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[Illustration: Lieutenant Colonel Theodore Roosevelt
From a photograph by Levey-Dhurmer]
AVERAGE AMERICANS
BY
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
LIEUTENANT-COLONEL, U. S. A.
_ILLUSTRATED_
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
NEW YORK AND LONDON
The Knickerbocker Press
1919
COPYRIGHT, 1919
by
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
To
THE OFFICERS AND MEN
OF THE 26th INFANTRY
PREFACE
All our lives my father treated his sons and daughters as
companions. When we were not with him he wrote to us constantly.
Everything that we did we discussed with him whenever it was
possible. All his children tried to live up to his principles.
In the paragraphs from his letters below, he speaks often of the
citizens of this country as "our people." It is for all these,
equally with us, that the messages are intended.
"New Year's greetings to you! This may or may not be, on the
whole, a happy New Year--almost certainly it will be in part at
least a New Year of sorrow--but at least you and your brothers
will be upborne by the self-reliant pride coming from having
played well and manfully a man's part when the great crisis
came, the great crisis that 'sifted out men's souls' and
winnowed the chaff from the grain."--_January 1, 1918._
"Large masses of people still vaguely feel that somehow I can
say something which will avoid all criticism of the government
and yet make the government instantly remedy everything that is
wrong; whereas in reality nothing now counts except the actual
doing of the work and that I am allowed to have no part in.
Generals Wood and Crowder have been denied the chance to render
service; appointments are made primarily on grounds of
seniority, which in war time is much like choosing Poets
Laureate on the same grounds."--_August 23, 1917._
"At last, after seven months, we are, like Mr. Snodgrass, 'going
to begin.' The National Guard regiments are just beginning to
start for their camps, and within the next two weeks I should
say that most of them would have started; and by the first of
September I believe that the first of the National Army will
begin to assemble in their camps.... I do nothing. Now and then,
when I can't help myself, I speak, for it is necessary to offset
in some measure the talk of the fools, traitors, pro-Germans,
and pacifists; but really what we need against these is action,
and that only the government can take. Words count for but
little when the 'drumming guns' have been waked."--_August 23,
1917._
"The regular officers are fine fellows, but for any serious work
we should eliminate two thirds of the older men and a quarter of
the younger men, and use the remainder as a nucleus for, say,
three times their number of civilian officers. Except with a
comparatively small number, too long a stay in our army--with
its peculiar limitations--produces a rigidity of mind that
refuses to face the actual conditions of modern warfare. But the
wonder is that our army and navy have been able to survive in
any shape after five years of Baker and Daniels."--_September
17, 1917._
"Along many lines of preparation the work here is now going
fairly fast--not much of a eulogy when we are in the ninth month
of the war. But there cannot be much speed when military
efficiency is subordinated to selfish personal politics, the
gratification of malice, and sheer wooden-headed
folly."--_October 14, 1917_.
"The socialist vote [in the New York mayoralty election] was
rather ominous. Still, on the whole, it was only about one fifth
of the total vote. It included the extreme pacifist crowd, as
well as the vicious red-flag men, and masses of poor, ignorant
people who, for example, would say. 'He'll give us five-cent
milk,' which he could have given as readily as he could have
given the moon."--_November 7, 1917_.
"Well, it's dreadful to have those we love go to the front; but
it is even worse when they are not allowed to go to the
front."--_Letter to Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., November 11,
1917._
"Yesterday mother and I motored down to the draft camp at
Yaphank. First, I was immensely pleased with the type of the
men, and the officers are just as good as the average of young
West Pointers. I believe that in the end that army there will be
as fine a body of fighting men as any nation in the world could
desire to see under its banners. But there is still, after
nearly three months that they have been called out, some
shortage in warm clothes; there are modern rifles for only one
man in six; there are only about four guns to an artillery
brigade."--_November 19, 1917._
"Of course, the root of our trouble lies in our government's
attitude during the two and one half years preceding our entry
into the war, and its refusal now to make the matter one in
which all good citizens can join without regard to party, and
paying heed only to the larger interests of the country and of
mankind at large.... I now strike hands with any one who is
sound on Americanism and on speeding up the war and putting it
through to the finish; but we _ought_ to take heed of our
industrial and social matters too."--_Thanksgiving Day, 1917._
"There is little I can do here, except to try to speed up the
war; the failure to begin work on the cargo ships with the
utmost energy ten months ago was a grave misfortune."--_December
23, 1917._
"The work of preparation here goes on slowly. I do my best to
speed it up; but I can only talk or write; and it is only the
doers who really count. The trouble is fundamental and twofold.
The administration has no conception of war needs or what war
means; and the American army has been so handled in time of
peace that the bulk of the men high up were sure to break down
in the event of war."--_January 6, 1918._
"Over here Senator Chamberlain's committee has forced some real
improvements in the work of the war department and the shipping
board. It is of course a wicked thing that a year was wasted in
delay and inefficiency. Substantially we are, as regards the
war, repeating what was done in 1812-15; there was then a
complete breakdown in the governmental work due to the pacifist
theories which had previously obtained, to inefficiency in the
public servants at Washington, and above all to the absolute
failure to prepare in advance. Yet there was much individual
energy, resourcefulness, and courage; much work by good
shipwrights; fine fighting of an individual and non-coherent
kind by ship captains and by occasional generals."--_March 10,
1918._
"How I hate making speeches at such time as this, with you boys
all at the front! And I am not sure they do much good. But
_someone_ has to try to get things hurried up."--_March 14,
1918._
"Wood testified fearlessly before the Senate committee, and the
country has been impressed and shocked by his telling (what of
course all well informed people already knew) that we had none
of our own airplanes or field guns and very few of our own
machine guns at the front."--_March 31, 1918._
"The great German drive has partially awakened our people to the
knowledge that we really are in a war. They still tend to
complacency about the 'enormous work that has been
accomplished'--in building home camps and the like--but there
really is an effort being made to hurry troops over, and
tardily, to hasten the building of ships, guns, and airplanes.
