William Wallace Wotherspoon William Wallace Wotherspoon ( November 16 , 1850 – October 21 , 1921 ) was a United States Army general who served as Army Chief of Staff in 1914 . Biography . William Wotherspoon was born in Washington , D . C . , on November 16 , 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 in October 1873 . From 1874 to 1881 , he served in the West during the Indian wars as a troop officer and quartermaster . In 1887 , while stationed in northern New York , he married Mary C . Adams . After a year of absence from the Army for being sick , he became the superintendent and did much needed work to expand the Soldiers ' Home in Washington , D . C . He then served at Fort Sully and at Mount Vernon Barracks , where he trained a company of Apache prisoners from 1890 to 1894 . In 1893 he became an hereditary member of the Aztec Club of 1847 . In 1894 , he became aide to General Oliver O . Howard , commander of the Department of the East , and was the University of Rhode Island ' s first Professor Military Science and Tactics from 1894 to 1898 . In 1898 , while on recruiting duty at Fort McPherson , he organized the 3rd Battalion , 12th Infantry . He served in the Philippines against insurgents and as collector of customs at Iloilo from 1899 to 1901 . In 1901 , he was promoted to major and transferred to the 30th Infantry . He commanded the 2nd Battalion , 6th Infantry at Fort Leavenworth and then taught at the Command and General Staff College from 1902 to 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 to 1906 . Wotherspooon was the chief of staff of the Army of Cuban Pacification from 1906 to 1907 . He 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 1907 , the became president of the Army War College , serving from 1907 to 1909 and again from 1910 to 1912 . Wotherspoon was largely instrumental in transforming the Army War College from an adjunct of the General Staff to an autonomous educational institution , he became assistant to the chief of staff from 1901 to 1910 and again in 1912 to 1914 . He was promoted to major general in May 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 April 21 to November 15 , 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 on November 16 , 1914 and later was New York State Superintendent of Public Works from 1915 – 1920 . Major General William Wotherspoon died in Washington , D . C . on October 21 , 1921 . He was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery .