those of the act of May 22, 1917.

WOODROW WILSON

The last entry in his Officer's Qualification Record reads:

"Continued on active duty at Headquarters, Advanced Base Force until June 16, 1920, on which date relieved from all active duty."

Three of Waller's sons would go on to serve their country as Officers in the Marines and Navy. Littleton W. T. Waller Jr. served as a Major in the Marine Corps during the War and saw extensive action on the Western Front. Waller Jr. alternately commanded the 81st Company, First Machine Gun Battalion; the Sixth Machine Gun Battalion, Second Division, the Eighth Machine Gun Battalion, Third Division; and served as the Division Machine Gun Officer of the Second Division. During his service he participated in the following operations: the Toulon-Troyon Sector; in action with 47th French Infantry at Julgonne; in action on the Marne River; in action at Belleau Wood; in action in the Aisne-Marne Offensive; Marbache Sector; St. Mihiel Sector; and the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. Waller Jr. later participated in the march to the Rhine and served with the Army of Occupation. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre for action in the Champagne Sector; made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor for action in the Aisne-Marne Offensive; and was cited in General Orders, No. 88, Headquarters, Second Division, dated December 31, 1918. He also received letters of commendation from the Commanding Officer, Second Battalion, Sixth Regiment, Commanding General, Fourth Brigade and Commanding General, Second Division. Waller Jr. was also awarded the Navy Cross by the Secretary of the Navy and would go on to serve a full career in the Corps, eventually rising to the rank of Major General just as his Father had.

Having been promoted to Brigadier General on 29 August 1916 and to Major General on 29 August 1918, Littleton W. T. Waller Sr. closed out his active duty in the Marine Corps as Commander of the Advanced Base Force at Philadelphia Navy Yard from 8 January 1917 until his retirement in June 1920. According to the entry in Webster's American Military Biographies, L.W.T. Waller was "reputed to have taken part in more actions than any other Marine officer of the period."

Major General Waller lived in retirement in Philadelphia, Penn. until his death on 13 July 1926 at the age of 69. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

In 1942, the destroyer USS Waller (DD-466) was named in his honor.

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