August 19, 2025 • 22 mins
Join Theodore Roosevelt as he recounts his thrilling experiences with The Rough Riders, the legendary 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry formed in 1898 for the Spanish-American War. As Lt. Colonel and second-in-command, Roosevelt vividly portrays the brave men and their spirited horses, the challenges they faced, and the fierce battles they fought in Cuba. He paints a picture of soldiers forged from the rugged wilderness, accustomed to the wild and the unpredictable. With a passion for adventure and an eagerness for action, these “grim hunters of the mountains” were ready to face any foe. Roosevelt’s account is a stirring tribute to their courage and camaraderie, making it a compelling listen for history enthusiasts.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Section twelve of The Rough Riders by Theodore Roosevelt. This
LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by William Peck,
Chapter six, Part two. On the eve of leaving Santiago,
I had received from mister Laffin of the Sun a
cable with the single word peace, and we speculated much
(00:21):
on this as the clumsy transport steamed slowly northward across
the trade wind and then into the Gulf Stream. At
last we sighted the low sandy bluffs of the Long
Island coast, and late on the afternoon of the fourteenth
we steamed through the still waters of the Sound and
cast Anchor off Montauk. A gunboat of the Mosquito Fleet
(00:42):
came out to greet us and to inform us that
peace negotiations had begun. Next morning we were marched on shore.
Many of my men were very sick. Indeed, of the
three or four who had been closest to me among
the enlisted men, Color Sergeant Wright was the only one
in good health. Henry Bardshar was a wreck, literally at
death's door. I was myself in first class health, all
(01:05):
the better for having lost twenty pounds. Faithful Marshal my
coward body servant was so sick as to be nearly helpless.
Bob Wrenn nearly died. He had joined us very late,
and we could not get him a crag carbine. So
I had given him my Winchester, which carried the government cartridge,
and when he was mustered out, he carried it home
in triumph, to the envy of his fellows, who themselves
(01:28):
had to surrender their beloved rifles. For the first few
days there was great confusion and some want Even after
we got to Montauk, the men in hospitals suffered from
the lack of almost everything, even cots. But after these
few days we were very well cared for and had
abundance of all we needed, except that on several occasions
there was a shortage of food for the horses, which
(01:50):
I should have regarded as even more serious than a
shortage for the men, had it not been that we
were about to be disbanded. The men lived high with milk,
eggs and any amount of tobacco. The lack of witch
during portions of the Cuban campaign had been felt as
seriously as any lack of food. One of the distressing
features of the malarial fever which had been ravaging the troops,
(02:12):
was that it was recurrent and persistent. Some of my
men died after reaching home, and many who were very sick.
We owed much to the kindness not only of the
New York hospitals and the Red Cross and Kindred Societies,
but of individuals, notably mister Bayard Cutting and Missus Armitage,
who took many of our men to their beautiful Long
Island homes. On the whole, however, the month we spent
(02:35):
at Montauk before we disbanded was very pleasant. It was
good to meet the rest of the regiment. They all
felt dreadfully at not having been in Cuba. It was
a sore trial to men who had given up much
to go to the war, and who rebelled at nothing
in the way of hardship or suffering, but who did
bitterly feel the fact that their sacrifices seemed to have
been useless. Of course, those who stayed had done their
(02:58):
duty precisely as did those who went. But the question
of glory was not to be considered in comparison to
the faithful performance of whatever was ordered, and no distinction
of any kind was allowed in the regiment between those
whose good fortune it had been to go, and those
whose harder fate it had been to remain. Nevertheless, the
latter could not be entirely comforted. The regiment had three mascots,
(03:20):
the two most characteristic, a young mountain lion brought by
the Arizona troops, and a war eagle brought by the
New Mexicans we had been forced to leave behind in Tampa.
The third, a rather disreputable but exceedingly knowingly little dog
named Cuba, had accompanied us through all the vicissitudes of
the campaign. The mountain lion, Josephine, possessed an infernal temper,
(03:44):
whereas both Cuba and the eagle, which had been named
in my honor, were extremely good humored. Josephine was kept
tied up, she sometimes escaped. One cool night in early September,
she wandered off, and, entering the tent of a third
cavalry man, got into bed with him, whereupon he fled
into darkness with yells. Much more unnerved than he would
(04:05):
have been by the arrival of any number of Spaniards.
The eagle was let loose and not only walked at
will up and down the company streets, but also at
times flew wherever he wished. He was a young bird,
having been taken out of his nest when a fledgling.
Josephine hated him and was always trying to make a
meal of him, especially when we endeavored to take their
(04:25):
photographs together. The eagle, though good natured, was an entirely
competent individual and ready at any moment to beat Josephine off.
