#151: A Tale of Two Soldiers, Part III

Today we wrap up the sotry of Smith and Waller with a court martial for war crimes, but the man charged is probably not the one you think it will or should be.

This week's Ghosts of Arlington are:

1. Army Brigadier General Jacob Hurd Smith; Section 3, Grave 1924
2. Marine Corps Major General Littleton "Tony" Waller; Section 3, Grave 3311
3. Marine Corps Major General Littleton Waller, Jr.; Torresdale, PA
4. Navy Rear Admiral John Waller; Section 5, Grave 57
5. Marine Corps Brigadier General Henry Waller; Santa Barabara, CA

The introduction and transition music heard on the podcast is composed and recorded by the eldest Ghosts of Arlington, Jr. While the rest of his catalogue is quite different from what he's performed for me, you can find his music on bandcamp.com under the names Caladrius and Bloodfeather.

As always, a very special thanks to the Commando Pando Cap Company for its continued help to spread the word about the podcast on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/MountainUpCapCompany Climb to Glory!

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Transcript

Welcome back to Ghosts of Arlington and thank you for joining me for Episode 151: A Tale of Two Soldiers, Part III.

Last week, Littleton Waller (AKA Tony) joined the story of Jacob Hurd Smith. Waller, a Marine, was much too young to have fought in the civil war as Smith had done, but he had led troops into combat during naval expeditions to Egypt in 1882 and been present at the culminating Battle of Santiago in Cuba where he had demonstrated both bravery and compassion helping rescue Spanish sailors from shark infested waters.

When now Major-Waller arrived in the Philippines he was almost immediately sent to China to help put down the Boxer rebellion, and when he returned to the Philippines, he continued his counter-insurgency operations, this time against the Moros. But what he did not do was follow Smith’s orders to kill boys as young as ten because they might be able to take up arms against the Americans.

[TRANSITION MUSIC]

The Marines initially limited their patrols to clearing the jungle along the coast, and though they had little success locating and engaging many of the enemy, Waller could report that after eleven days they had burned 255 buildings, shot 13 carabos (a type of water buffalo) and killed 39 people.

When they started probing the interior, skirmishes with the enemy were more frequent, and the marines picked up the trail to an enemy stronghold on the cliffs above the Sohoton River, where insurgent leader Lukban had made his headquarters. Waller planned an attack using three columns. Captain Porter led one column overland from Balangiga, Captain Hiram Bearss marched a second column overland from Basey, and Waller led an amphibious assault team up the river, towing a raft that carried a cannon. The three columns were to rendezvous on November 16 and stage a combined water and land assault on the cliffs.

Porter and Bearss got there first. Waller's party was held up downriver by enemy defenses, and his two subordinate commanders decided to make the assault without him. Porter turned to Gunnery Sergeant John Quick, who had received the Medal of Honor for his actions in Cuba, and told him to lay down covering fire with his Colt machine gun as Marines scaled the two-hundred-foot cliffs. When they reached the top, they killed the guerillas they could catch, estimated to be about 30 men, while the others fled into the jungle. The Marines didn't suffer a single casualty. They destroyed the camp before fatigue and dwindling rations obliged them to back the difficult trek back to base.

The victory was impressive, but not as important as a boasting Smith and American newspapers made it out to be. It would take more than one successful battle for the US to pacify theisland's forbidding interior. Both Smith and Waller recognized this. Smith's instructions to Waller, who was planning another expedition, expressed in an unsigned note, were to make the swamps, jungles, and mountains of Samar's interior a howling wilderness.

The Marines spent most of December working their way eastward along the coast, skirmishing occasionally with small bands of fighters and destroying villages along the way. Smith wanted the Marines to venture deeper into the interior and cut a trail from east to west across the island. Waller appeared eager to do it. His famed "March across Samar" began on December 28 at the Army base in Lanang on Samar's east coast. The base commander, Captain James Pickering, tried and failed to dissuade him from making the march. Two previous attempts had been made, and both had turned back, daunted by the impenetrable terrain. Waller brushed aside Pickering's pessimism. In bright sunshine after days of heavy rains, the party of six officers, including Captains Porter and Bearss, fifty enlisted Marines led by the capable Gunny Sergeant Quick, two Filipino scouts called Slime and Smoke, and thirty-three cargadores (native baggage handlers) set out in long canoes up the Lanang River.

