Walter Campbell Sweeney Sr. (November 16, 1876 – April 10, 1963) was a United States Army major general who served in the Spanish–American War, Philippine–American War, Pancho Villa Expedition, World War I, and World War II. Early life Sweeney was born on November 16, 1876, in Wheeling, West Virginia, the son of Andrew J. and Maria Sweeney. Andrew J. Sweeney was the founder of Wheeling Electric and a multi-term mayor of Wheeling, West Virginia. Walter Sweeney was educated locally and, in notable contrast to most senior officers of his time, never attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Military career With the outbreak of the Spanish–American War in 1898, Sweeney enlisted as a private in the 1st West Virginia Volunteer Infantry, a unit that saw no action during the war. By the war's end Sweeney had been commissioned as a second lieutenant. In February 1900, Second Lieutenant Sweeney received orders sending him to the Philippines. During his service in the Philippines, Sweeney was involved in campaigns against the Pulahan in 1906 and 1907 and in suppressing the Moro Rebellion in Mindanao in 1910 and 1911. The 1910 United States Census shows Captain Sweeney in quarters at Ludlow Barracks, Mindanao, Philippines along with his wife, Anne Sweeney (age 30), and eldest daughter, Elizabeth J. Sweeney (age 4). During the 1916–1917 Pancho Villa Expedition (a.k.a. Mexican Expedition) Sweeney served as a captain on the staff of General John J. Pershing. Sweeney authored a pamphlet entitled Sketching Methods that was published in 1917. Intended for military officers tasked with quickly rendering tactical maps, Sweeney's introduction to the pamphlet states that its purpose "is to simplify instruction in the subject and to clear away the mathematics and the mystery which seem to cling to it." The front matter of Sketching Methods identifies Sweeney as a captain in the Twenty-first United States Infantry stationed at the Presidio of San Francisco. The full text of Sketching Methods is available via HathiTrust. Following the entry of the United States into World War I, Sweeney was promoted to the temporary rank of lieutenant colonel (August 20, 1917) and, near the end of the war, to the rank of colonel (October 24, 1918) in the National Army. During the war Sweeney was in charge of press relations and military censorship and was instrumental in the founding of the Stars and Stripes military newspaper. Sweeney saw combat during the