Cuba was also oppressed at times by Josephine, and was
of course no match for her, but was frequently able
to overall by simple decision of character. In addition to
the animal mascots, we had two or three small boys
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who had also been adopted by the regiment. One from
Tennessee was named Dabney Royster. When we embarked at Tampa,
he smuggled himself on board the transport with a twenty
two cowiber rifle and three boxes the cartridges, and wept
bitterly when sent ashore. The squadron which remained behind adopted him,
got him a little rough rider's uniform, and made him
(05:09):
practically one of the regiment. The men who had remained
at Tampa, like ourselves, had suffered much from fever and
the horses were in bad shape, so many of the
men were sick that none of the regiments began the
drill for some time after reaching Montague. There was a
great deal of paperwork to be done, but as I
still have charge of the brigade, only a little of
it fell on my shoulders. Of this I was sincerely glad,
(05:32):
for I knew as little of the paperwork as my
men had originally known a drill. We had all of
us learn how to fight and march, but the exact
limits of our rights and duties and other respects were
not very clearly defined in our minds. And as for myself,
as I had not had the time to learn exactly
what they were, I had assumed a large authority in
giving rewards and punishments. In particular, I had looked on
(05:56):
court martials much as Peter Bell looked on primoses. They
were court martials and nothing more, whether resting on the
authority of a lieutenant colonel or of a major general.
The mustering out officer, a thorough soldier found to his
horror that I had used the widest discretion both in
imposing heavy sentences which I had no power to impose
a men who shirked their duties and were men atoned
(06:20):
for misconduct by Mark Gallantry in blandly remitting sentences approved
by my Chief of Division. However, I had done substantial,
even though somewhat rude and irregular justice, and no harm
could result. As we were just about to be mustered out,
my chief duties were to see that the camps of
the three regiments were thoroughly policed and kept in first
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class sanitary condition. This took up some time, of course,
and there were other matters in connection with the mustering
out which had to be attended to. But I could
always get two or three hours a day free from work.
Then I would summon a number of the officers, King Greenway, Goodrich, Church, Ferguson, Mickelhannon,
France Boward, and others, and we would gallop down to
(07:03):
the beach and bathe in the surf, or else go
for long rides over the beautiful rolling plains, thickly studded
with pools which were white with waterlies. Sometimes I went
off alone with my orderly young Gordon Johnson, one of
the best men in the regiment. He was a nephew
of the Governor of Alabama, and when the Princeton had
played on the eleven. We had plenty of horses, and
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these rides were most enjoyable. Galloping over the open, rolling
country through the cool fall evenings made us feel as
if we were out in the great Western plains, and might,
at any moment's start dear from the brush, or see
anelof stand and gaze far away, or rouse a band
of mighty elk and hear their horns clatter as they fled.
An old friend, Baron von Sternberg, of the German Embassy,
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spent a week in camp with me. He had served,
when only seventeen, in the Franco Prussian War as a hussar,
and was a noted sharpshooter, being the little Baron who
is the hero of Archibald Forbes's true story of the
Pig Dog. He and I had for years talked over
possibilities or just such a regiment as one I was commanding,
and he was greatly interested in it. Indeed, I had
(08:10):
vainly sought permission from the German ambassador to take him
with the regiment to Santiago. One Sunday before the regiment disbanded,
I supplemented Chaplin Brown's address to the men by a
short sermon of a rather oraditory character. I told him
how proud I was of them, but warned them not
to think that they could now go back and rest
on their laurels, bidding them remember that though for ten
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days or so the world would be willing to treat
them as heroes, yet after time they would find that
they had to get down to hard work just like
everyone else, unless they were willing to be regarded as
worthless do nothings. They took the sermon a good part,
and I hoped that some of them profited by it.
At any rate. They repay me by a very much
more tangible expression of affection. One afternoon, to my genuine surprise,
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I was asked out of my tempt by Lieutenant Colonel Brodie.
The gallant oh Boy had rejoined us and found the
whole regiment formed in a Howell square, with the officers
and cower sergeant in the middle. When I went in,
one of the troopers came forward, and on behalf of
the regiment presented me with Remington's fine bronze, the Bronco Buster.
There could have been no more appropriate gift from such
(09:18):
a regiment, and I was not only pleased with it,
but very deeply touched with the feeling, which made them
join in giving it. Afterward, they all filed past, and
I shook the hands of each to say goodbye. Most
of them looked upon the bronze with the critical eyes
of professionals. I doubt if there was any regiment in
the world which contained so large a number of men
able to ride the wildest and most dangerous horses. One day,
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while at Montaku Point, some of the troopers of the
Third Cavalry were getting ready for mounted drill when one
of their horses escaped, having thrown his rider. This attracted
the attention of some of our men, and they strolled
around to see the trooper remount. He was instantly thrown again,
the horse a huge vicious sorrow, being one of the
worst buckers I ever saw, and none of his comrades
(10:03):
were willing to ride the animal. Our men, of course,
jeered and mocked at them, and in response, were dared
to ride the horse themselves. The challenge was instantly accepted,
the only question being as to which of a dozen
noted Bronco busters who were in the ranks should undertake
the task. They finally settled on a man named Darnell.