Waller planned to travel by river as far as possible and then hope to find a trail the Spanish were thought to have blazed during their occupation of the island that would take them to a supply camp Waller had ordered set up near the scene of the Marine's earlier triumph, the Sohoton cliffs. From there they would travel by boat to Basey where the expedition would end.

They made seventeen miles on the river the first day while the weather held, although not all those miles were in a westerly direction. They paddled another eight miles the next day before running into rapids at the village of Lagitao. They camped there for the night and set out on foot the following morning. The rains returned and the terrain proved as daunting as Pickering had warned. 

After that, the Marines made little progress. They were forced repeatedly to ford the winding, swollen river, their uniforms constantly soaked and covered in leeches.There was no trail to speak of, Spanish or otherwise, and they had to hack their way through the dense undergrowth, which grabbed at their boots and tripped them as they climbed hills steeper than they had expected to encounter. It seemed they were forced to several miles in all directions to make it a single mile westward. During all of this they didn't encounter another human being, guerilla or civilian.

Because they got so far off schedule, Waller was forced to cut rations on the third day of the trek, and cut them even more the next day and to make things worse, the rains prevented them from lighting cooking fires. By New Year's Day 1902 - the expedition's fifth day - all party members were exhausted and hungry. That day and the day after, they climbed one mountain after another. By this time, their situation was dire, and Waller doubted everyone was going to survive. Starved, their wet uniforms in shreds, their boots destroyed and feet bloodied, covered in sores and insect bites, the men were growing ill and despondent.

Though he was the oldest man in march, Waller was in better shape than most. He decided to proceed to Sohoton with two of his lieutenants and fifteen of the fittest Marines. The rest of the company, under Captain Porter's command, would follow their trail at a slower pace. When Waller reached the supply camp he would sent a relief party to meet them

Accounts of what happened next aren't exactly clear. Some accounts say that after discovering the way ahead was as difficult as the terrain they had already traversed, Waller sent word to Porter to build rafts and try to navigate the river back to Lanang. Others say that a feverish Porter gave up hope of reaching the supply camp and decided on his own to build the rafts; when they wouldn't float, he chose to march back to Lanang. All accounts agree, though, that Porter dispatched Captain Bearss and an enlisted man to catch up to Waller's column and inform him of his decision to return to Lanang on foot.

By the time Bearss reached them, Waller's party was enjoying its first bit of good fortune. They had wandered into a grove with sweet potatoes, bananas, and coconuts and were busy stuffing themselves. When Waller learned that Porter was going to march his men back to Lanang, he sent one of the local's in the party, a man named Victor, with an order not to try it. Instead, Porter was to follow Waller's trail to the clearing, where they would find food, and remain there.

Waller would press on to Sohoton and return as quickly as possible with food, fresh uniforms, and boots. But Victor never delivered the message. He returned to the column as it made camp, claiming that he had encountered insurgents. That night, Victor attempted to steal Waller's bolo knife as its suspicious owner pretended to be asleep. To Victor's surprise, Waller drew his revolver and placed him under arrest.

After this failed attempt to give Porter new orders, Waller assumed the man would change his mind about returning to Lanang once he had started back overland, so Waller continued on, expecting that in the end, Porter would follow his trail. On January 5, Waller's group stumbled upon a hut inhabited by five Filipinos. They pressed a young boy into service who claimed he could lead them the rest of the way to Basey. He lead them across a river to the elusive Spanish trail, which they followed across another river and through a valley to a third river, the Cadacan, where, on the morning of the 6th, after ten miserable days in the jungle, they encountered a resupply part coming up the river on a Navy cutter. "The men," Waller recorded, "realizing that all was over and that they were safe, once more near home, gave up. Somequietly wept; others laughed hysterically."

The warn out group reached Basey that afternoon, and a relief party was organized and sent off on the cutter back up the Cadacan. They made camp at the place where the Marines had found the Filipinos' hut, and Waller joined them there on the 8th. For eight days they searched for Porter's column, reluctantly returning to Basey one as their rations ran out and Waller came down with a fever.

Porter had not followed Waller's trail as Waller had assumed he would. Instead, he had taken seven Marines in the best Shape - including Quick - and six native baggage handlers on what seemed like a suicidal attempt to retract their circuitious route back to Lanang. The rest of the Marines were in too poor condition to make the march; they remained behind with thirteen Filipinos under the command of Lieutenant Alexander Williams. Another Lieutenant Williams is about the enter the story so I'm going to call on the lost LT Williams.

