Лителтон Уоллер: Биография морского пехотинца и путь к званию генерал-майора

US Marine Corps major general

Littleton Tazewell "Tony" Waller (September 26, 1856 – July 13, 1926) was a career officer in the United States Marine Corps, who served in the Spanish–American War, the Caribbean and Asia. He was court martialed and acquitted for his actions during the Philippine–American War, when he led an ill fated expedition across the island of Samar. Waller retired from the Marines holding the rank of major general.

Littleton ("Tony") Waller was born in York County, Virginia, on 26 September 1856. He was appointed as a second lieutenant of Marines on 24 June 1880 at the age of 23 and served initial tours of successive shore duty at the Marine Barracks in Norfolk, Virginia, and Washington, D. C.

Both of Waller's ancestral families enjoyed wealth and political distinction in England and America. The Wallers were high sheriffs of Kent, where the family owned Groombridge Place, and judiciaries in Buckinghamshire. Littleton Waller's ancestor Col. John Waller came to Virginia about 1635. He trained as an attorney at the College of William and Mary and founded a family that included several members of the Virginia House of Burgesses, a justice of the Virginia Supreme Court, and a member of Virginia's delegation to the committee that adopted the Declaration of Independence. Littleton Waller's ancestor Benjamin Waller was a noted colonial attorney of Williamsburg, Virginia. The Tazewells of Dorset county were churchmen and scholars of the law. William Tazewell, attorney, born in 1691, emigrated to Virginia in 1715. His descendants include members of the House of Burgesses, the U. S. House of Representatives, the Senates of both Virginia and the United States, and the Virginia Supreme Court. Tony Waller's maternal grandfather Littleton Waller Tazewell was, in turn, a U. S. Congressman, a U. S. Senator, and Governor of Virginia. He built the family home, Wishing Oak, on Granby Street in Norfolk in 1802 and died there on May 6, 1860. The general's mother, Mary Waller Tazewell, was born at Wishing Oak in 1822. In 1848, she married Matthew Page Waller, her third cousin four times removed. Their children included a daughter and two sons older than Tony, and three sons younger. Littleton Waller Tazewell Waller was born on September 26, 1856. His father, who was a doctor, died of typhoid during an epidemic on December 11, 1861. Mary remained a widow until her death on December 20, 1889. She is buried with her husband in Elmwood Cemetery in Norfolk, Virginia. The family's extensive public service is exclusively civilian. In 1920, when Tony Waller Jr. joined the Sons of the American Revolution, his application was based on his ancestor's participation in the Committee of Independence. The Waller family website says little about the Civil War years, and the associated Tazewell website says even less. The Wallers and Tazewells seem to have had no military members prior to Tony's commissioning. His decision to become an officer must have surprised his family, but they were supportive of his ambition. In his teens, Tony was a corporal in the Norfolk Light Artillery Blues, a local militia unit. Turned down for a commission in the cavalry (at 5' 4" he was too short), he was accepted into the Marines.

Tony Waller was bright, but indifferent to education. He was an outdoorsman, fond of hunting, fishing and riding, and uncomfortable in the classroom. Historian David McCulloch noted that, in the nineteenth century, every literate person in the English speaking world was familiar with three books – the King James Bible, the works of Shakespeare, and John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. Waller's writing shows the influence of all three. His report from Peking compares the condition of the Marines to Falstaff's army, in reference to Shakespeare's Henry IV. He uses the Biblical phrase "the peace of God which passeth all understanding" in his letter to the Marines in France in 1918. In reporting the death in action of one of his officers in China, Waller expressed confidence that "all the trumpets will sound for him upon the other side", a phrase taken from Bunyan's description of the death of Faithful. In their ghostwritten memoirs Smedley Butler and Frederick C. Wise remember him as an eloquent speaker and fascinating storyteller. Yet he apparently never considered the study of law or a career in politics.