It was agreed that the experiment should take place next day,
(10:25):
when the horse would be fresh, and accordingly, next day
the majority of both regiments turned out on a big
open flat in front of my tent brigade headquarters. The
result was that, after as fine a bit of rough
riding as one would care to see, in which one
scarcely knew whether most to wonder at the extraordinary viciousness
and agile strength of the horse or at the horsemanship
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and courage of the rider, Darnell came off victorious, his
seat never having been shaken. After this, almost every day
we had exhibitions of bronco busting, in which all the
crack riders of the regiment vied with one another, riding
not only all our bad horses, but any horse which
was deemed bad in any of the other regiments. Darnell,
mcguiny Wood, Smoky More, and a score of others took
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part in these exhibitions, which included not merely feats and
mastering vicious horses, but also feats of broken horses which
the riders had trained to lie down at command, and
upon which they could mount while at full speed. Toward
the end of the time. We also had mounted drill
on two or three occasions, and when the President visited
the camp, we turned out mounted to receive him, as
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did the rest of the cavalry. The last night before
we were mustered out was spent in noisy but entirely
harmless hilarity, which I ignored. Every form of celebration took
place in the ranks. A former populist candidate for Attorney
General in Colorado delivered a fervent oration in favor of
free silver. A number of the college boys sang, but
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most of the men gave vent to their feelings by
improvised dances. In these the Indians took the lead, pure
bloods and half breeds alike, the cowboys and miners cheerfully,
joining in and forming part of the howling, grunting rings
that went bounding around the great fires they had kindled.
Next morning, Sergeant Wright took down the covers and Sergeant
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gutilias the standard for the last time. The horses, the rifles,
and the rest of the regimental property have been turned
in officers. The men shook hands and said goodbye to
one another, and then they scattered to their homes in
the north and the south, the few going back to
the great cities of the east, the many turning again
toward the plains, the mountains, and the deserts of the west,
and the strange southwest. This was on September fifteenth, the
(12:35):
day which marked the close of the four months life
of a regiment of as gallant fighters as ever wore
the United States uniform. The regiment was a wholly exceptional
volunteer organization, and its career cannot be taken as in
any way a justification for the belief that the average
volunteer regiment approaches the average regular regiment in point of
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efficiency until it has had many months of active service
in the first though the regular regiments may differ markedly
among themselves, yet the range of variation among them is
nothing like so wide as that among volunteer regiments, where
at first there is no common standard at all, the
very best being perhaps up to the level of the regulars,
as has recently been shown at Manila, while the very
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worst are no better than mobs, and the great bulk
come in between. The average regular regiment is superior to
the average volunteer regiment in the physique of the enlisted
men who have been very carefully selected, who have been
trained to life in the open, and who know how
to cook and take care of themselves generally. Note for
sound common sense about the volunteers, see Parker's excellent little
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book The Gatlings as Santiago. Now, in all these respects,
and in others like them, the rough riders were the
equals of the regulars. They were hardy, self reliant, accustomed
to shift for themselves in the open under very adverse circumstances.
The two all important qualifications for a cavalrymen are and shooting.
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The modern cavalry man being so often used dismounted as
an infantry man, the average recruit requires a couple of
years before he becomes proficient in horsemanship and markmanship. But
my men were already good shots in first class riders
when they came into the regiment. The difference as regards
officers and non commissioned officers, between regulars and volunteers is
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usually very great, But in my regiment, keeping in view
the material we had to handle, it was easy to
develop non commissioned officers out of men who had been
round up foremen, ranch foremen, mining bosses, and the like.
These men were intelligent and resolute. They knew they had
a great deal to learn, and they set the work
to learn it, while they were already accustomed to managing
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considerable interest, to obeying orders, and to taking care of
others as well as themselves. As for the officers, the
great point in our favor was the anxiety they showed
to learn from those among their number who, like Cape Ron,
had already served in the regular Army, and the fact
that we had chosen a regular army man as colonel.
If a volunteer organization consists of good material and is
(15:07):
eager to learn, it can readily do so if it
has one or two first class regular officers to teach it. Moreover,
most of our captains and lieutenants were men who had
seen much of wildlife, who were accustomed to handling and
commanding other men, and who had usually already been under
fire as sheriffs, marshals and alike. As for the second
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in command, myself, I had served three years as captain
in the National Guard. I had been deputy sheriff in
the cow country, where the position was not a sinecure.
I was accustomed to big game hunting, and to work
on a cow ranch, so that I was thoroughly familiar
with the use both of horse and rifle, and knew
how to handle cowboys, hunters, and miners. Finally, I had
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studied much in the literature of war, and especially the
literature of the great modern wars, like our own Civil War,
the Franco German War, the Turko Russian War, and I
was especially familiar with the deeds, the successes and failures
alike of the frontier horse riflemen who had fought at
King's Mountain and the Toms and on the Mexican border. Finally,
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and most important of all, officers and men alike were
eager for fighting, and resolute to do well and behave properly,
to encounter hardship and privation and the irksome monotony of
camp routine without grumbling or complaining. They had counted the
cost before they went in, and were delighted to pay
the penalties. Inevitably attendant upon the career of a fighting regiment,
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and from the moment when the regiment began to gather,
the higher officers kept instilling into those under them the
spirit of eagerness for action and of stern determination to
grasp a death rather than forfeit honor. The self reliant
spirit of the men was well shown after they left
the regiment. Of course, there were a few weaklings among them,
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and there were others entirely brave and normally self sufficient, who,
from wounds or fevers, were so reduced that they had
to apply for aid, or at least who deserved aid,
even though they often could only be persuaded with the
greatest difficulty to accept it. The widows and orphans had
to be taken care of. There were a few lighthearted
individuals who were entirely ready to fight in time of war,
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but in time of peace, felt that somebody ought to
take care of them. And there were others who, never
having seen any aggregation of buildings larger than an ordinary
cow town, fell a victim to the fascinations of New York.
But as a whole they scattered out to their homes
on the disbandment of the regiment, gaunter than when they
had enlisted, sometimes weakened by fever or wounds, but just
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as full as ever, a sawn sturdy capacity for self help,
scorning to ask for aid, say what was entirely legitimate
in the way of one comrade giving help to another.
A number of the examining surgeons at the muster out
spoke to me with admiration of the contrasts offered by
our regiment to so many others, in the fact that
ourd men always belittled their own bodily injuries and sufferings,
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so that whereas the surgeons ordinarily had to be on
the lad lookout lest a man who was not really
disabled should claim to be so, in our case they
had to adopt exactly the opposite attitude and guard the
future interests of the men by insisting upon putting upon
their certificates or discharge whatever disease they had contracted or
wound they had received in the line of duty. Major J. H. Kaliff,
(18:19):
who had more than any other man to do with
seeing to the proper discharge papers of our men, and
who took a most generous interest in them, wrote me
as follows. I also wish to bring to your notice
the fortitude displayed by the men of your regiment who
have come before me to be mustered out of service
in making their personal declarations as to their physical conditions.
(18:39):
Men who bore on their faces and in their forms
the traces of long days of illness, indicating rect constitutions,
declared that nothing was the matter with them, at the
same time disclaiming any intention of applying for a pension.
It was exceptionally heroic when we were mustered out. Many
of the men had lost their jobs and were too
weak to go to work at once, while there were
(19:01):
helpless dependents of the dead to care for. Certain of
my friends, august Belmont, Stanley and Richard Mortimer. Major Austin Wadsworth,
himself fresh from Manila campaign, Bellmont, Tiffany and others gave
me sums of money to be used for helping these men.
In some instances, by the exercise of a good deal
of tact, and by treating the gift as a memorial
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of poor young Lieutenant Tiffany, we got the men to
accept something. And of course there were a number who
quite rightly made no difficulty about accepting, But most of
the men would accept no help whatever. In the first
chapter I spoke of a lady, a teacher and academy
in the Indian territory, three or four of whose pupils
had come into my regiment, and who had sent with
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them a letter of introduction to me. When the regiment disbanded,
I wrote to her to ask if she could not
use a little money among the rough writers, white Indian
and half breed, that she might personally know. I did
not hear from her for some time, and then she
wrote as follows, Muscogee, Indiana Territory, December nineteenth, eighteen ninety eight.
(20:07):
My dear Colonel Roosevelt, I did not at once reply
to your letter of September twenty third, because I waited
for a time to see if there should be need
among any of our rough writers of the money you
so kindly offered. Some of the boys are poor, and
in one or two cases they seemed to me really needy.
But they all said no more than once I saw
(20:28):
the tears come to their eyes, I thought of your
care for them as I told them of your letter.
Did you hear any echoes of our Indian war whoops
over your election? They were pretty loud. I was particularly
exultant because my father was a New Yorker, and I
was educated in New York, even if I was born here.
So far as I can learn, the boys are taking
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up the drop threads of their lives, as though they
had never been away. Our two rough writer students, mar
and Gilmore, are doing well in their college work. I
am sorry to tell you of the death of one
of your most devoted troopers, Bert Halderman, who was here
serving on the grand jury. He was stricken with meningitis
in the jury room and died after three days of delirium.
(21:11):
His father, who was twice wounded, four times, taken prisoner,
and fought in thirty two battles of the Civil War,
now old and feeble, survives him, and it was indeed
pathetic to see his grief. Bert's mother, who was a Cherokee,
was raised in my grandfather's family. The words a commendation,
which you wrote upon Bert's discharge, are the greatest comfort
to his friends. They wanted you to know of his
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death because he loved you. So I am planning to
entertain all the rough riders in this vicinity some evening
during my holiday vacation. I mean to have no other guests,
but only give them an opportunity for reminiscence. I regret
that Bert's death makes one less. I had hoped to
have them sooner, but our struggling young college salaries are
necessarily small. And duties arduous. I make a home for
(21:57):
my widowed mother and an adopted Indian daughter who is
in school, and as I do the cooking for a
family of five, I have found it impossible to do
many things I would like to do. Pardon me for
burdening you with these details, but I suppose I am
like your boys who say the Colonel was always as
ready to listen to a private as to a major general.