Porter thought they might make it back to Lanang in four days; it took them twice that long and it is a minor miracle that they made it back at all, walking barefoot in the constant rain with only what they could forage to eat, repeatedly crossing ragged streams and dragging themselves over mountains. He had to leave four men in place where the original column had left their boats; they had become too weak to continue. The rest of the Part reached Lanang on January 11th.

Captain Pickerin immediately assembled a rescue party commanded by a young army lieutenant, Kenneth Williams, but torrential downpours prevented it from navigating the swollen river for two days. Finally, on the morning of January 14, Williams, ten soldiers, an army surgeon, and a number of Filipino porters set out to find the lost Marines.

The lost party had followed after Porter as best they could, but many were so weak from hunger that they were delirious. Ten men, one after another, dropped to the jungle floor and surrendered to their fate. The rest trudged on hopelessly, up and down mountains, with nothing to eat but a few wild tubers, with the most stouthearted encouraged them on. The Marines suspected their porters were hiding food and letting them die. Some of the Filipinos refused to surrender their bolos at night, as they were required to do. And then three of them mutinied, refusing orders to cut firewood.

When the lost LT drew his revolver to reinforce his order, one of the porters slashed his arm with a bolo before running off into the bush with the two others. A Marine coming to William's aid raised his rifle but was too weak to work the bolt. The ten remaining Filipinos, including the scout Slim, neither joined the mutiny or intervened to stop it, and the lost LT feared greater treachery, which he would be too weak to prevent.

The Army rescue party was battling through rapids on the morning of January 18 when they discovered ten Marines, delirious and nearly naked, lying in a clearing next to the river. They had been sent ahead by the lost LT, who, along with nine others, unable to walk, remained at the scene of the previous night's mutiny on the top of a nearby mountain. A few of the soldiers stayed with the ten Marines at the river while the rest hacked their way up the mountain hoping to find the others in time. They did, just barley: the lost LT and his group appeared to be within hours of death. But by nightfall they rescue party had gotten everyone back to Lanang. That night a barely conscious, no-longer-lost LT Williams reported the mutiny to Captain Porter, who had all ten Filipinos arrested.

Porter sent the arrested me to Waller, who was still recovering from his fever at Basey. The were accompanied by Quick who had an altercation with some of them earlier in the expedition. Porter and Williams recommended they all be executed; so did Quick who told Waller he would <<QUOTE>> "shoot them all down like dogs," which is what Waller ordered done with no further adjudication other than a brief interrogation of the prisoners. That afternoon the ten, along with Victor, were shot by a firing squad. There bodies were left in the town square as a warning to others. 

When he recovered from his fever, Waller sent a telegram to General Smith to inform him what he had done. <<QUOTE>> "It became necessary to execute eleven prisoners. Ten who were implicated in the attack on Lieutenant Williams and one who plotted against me." Remember - of the ten arrested by the last LT, only one had actually attacked him and only two others followed the attacker into the jungle before eventually returning to the expedition.

Unfortunately for Waller and Smith, accounts of some of the atrocities committed on Samar and criticism of Smith' undisguised preference for cruel reprisals over winning hearts and minds had reached the American newspapers and were being used by prominent anti-imperialist to stoke opposition to the war. 

The Senate covened hearings and called Philippines Governor-Geneal Taft - back in the States recooperating from an operation - as a witness, who almost casually conceded that Americans had used torture and had shot some people who had not deserved it. In the uproad that followed the hearing, President Roosevelt, Secretary of War Elihu Root, and Taft scrambled to counter the belief that American soldiers - at the direction of senior commanders - were systematically abusing the rules of war. They assured the public that while the Filipino guerillas were an especially treacherous enemy, incidents of cruelty beyond the pale against them were punished. However, reports of atrocities were still coming in and Congressional hearings continued as public outcry increased.

In early March Secretery Root sent General Chaffee a cable instructing him to stop the torture and summary executions of Filipinos. Chaffee had already begun worrying that the savagery he had allowed and, one could argue, encouraged after the Balangiga massacre, and which the obtuse Smith has practically bragged about, had fallen out of official favor. He informed Root he had felt it necessary to investigate reports of unsanctioned executions on Samar, and he had made discoveries that obliged him reluctantly to order the arrest  and court-martial of Lieutenant Colonel Littleton Waller.

{TRANSITION MUSIC]

Waller's battalion had been relieved on February 26 and returned to Cavite in Manila Bay to cheering crowds. Upon arrival, Waller, still in his dress uniform, reported promptly to General Chaffee, who informed him he was under arrest for the murder of eleven men and asked for his sword. When the news broke, Waller became the number one target of the anti-war press. One headline called him the "Butcher of Samar," and all manner of atrocities, many of them pure invention, were attributed to him.

The court-martial, composed of seven army and six marine officers and presided over by Army Brigadier General William Bisbee, convened on March 17, 1902, and lasted nearly a month. One of the Marine officers was an old rival of Waller's; two others were friends. Waller didn't know any of the army officers. It was probably for their benefit that he chose a West Pointer as one of his defense counsels. The Judge Advocate prosecuting the case was also a West Pointer, Major Henry Kingsbury.

Waller's counsels first argued that the army didn't have any jurisdiction over the case since Waller - having returned from the expedition - was no longer subordinate to General Smith when he was arrested. General Bisbee, who appeared sympathetic to Waller, agreed the army probably didn't have jurisdiction but referred the final decision to General Chaffee, who consulted with Secretary Root before ordering the trial to proceed.

The prosecution maintained that the facts of the case were not in dispute. Waller had ordered the execution of the Filipinos without a trial or much of an investigation. He had not asked Smith for permission and had informed his superior of his action only after the fact. As evidence, Waller had assumed authority he didn't lawfully possess, Major Kingsbury quoted from the instruction to punish "treachery with death" that Waller had sent his officers just after the battalion arrived in Samar.

Waller claimed his actions were consistent with the orders given him my Smith, although the defense didn;t raise Smith's verbal directive to kill and burn. They were also consistent with the authority granted to an area commander under General Order 100, a Civil War measure signed by President Lincoln that permitted executions without trial of spies, saboteurs, and guerrillas when apprehended in the act of treachery.

Captains Porter and Bearss appeared for the defense, as did a still recovering Lieutenant Williams, who dramatically recalled his ordeal for the court. Under cross-examination, Porter conceded he had not believed the porters when he left them with Williams. Bearss confirmed the unfortunate Victor had made an attempt on Waller's life, but all he could provide to substantiate the allegation was the fact that the Filipino had been apprehended in possession of Waller's bolo knife. The surviving scout, Smoke, was also called as a witness, and he testified that Victor had wanted to kill Williams and his men rather than share food with them.

Waller took the stand in his own defense and claimed he had issued his directive about punishing treachery with death only after conferring with Smith. But still did not elaborate on the details of their conversation. Nor would he have, it seems, had Smith not been called as a rebuttal witness and denied he had given his area commander the authority to punish treachery with summary executions. "Did you ever indicate to Major Waller that 'he held power of life and death' over prisoners?" the prosecution asked him. "No," Smith lied.

Waller returned to the stand the next day and revealed every detail of the seething Smith's instructions to him, including the order to kill every man, woman, and child over the age of ten, an illegal which Waller had ignored and had ordered his subordinates to ignore. The sensation this revelation caused was immediate and overwhelming. Explosive headlines appeared in newspapers across the US: "Kill All"; "Samar to be Made a Howling Wilderness. Kill and Burn."

In testimony he gave the day after his shocking disclosures, Waller did not excuse his actions based on the ordeal his battalion had suffered, on the men he had lost, on his illness, or on any extenuating circumstance. Neither did he shift the entire responsibility to Smith. Rather, he insisted he acted lawfully irrespective of his superior's orders. His familiarity with the rules of war and his experiences on Samar asn elsewhere convinced him he had acted properly to safeguard the Marines under his command. He told the court, "I do not beg for mercy or plead extenuation. I was either right or wrong. If I was wrong, give me the whole, full complete sentence required by law. If I was right then I am entitled to the most honorable acquittal."

The "full complete sentence" for a murder conviction was death, of course. But Waller had little cause to be worried after his shocking disclosures that such a fate would be his. He was acquitted by a vote of eleven to two just a half hour after the prosecution's closing testimony blamed the horrors and casualties suffered on the march across Samar on Waller's foolhardiness and poor planning, not on the Filipinos who had - in his words - been curley denied the protections they were owed by the country they had served.

