William Wallace Wotherspoon

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General William Wallace Wotherspoon, official portrait by Thomas W. Orlando

William Wallace Wotherspoon (November 16, 1850 - October 21, 1921) was born in Washington, D.C., on 16 November 1850. He was educated in private schools and served aboard ship as a mate in the United States Navy from 1870-1873. Wotherspoon was commissioned a second lieutenant and assigned to the 12th Infantry, October 1873. Later he served in the West during the Indian wars as a troop officer and quartermaster from 1874-1881. While stationed in northern New York he married Mary C. Adams in 1887.

After a year of absence from the Army for being sick, he became the superintent and did much needed work to expand the Soldiers' Home in Washington. He then served at Fort Sully and at Mount Vernon Barracks, where he trained a company of Apache prisoners from 1890-1894. He became aide to General Oliver O. Howard, commander of the Department of the East, 1894 and was a professor of military science and tactics at Rhode Island College from 1894-1898. While on recruiting duty at Fort McPherson and he organized the 3d Battalion, 12th Infantry in 1898. He served in the Philippines against insurgents and as collector of customs at Iloilo from 1899-1901; he was later promoted to major and transferred to the 30th Infantry in 1901. Commanded the 2d Battalion, 6th Infantry, at Fort Leavenworth and then taught at the Command and General Staff College from 1902-1904. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel and assigned to the 14th Infantry in 1904 and later was transferred to the 19th Infantry and became the director of the U.S. Army War College from 1904-1906.

Wotherspooon was the chief of staff of the Army of Cuban Pacification from 1906-1907. Served as the acting president of the Army War College and chief of the Third Division, General Staff in 1907 and was promoted to brigadier general in October of 1907 and later became president of the Army War College 1907-1909 and again from 1910-1912.

General Wotherspoon was largely instrumental in transforming it from an adjunct of the General Staff to an autonomous educational institution, he became assistant to the chief of staff from 1901-1910 and later in 1912-1914 where he was promoted to major general in May of 1912 and served as the commander of the Department of the Gulf until that September.

He became the chief of staff of the United States Army from 21 April to 15 November 1914 and called attention to shortages of officers and noncommissioned officers for Army missions, emphasized the need to reevaluate coast defenses to meet heavier-gunned battleships, saw establishment of an aviation section in the Signal Corps and the completion of the Panama Canal. Wotherspoon retired from active service in November 1914 and later served as superintendent of public works for the state of New York from 1915-1920. He died in Washington, D.C., on 21 October 1921.