(22:17):
Wishing you and yours the very best gifts the season
can bring, I am very truly yours, Alice M. Robertson.
Is it any wonder that I love my regiment? End
of Chapter six, Part two,
Section twelve of The Rough Riders by Theodore Roosevelt. This
LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by William Peck,
Chapter six, Part two. On the eve of leaving Santiago,
I had received from mister Laffin of the Sun a
cable with the single word peace, and we speculated much
(00:21):
on this as the clumsy transport steamed slowly northward across
the trade wind and then into the Gulf Stream. At
last we sighted the low sandy bluffs of the Long
Island coast, and late on the afternoon of the fourteenth
we steamed through the still waters of the Sound and
cast Anchor off Montauk. A gunboat of the Mosquito Fleet
(00:42):
came out to greet us and to inform us that
peace negotiations had begun. Next morning we were marched on shore.
Many of my men were very sick. Indeed, of the
three or four who had been closest to me among
the enlisted men, Color Sergeant Wright was the only one
in good health. Henry Bardshar was a wreck, literally at
death's door. I was myself in first class health, all
(01:05):
the better for having lost twenty pounds. Faithful Marshal my
coward body servant was so sick as to be nearly helpless.
Bob Wrenn nearly died. He had joined us very late,
and we could not get him a crag carbine. So
I had given him my Winchester, which carried the government cartridge,
and when he was mustered out, he carried it home
in triumph, to the envy of his fellows, who themselves
(01:28):
had to surrender their beloved rifles. For the first few
days there was great confusion and some want Even after
we got to Montauk, the men in hospitals suffered from
the lack of almost everything, even cots. But after these
few days we were very well cared for and had
abundance of all we needed, except that on several occasions
there was a shortage of food for the horses, which
(01:50):
I should have regarded as even more serious than a
shortage for the men, had it not been that we
were about to be disbanded. The men lived high with milk,
eggs and any amount of tobacco. The lack of witch
during portions of the Cuban campaign had been felt as
seriously as any lack of food. One of the distressing
features of the malarial fever which had been ravaging the troops,
(02:12):
was that it was recurrent and persistent. Some of my
men died after reaching home, and many who were very sick.
We owed much to the kindness not only of the
New York hospitals and the Red Cross and Kindred Societies,
but of individuals, notably mister Bayard Cutting and Missus Armitage,
who took many of our men to their beautiful Long
Island homes. On the whole, however, the month we spent
(02:35):
at Montauk before we disbanded was very pleasant. It was
good to meet the rest of the regiment. They all
felt dreadfully at not having been in Cuba. It was
a sore trial to men who had given up much
to go to the war, and who rebelled at nothing
in the way of hardship or suffering, but who did
bitterly feel the fact that their sacrifices seemed to have
been useless. Of course, those who stayed had done their
(02:58):
duty precisely as did those who went. But the question
of glory was not to be considered in comparison to
the faithful performance of whatever was ordered, and no distinction
of any kind was allowed in the regiment between those
whose good fortune it had been to go, and those
whose harder fate it had been to remain. Nevertheless, the
latter could not be entirely comforted. The regiment had three mascots,
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the two most characteristic, a young mountain lion brought by
the Arizona troops, and a war eagle brought by the
New Mexicans we had been forced to leave behind in Tampa.
The third, a rather disreputable but exceedingly knowingly little dog
named Cuba, had accompanied us through all the vicissitudes of
the campaign. The mountain lion, Josephine, possessed an infernal temper,
(03:44):
whereas both Cuba and the eagle, which had been named
in my honor, were extremely good humored. Josephine was kept
tied up, she sometimes escaped. One cool night in early September,
she wandered off, and, entering the tent of a third
cavalry man, got into bed with him, whereupon he fled
into darkness with yells. Much more unnerved than he would
(04:05):
have been by the arrival of any number of Spaniards.
The eagle was let loose and not only walked at
will up and down the company streets, but also at
times flew wherever he wished. He was a young bird,
having been taken out of his nest when a fledgling.
Josephine hated him and was always trying to make a
meal of him, especially when we endeavored to take their
(04:25):
photographs together. The eagle, though good natured, was an entirely
competent individual and ready at any moment to beat Josephine off.
Cuba was also oppressed at times by Josephine, and was
of course no match for her, but was frequently able
to overall by simple decision of character. In addition to
the animal mascots, we had two or three small boys
(04:47):
who had also been adopted by the regiment. One from
Tennessee was named Dabney Royster. When we embarked at Tampa,
he smuggled himself on board the transport with a twenty
two cowiber rifle and three boxes the cartridges, and wept
bitterly when sent ashore. The squadron which remained behind adopted him,
got him a little rough rider's uniform, and made him
(05:09):
practically one of the regiment. The men who had remained
at Tampa, like ourselves, had suffered much from fever and
the horses were in bad shape, so many of the
men were sick that none of the regiments began the
drill for some time after reaching Montague. There was a
great deal of paperwork to be done, but as I
still have charge of the brigade, only a little of
it fell on my shoulders. Of this I was sincerely glad,
(05:32):
for I knew as little of the paperwork as my
men had originally known a drill. We had all of
us learn how to fight and march, but the exact
limits of our rights and duties and other respects were
not very clearly defined in our minds. And as for myself,
as I had not had the time to learn exactly
what they were, I had assumed a large authority in
giving rewards and punishments. In particular, I had looked on
(05:56):
court martials much as Peter Bell looked on primoses. They
were court martials and nothing more, whether resting on the
authority of a lieutenant colonel or of a major general.