The Roosevelt administration, under pressure from growing numbers of war critics in the wake of Waller's damning testimony, ordered a searching and exhaustive investigation into Army practices in the Philippines. The investigation resulted in Chaffee's referring charges against five officers, including Hell Roaring Jake Smith, who was found guilty - not of war crimes, but of "conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline." He was sentenced to be reprimanded, but Roosevelt demanded his resignation. Don't worry, dear listener. The Army was able to manage just fine without him.

After being forced to retire, Smith returned to his hometown of Portsmouth, Ohio and did some world traveling. In April 1917 he wrote a letter to the Army's Adjutant General's office volunteering for service in World War I but was refused due to his old age - he was seventy seven at the time - and the fact that his reputation had been severely tarnished by his atrocities in the Philippines. Brigadier General Jacob Hurd Smith died less than one year later, on March 1, 1918 in San Diego, California, and interred at Arlington National Cemetery in Section 3, Grave 1924. He was seventy eight years old.  

Smith served in the Army for forty years, and during that time displayed consistent valor on the battlefield. When all was said and done he carried a scar from a saber cut to his head received at the battle of Barboursville in 1861, a Minie ball in his hip from the battle of Shiloh in 1862, and a another bullet - this one from a Spanish rifle - from a wound at El Caney in Cuba in 1898. But his valor is greatly overshadowed by his toxic leadership and his many, many legal convictions. In this veteran's humble opinion, a man who illegally orders the deaths of 10-year-olds does not deserve the honor of being interred in the country's most revered cemetery and why, if I were king for a day, his remains would be moved to another location.

[TRANSITION MUSIC]

So what happened to Major Waller after he was exonerated at his court martial? After the trail was returned to the United States, his brevet promotion to Lieutenant Colonel in China was made permanent, and he oversaw US Marine Corps recruiting efforts in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey until 1903. In 1904, he received formal recognition for what he and his Marines had done during the battle of Santiago Bay at the end of the Spanish-American war. A letter addressed to him reads, "Sir: The [Navy] has much pleasure in transmitting herewith a specially meritorious medal awarded to you in recognition of your gallant conduct in assisting in rescuing crews from the burning Spanish ships after the battle of Santiago de Cuba on July 3, 1898. This medal is issued in accordance with the provisions of an act of congress... which authorized the Secretary of the Navy to issue such medals to the officers and men of the Navy and Marine Corps who rendered specially meritorious service, otherwise than in battle, during the Spanish-American war."

Waller's was one of only ninety-three known awards of this medal, and is believed to be the only Marine to receive it. Because it recognizes heroism outside of combat, this award can be considered the predecessor of today's Navy and Marine Corps Medal. That same year - 1904 - Waller was given command of all Marines in the newly created Panama Canal Zone during which time he was promoted to full colonel. Two years later in 1906, he was appointed commander of  US forces in the Republic of Cuba. Waller then commanded the USMC Barracks 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, Marines 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, "I know the [N-word] and how to handle him" in reference to Haiti's population being of mostly African descent.   

There is some controversy - though it seems largely unfounded - that even though he was acquitted, the charges against Waller in the Philippines cost him the post of the Commandant of the Marine Corps, that service's senior officer. I believe he was absolutely cheated out of the post - twice! - but for political reasons rather than poor conduct.

In 1910, as his stint as commander of US forces in Cuba was coming to an end, Waller was a signature away from being appointed Commandant. According to Army Captain Archibald Butt, military aide to President's Roosevelt and Taft, during a White House meeting in March 1910 the subject of the next Marine Commandant came up. Secretary of the Navy George Meyer had all the necessary paperwork to appoint Waller and President Taft agreed to sign them. Then, as Captain Butt tells it: "(Waller's) name was practically written, when Senator Penrose of Pennsylvania called on the President, and in five minutes Waller was sidetracked and William Biddle elevated to the place in command. (Biddle) happened to be a cousin of the junior senator from Pennsylvania, Feorge 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, in November 1986, retired Marine Lieutenant Colonel Merrill Bartlett discussed the career of Waller's protege Smedley Butler. Like Waller, Butler was the choice for Commandant among the rank-and-file of the Corps. Butler was also denied the position, because of the influence of politics. Colonel Bartlett writes:

"In 1910, following a spate of in-house acrimony between the Commandant of the Marine Corps Major General George Elliott, and the Adjutant and Inspector, the colorful Colonel Charles 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 Taft bowed to pressure from the powerful Pennsylvania Senator Boies Penrose and appointed his constituent, Philadelphia's William 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 Comendant 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 . . .[sent] Biddle into retirement and began the search for a new Commandant. 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 Commandant in... 1914. Biddle had hoped to slide in the veteran campaigner, Colonel Lincoln Karmany, before sufficient political forces could be organized to oppose this hand-picked 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. Waller's chances were hardly helped by the small number of Democratic senators or by the fact that his grandfather L.W. Tazewell was the former Democratic governor of Virginia. Colonel Bartlett referenced of "the unacceptable baggage of Samar", but Waller was exonerated of those changes and personnel file indicates that those charges had no effect on his future promotions or assignments in the Corps. Waller's <<QUOTE>> "reputation for callous and inhumane treatment of the Filipino people" was based almost entirely on the editorials in the anti-imperialist press, views that had been rejected by the public long before. The elections of Roosevelt in 1904 and Taft in 1908 came long after Waller's and Smith's courts-martial which allowed the truth to come out.

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. The war did, however, bring him two more promotions. He became a brigadier general in August 1916 and a brevet major general in August 1918.

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... and that his incapacity is the result of an incident of the service." On March 27 the finding was made official:

"The proceedings and findings of the Retiring Board in this case are approved, and Major

General (Temporary) 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." The document was signed by President 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."

Waller 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 Littleton Waller Tazwell "Tony" Waller Sr. lived in retirement in Philadelphia until his death on 13 July 1926 at the age of 69. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Section 4, Grave 3311.

In 1942, the destroyer USS Waller (DD-466) was named in his honor, as is Waller Drive in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania. A residential cul-de-sac, the street and all of the properties along it were originally part of the estate surrounding the house he built in 1916, in suburban Philadelphia.

During his life, Waller was active in a number of veterans organizations, including The Military Order of Foreign Wars of the United States, one of the oldest veterans' association in the US (and not to be confused with the VFW); the Military Order of the Dragon, a fraternal order founded by members of the China Relief Expedition that participated in the Boxer Rebellion; and the Military Order of the Carabao, a social club originally open to military officers and war correspondents who served in the Philippines or other official overseas campaigns. This order was initially created to satirize the pompous and pretentious Military Order of the Dragon. This organization still exists today and holds its annual Carabao Wallow at the Army and Navy Club in Washington, DC.

Three of Waller's sons would go on to make careers out of the military. 

I wasn't able to find out much about Waller's youngest son, Henry Tazewell Waller, who rose to the rank of brigadier general in the Marine Corps, likely just missed World War I but certainly served during World War I, Korea, and maybe Vietnam. He died in July 1984 - at age 84 - and is buried in Santa Barbara Cemetery, Santa Barbara, California.

His middle son, John Beresford Wynn Waller graduated from the Naval Academy in 1914, earned the Silver Star and Bronze Star in World War II, rose to the rank of rear admiral, and followed his father to Arlington. After he died at 78 in June 1971, he was buried in Section 5, Grave 57.

I was able to learn the most about his oldest son's career. Littleton W. T. Waller Jr., fought in Mexico during the Veracruz Expedition in 1914, and served as a major in the Marine Corps during World War I where he commanded Marine is many battles along on the Western Front, including at Belleau Wood, Soissons, Saint-Mihiel, Mont Blanc, and the Meuse-Argonne offensive where he was seriously wounded. 

Waller Jr. later participated in the march to the Rhine and served with the Army of Occupation in Germany. From the French he was awarded the Croix de Guerre with Palm; made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor; received the Fourragere, and was cited in General Orders, No. 88, Headquarters, Second Division, dated December 31, 1918. The Marines awarded him the Navy Cross and the Silver Star - that service's second and third highest awards for valor - and the Purple Heart. 

He left active duty for a time to take care of his father after Waller, Sr's retirement. He remained in the reserves and was recalled to active duty as a brigadier general in June 1941. He remained on active duty for the entirety of World War II, finally retiring in 1946. He was advanced to the rank of major general (the same rank as his late-father) on the retired list because of having been specially commended in combat. Upon his death in 1967 at age 80, he chose to be buried at the All Saints Episcopal Church Cemetery outside of Philadelphia rather than follow his father to Arlington National Cemetery.