Waller first went to sea as the Executive Officer of the Marine Detachment aboard the sloop of war Lancaster, the flagship of the European Squadron and a veteran of the Civil War, in 1881. The Commanding Officer of the Detachment, also a veteran of the Civil War, was the legendary Captain Henry Clay Cochrane. The following year, Waller was present at the British Naval bombardment of Alexandria, Egypt during a serious local uprising in the summer of 1882. He participated in the landing of a mixed bluejacket and Marine force during the operation. The Naval landing force of sixty nine sailors and sixty three Marines was formed, with Lieutenant Commander Charles Goodrich in command and Captain Cochrane as executive officer. The force comprised two companies, the sailors under Navy Lieutenant Frank L. Denny and the Marines under Waller. The timely arrival of the ships of the European Squadron and their landing force gave protection to the American consulate and to American citizens and interests caught up in the fighting, and also afforded a refuge for the citizens of other nations, who had been displaced from their homes or businesses. Advancing cautiously through the burning and rubble strewn streets, the Americans reached the Grand Square of Mehmet Ali, at the heart of the city. The American Consulate was there, and it became the headquarters of the force. Although the French troops had abandoned the city and cautiously returned to their ships, the Marines secured the Grand Square and began to patrol the streets of the European Quarter, as the international business and consular area was named. Cochrane, Waller and their Marines were assigned to Lord Charles Beresford's British force for the protection of the European Quarter. The anticipated rebel counterattack never came, and a ten day standoff ended with the arrival of the four thousand man British relief force. According to the Times of London:

Lord Charles Beresford states that without the assistance of the American Marines he would have been unable to discharge the numerous duties of suppressing fires, preventing looting, burying the dead, and clearing the streets. As there was no wireless radio in those days, and the telegraphic cable office in Alexandria was not functioning, the Squadron Commander had approval to land the naval force, but once ashore Goodrich had been on his own. It was he who made the decision to stay with the British rather than leave with the French. Waller, as one of only four officers in the landing force, would have been present when the decisions were made. He learned, as a 24 year old lieutenant, the habits of independence in command that he would exercise throughout his career.

While stationed at the naval station at Cavite early in 1900, Waller, now a major, was ordered to command a detachment of Marines, assigned to take part in the expedition mounted to relieve the siege of Peking, the Imperial Capital of China. This city, with its enclave of foreign Legations, was besieged by a mixed force of "Boxers" and Chinese Imperial troops supporting them. Accordingly, Waller and his men arrived at Taku, China, on 19 June 1900, soon moved inland, and linked up with a Russian column of 400 men. At 02:00 on June 21, this small combined force set out for Tientsin, a large enemy held city along the route to Peking, arrayed against a Chinese contingent of some 1,500 to 2,000 men. Outnumbered from the start, the column came under heavy enemy fire and was forced to retreat, with the Russians in the lead. In a desperate rearguard action, Waller and his marines—leaving their dead behind and dragging their wounded with them—fought off the numerically superior (but less aggressive) Chinese forces and reached safety. Waller's detachment immediately returned to duty, attached to a British column led by Commander Christopher Craddock. At 04:00 on June 24, an international army—consisting of Italian, German, Japanese, Russian, British, and American forces—set out again for Tientsin. After participating in the final fighting for the city of Peking on July 13–14, Waller and his men took possession of the American sector and brought order out of the havoc caused by the Chinese retreat. Promoted by brevet to lieutenant colonel and advanced two numbers in grade for his performance of duty at Tientsin and Peking, Littleton Waller was commended in 1903 by Brigadier General Aaron S. Daggett, U. S. Army, Ret., in his book, America in the China Relief Expedition. He recalled that the marine had

" participated willingly and energetically " with the Allies " in all movements against the enemy " and that " he and his officers and men reflected credit upon American valor. " For his service, Major Waller received a brevet promotion, along with several of his fellow officers, who had also distinguished themselves, to lieutenant colonel. He would later become one of only 20 Marines to be awarded the USMC Brevet Medal when the decoration was created in 1921. During his service in China, Waller also began a long running friendship with then Lt. Smedley Butler. Waller served as Best Man at Butlers' wedding in June 1905 and the two remained close for the rest of Wallers' life.

Waller subsequently returned to the United States, where he was appointed in charge of USMC recruiting efforts in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey until 1903. In 1904, Waller was made commander of USMC forces stationed in the Panama Canal Zone. Two years later in 1906, he was appointed to command U. S. forces in the Republic of Cuba, being promoted to the commander of the Provisional Brigade by 1911. Waller then commanded the USMC Barracks located at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard from 1911 to 1914. Leading the 1st Marine Brigade, Waller subsequently participated in the Battle of Veracruz in 1914 before being appointed to command USMC forces during the United States occupation of Haiti. Under his command, USMC troops brutally suppressed resistance to the occupation by bands of Haitian insurgents known as Cacos, successfully defeating them in the First Caco War. During the occupation, Waller stated that "I know the nigger and how to handle him", in reference to Haiti's population being of mostly African descent.

General Waller was a member of the Military Order of Foreign Wars, Military Order of the Dragon and the Military Order of the Carabao.