The mustering out officer, a thorough soldier found to his
horror that I had used the widest discretion both in
imposing heavy sentences which I had no power to impose
a men who shirked their duties and were men atoned
(06:20):
for misconduct by Mark Gallantry in blandly remitting sentences approved
by my Chief of Division. However, I had done substantial,
even though somewhat rude and irregular justice, and no harm
could result. As we were just about to be mustered out,
my chief duties were to see that the camps of
the three regiments were thoroughly policed and kept in first
(06:41):
class sanitary condition. This took up some time, of course,
and there were other matters in connection with the mustering
out which had to be attended to. But I could
always get two or three hours a day free from work.
Then I would summon a number of the officers, King Greenway, Goodrich, Church, Ferguson, Mickelhannon,
France Boward, and others, and we would gallop down to
(07:03):
the beach and bathe in the surf, or else go
for long rides over the beautiful rolling plains, thickly studded
with pools which were white with waterlies. Sometimes I went
off alone with my orderly young Gordon Johnson, one of
the best men in the regiment. He was a nephew
of the Governor of Alabama, and when the Princeton had
played on the eleven. We had plenty of horses, and
(07:25):
these rides were most enjoyable. Galloping over the open, rolling
country through the cool fall evenings made us feel as
if we were out in the great Western plains, and might,
at any moment's start dear from the brush, or see
anelof stand and gaze far away, or rouse a band
of mighty elk and hear their horns clatter as they fled.
An old friend, Baron von Sternberg, of the German Embassy,
(07:48):
spent a week in camp with me. He had served,
when only seventeen, in the Franco Prussian War as a hussar,
and was a noted sharpshooter, being the little Baron who
is the hero of Archibald Forbes's true story of the
Pig Dog. He and I had for years talked over
possibilities or just such a regiment as one I was commanding,
and he was greatly interested in it. Indeed, I had
(08:10):
vainly sought permission from the German ambassador to take him
with the regiment to Santiago. One Sunday before the regiment disbanded,
I supplemented Chaplin Brown's address to the men by a
short sermon of a rather oraditory character. I told him
how proud I was of them, but warned them not
to think that they could now go back and rest
on their laurels, bidding them remember that though for ten
(08:32):
days or so the world would be willing to treat
them as heroes, yet after time they would find that
they had to get down to hard work just like
everyone else, unless they were willing to be regarded as
worthless do nothings. They took the sermon a good part,
and I hoped that some of them profited by it.
At any rate. They repay me by a very much
more tangible expression of affection. One afternoon, to my genuine surprise,
(08:57):
I was asked out of my tempt by Lieutenant Colonel Brodie.
The gallant oh Boy had rejoined us and found the
whole regiment formed in a Howell square, with the officers
and cower sergeant in the middle. When I went in,
one of the troopers came forward, and on behalf of
the regiment presented me with Remington's fine bronze, the Bronco Buster.
There could have been no more appropriate gift from such
(09:18):
a regiment, and I was not only pleased with it,
but very deeply touched with the feeling, which made them
join in giving it. Afterward, they all filed past, and
I shook the hands of each to say goodbye. Most
of them looked upon the bronze with the critical eyes
of professionals. I doubt if there was any regiment in
the world which contained so large a number of men
able to ride the wildest and most dangerous horses. One day,
(09:41):
while at Montaku Point, some of the troopers of the
Third Cavalry were getting ready for mounted drill when one
of their horses escaped, having thrown his rider. This attracted
the attention of some of our men, and they strolled
around to see the trooper remount. He was instantly thrown again,
the horse a huge vicious sorrow, being one of the
worst buckers I ever saw, and none of his comrades
(10:03):
were willing to ride the animal. Our men, of course,
jeered and mocked at them, and in response, were dared
to ride the horse themselves. The challenge was instantly accepted,
the only question being as to which of a dozen
noted Bronco busters who were in the ranks should undertake
the task. They finally settled on a man named Darnell.
It was agreed that the experiment should take place next day,
(10:25):
when the horse would be fresh, and accordingly, next day
the majority of both regiments turned out on a big
open flat in front of my tent brigade headquarters. The
result was that, after as fine a bit of rough
riding as one would care to see, in which one
scarcely knew whether most to wonder at the extraordinary viciousness
and agile strength of the horse or at the horsemanship
(10:46):
and courage of the rider, Darnell came off victorious, his
seat never having been shaken. After this, almost every day
we had exhibitions of bronco busting, in which all the
crack riders of the regiment vied with one another, riding
not only all our bad horses, but any horse which
was deemed bad in any of the other regiments. Darnell,
mcguiny Wood, Smoky More, and a score of others took
(11:09):
part in these exhibitions, which included not merely feats and
mastering vicious horses, but also feats of broken horses which
the riders had trained to lie down at command, and
upon which they could mount while at full speed. Toward
the end of the time. We also had mounted drill
on two or three occasions, and when the President visited
the camp, we turned out mounted to receive him, as
(11:30):
did the rest of the cavalry. The last night before
we were mustered out was spent in noisy but entirely
harmless hilarity, which I ignored. Every form of celebration took
place in the ranks. A former populist candidate for Attorney
General in Colorado delivered a fervent oration in favor of
free silver. A number of the college boys sang, but
(11:51):
most of the men gave vent to their feelings by
improvised dances. In these the Indians took the lead, pure
bloods and half breeds alike, the cowboys and miners cheerfully,
joining in and forming part of the howling, grunting rings
that went bounding around the great fires they had kindled.
Next morning, Sergeant Wright took down the covers and Sergeant
(12:11):
gutilias the standard for the last time. The horses, the rifles,
and the rest of the regimental property have been turned
in officers. The men shook hands and said goodbye to
one another, and then they scattered to their homes in
the north and the south, the few going back to
the great cities of the east, the many turning again
toward the plains, the mountains, and the deserts of the west,
and the strange southwest. This was on September fifteenth, the
(12:35):
day which marked the close of the four months life
of a regiment of as gallant fighters as ever wore
the United States uniform. The regiment was a wholly exceptional
volunteer organization, and its career cannot be taken as in
any way a justification for the belief that the average
volunteer regiment approaches the average regular regiment in point of
(12:55):
efficiency until it has had many months of active service
in the first though the regular regiments may differ markedly
among themselves, yet the range of variation among them is
nothing like so wide as that among volunteer regiments, where
at first there is no common standard at all, the
very best being perhaps up to the level of the regulars,
as has recently been shown at Manila, while the very
(13:18):
worst are no better than mobs, and the great bulk
come in between. The average regular regiment is superior to
the average volunteer regiment in the physique of the enlisted
men who have been very carefully selected, who have been
trained to life in the open, and who know how
to cook and take care of themselves generally. Note for
sound common sense about the volunteers, see Parker's excellent little
(13:40):
book The Gatlings as Santiago. Now, in all these respects,
and in others like them, the rough riders were the
equals of the regulars. They were hardy, self reliant, accustomed
to shift for themselves in the open under very adverse circumstances.
The two all important qualifications for a cavalrymen are and shooting.
(14:01):
The modern cavalry man being so often used dismounted as
an infantry man, the average recruit requires a couple of
years before he becomes proficient in horsemanship and markmanship. But
my men were already good shots in first class riders
when they came into the regiment. The difference as regards
officers and non commissioned officers, between regulars and volunteers is
(14:24):
usually very great, But in my regiment, keeping in view
the material we had to handle, it was easy to
develop non commissioned officers out of men who had been
round up foremen, ranch foremen, mining bosses, and the like.
These men were intelligent and resolute. They knew they had
a great deal to learn, and they set the work
to learn it, while they were already accustomed to managing
(14:44):
considerable interest, to obeying orders, and to taking care of
others as well as themselves. As for the officers, the
great point in our favor was the anxiety they showed
to learn from those among their number who, like Cape Ron,
had already served in the regular Army, and the fact
that we had chosen a regular army man as colonel.
If a volunteer organization consists of good material and is
(15:07):
eager to learn, it can readily do so if it
has one or two first class regular officers to teach it. Moreover,
most of our captains and lieutenants were men who had
seen much of wildlife, who were accustomed to handling and
commanding other men, and who had usually already been under
fire as sheriffs, marshals and alike. As for the second
(15:27):
in command, myself, I had served three years as captain
in the National Guard. I had been deputy sheriff in
the cow country, where the position was not a sinecure.
I was accustomed to big game hunting, and to work
on a cow ranch, so that I was thoroughly familiar
with the use both of horse and rifle, and knew
how to handle cowboys, hunters, and miners. Finally, I had
(15:48):
studied much in the literature of war, and especially the
literature of the great modern wars, like our own Civil War,
the Franco German War, the Turko Russian War, and I
was especially familiar with the deeds, the successes and failures
alike of the frontier horse riflemen who had fought at
King's Mountain and the Toms and on the Mexican border. Finally,
(16:09):
and most important of all, officers and men alike were
eager for fighting, and resolute to do well and behave properly,
to encounter hardship and privation and the irksome monotony of
camp routine without grumbling or complaining. They had counted the
cost before they went in, and were delighted to pay
the penalties. Inevitably attendant upon the career of a fighting regiment,
(16:31):
and from the moment when the regiment began to gather,
the higher officers kept instilling into those under them the
spirit of eagerness for action and of stern determination to
grasp a death rather than forfeit honor. The self reliant
spirit of the men was well shown after they left
the regiment. Of course, there were a few weaklings among them,
(16:51):
and there were others entirely brave and normally self sufficient, who,
from wounds or fevers, were so reduced that they had
to apply for aid, or at least who deserved aid,
even though they often could only be persuaded with the
greatest difficulty to accept it. The widows and orphans had
to be taken care of. There were a few lighthearted
individuals who were entirely ready to fight in time of war,
(17:13):
but in time of peace, felt that somebody ought to
take care of them. And there were others who, never
having seen any aggregation of buildings larger than an ordinary
cow town, fell a victim to the fascinations of New York.
But as a whole they scattered out to their homes
on the disbandment of the regiment, gaunter than when they
had enlisted, sometimes weakened by fever or wounds, but just
(17:34):
as full as ever, a sawn sturdy capacity for self help,
scorning to ask for aid, say what was entirely legitimate
in the way of one comrade giving help to another.
A number of the examining surgeons at the muster out
spoke to me with admiration of the contrasts offered by
our regiment to so many others, in the fact that
ourd men always belittled their own bodily injuries and sufferings,
(17:57):
so that whereas the surgeons ordinarily had to be on
the lad lookout lest a man who was not really
disabled should claim to be so, in our case they
had to adopt exactly the opposite attitude and guard the
future interests of the men by insisting upon putting upon
their certificates or discharge whatever disease they had contracted or
wound they had received in the line of duty. Major J. H. Kaliff,
(18:19):
who had more than any other man to do with
seeing to the proper discharge papers of our men, and
who took a most generous interest in them, wrote me
as follows. I also wish to bring to your notice
the fortitude displayed by the men of your regiment who
have come before me to be mustered out of service
in making their personal declarations as to their physical conditions.
(18:39):
Men who bore on their faces and in their forms
the traces of long days of illness, indicating rect constitutions,
declared that nothing was the matter with them, at the
same time disclaiming any intention of applying for a pension.
It was exceptionally heroic when we were mustered out. Many
of the men had lost their jobs and were too
weak to go to work at once, while there were
(19:01):
helpless dependents of the dead to care for. Certain of
my friends, august Belmont, Stanley and Richard Mortimer. Major Austin Wadsworth,
himself fresh from Manila campaign, Bellmont, Tiffany and others gave
me sums of money to be used for helping these men.
In some instances, by the exercise of a good deal
of tact, and by treating the gift as a memorial
(19:22):
of poor young Lieutenant Tiffany, we got the men to
accept something. And of course there were a number who
quite rightly made no difficulty about accepting, But most of
the men would accept no help whatever. In the first
chapter I spoke of a lady, a teacher and academy
in the Indian territory, three or four of whose pupils
had come into my regiment, and who had sent with
(19:43):
them a letter of introduction to me. When the regiment disbanded,
I wrote to her to ask if she could not
use a little money among the rough writers, white Indian
and half breed, that she might personally know. I did
not hear from her for some time, and then she
wrote as follows, Muscogee, Indiana Territory, December nineteenth, eighteen ninety eight.
(20:07):
My dear Colonel Roosevelt, I did not at once reply
to your letter of September twenty third, because I waited
for a time to see if there should be need
among any of our rough writers of the money you
so kindly offered. Some of the boys are poor, and
in one or two cases they seemed to me really needy.
But they all said no more than once I saw
(20:28):
the tears come to their eyes, I thought of your
care for them as I told them of your letter.
Did you hear any echoes of our Indian war whoops
over your election? They were pretty loud. I was particularly
exultant because my father was a New Yorker, and I
was educated in New York, even if I was born here.
So far as I can learn, the boys are taking
(20:48):
up the drop threads of their lives, as though they
had never been away. Our two rough writer students, mar
and Gilmore, are doing well in their college work. I
am sorry to tell you of the death of one
of your most devoted troopers, Bert Halderman, who was here
serving on the grand jury. He was stricken with meningitis
in the jury room and died after three days of delirium.
(21:11):
His father, who was twice wounded, four times, taken prisoner,
and fought in thirty two battles of the Civil War,
now old and feeble, survives him, and it was indeed
pathetic to see his grief. Bert's mother, who was a Cherokee,
was raised in my grandfather's family. The words a commendation,
which you wrote upon Bert's discharge, are the greatest comfort
to his friends. They wanted you to know of his
(21:33):
death because he loved you. So I am planning to
entertain all the rough riders in this vicinity some evening
during my holiday vacation. I mean to have no other guests,
but only give them an opportunity for reminiscence. I regret
that Bert's death makes one less. I had hoped to
have them sooner, but our struggling young college salaries are
necessarily small. And duties arduous. I make a home for
(21:57):
my widowed mother and an adopted Indian daughter who is
in school, and as I do the cooking for a
family of five, I have found it impossible to do
many things I would like to do. Pardon me for
burdening you with these details, but I suppose I am
like your boys who say the Colonel was always as
ready to listen to a private as to a major general.
(22:17):
Wishing you and yours the very best gifts the season
can bring, I am very truly yours, Alice M. Robertson.
Is it any wonder that I love my regiment? End
of Chapter six, Part two,
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