"My own unimportant activities are, of course, steadily directed
toward endeavoring to speed up the war, by heartily backing
everything that is done zealously and efficiently, and by
calling sharp attention to luke-warmness and inefficiency when
they become so marked as to be dangerous."--_April 7, 1918._
"Of course, we are gravely concerned over the way the British
have been pushed back; and our people are really concerned over
the fact that after over a year of formal participation in the
war our army overseas is too small to be of great use."--_April
14, 1918._
"The administration never moves unless it is forced by public
pressure and public pressure can as a rule only be obtained by
showing the public that we have failed in doing something we
should do; for as long as the public is fatuously content, the
administration lies back and does nothing."--_April 20, 1918._
"The people who wish me to write for them are divided between
the desire to have me speak out boldly, and the desire to have
me say nothing that will offend anybody--and cannot realize that
the two desires are incompatible."--_April 28, 1918._
"I spoke at Springfield to audiences whose enthusiastic
reception of warlike doctrine showed the steady progress of our
people in understanding what the war means."--_May 5, 1918._
"It is well to have had happiness, to have achieved the great
ends of life, when one must walk boldly and warily close to
death."--_May 12, 1918._
"We are really sending over large numbers of men now, and the
shipbuilding program is being rushed; but the situation as
regards field guns, machine guns, and airplanes continues very
bad. The administration never takes a step in advance until
literally flailed into it; and the entire cuckoo population of
the 'don't criticize the President' type play into the hands of
the pro-Germans, pacifists, and Hearst people, so that a premium
is put on our delay and inefficiency."--_May 12, 1918._
"The only way I can help in speeding up the war is by jarring
loose our governmental and popular conceit and complacency. I
point out our shortcomings with unsparing directness and lash
the boasting and the grandiloquent prophecies.
"The trouble is that our people are ignorant of the situation
and that most of the leaders fear to tell the truth about
conditions. I only wish I carried more weight. Yet I think our
people are hardening in their determination to win the war, and
are beginning to ask for results."--_May 23, 1918._
"The war temper of the country is steadily hardening and so is
the feeling against all the pro-German agitators at
home."--_June 2, 1918._
"In every speech I devote a little time to the 'cut out the
boasting plea.' Of course I really do think that in spite of our
governmental shortcomings we are developing our
strength."--_June 26, 1918._
"On the Fourth of July I went down to Passaic, where three
quarters of the people are of foreign parentage, the mayor
himself being of German ancestry. I talked straightout
Americanism, of course, which was most enthusiastically
received; the mayor's two sons have enlisted in the navy, and
one has been promoted to being ensign. The war spirit of the
people is steadily rising."--_July 7, 1918._
"I, of course, absolutely agree with you as to the tremendous
difficulties and possible far-reaching changes we shall have to
face after this war. Either _fool Bourbonism_ or _fool
radicalism_ may land us unpleasantly near--say halfway
toward--the position in which Russia has been landed by the
alternation between Romanoffism and Bolshevism."--_July 15,
1918._
"It is very bitter to me that all of you, the young, should be
facing death while I sit in ease and safety."--_July 21, 1918._
"I keep pegging away in the effort to hurry forward our work. We
now have enough troops in France to make us a ponderable element
in the situation."--_August 4, 1918._
"On Labor Day I spoke at Newburgh shipyard and spoke plainly of
the labor slackers and the unions that encourage them; and on
Lafayette Day, at the City Hall, I spoke of the kind of peace we
ought to have, and nailed to the mast the flag of Nationalism as
against Internationalism."--_September 9, 1918._
"The Germans have been given a staggering blow, and while I
_hope_ for peace by Xmas, I believe we should speed everything
to the limit on the assumption that next year will be the
crucial year."--_October 20, 1918._
"During the last week Wilson has been adroitly endeavoring to
get the Allies into the stage of note writing and peace
discussion with an only partially beaten and entirely
unconquered Germany. I have been backing up the men like Lodge
who have given utterance to the undoubtedly strong, but not
necessarily steady, American demand for unconditional surrender.
It is dreadful to have my sons face danger; but unless we put
this war through, _their sons may have to face worse danger--and
their daughters also_."--_October 27, 1918._
OYSTER BAY, August, 1919.
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE v
CHAPTER
I.--BOYHOOD RECOLLECTIONS 1
II.--SINS OF THE FATHERS 21
III.--OVERSEAS 33
IV.--TRAINING IN FRANCE 48
V.--LIFE IN AN ARMY AREA 66
VI.--EARLY DAYS IN THE TRENCHES 82
VII.--MONTDIDIER 120
VIII.--SOISSONS 162
IX.--ST. MIHIEL AND THE ARGONNE 183
X.--THE LAST BATTLE 201
XI.--UP THE MOSELLE AND INTO CONQUERED GERMANY 217
XII.--AFTERWARDS 234
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
LIEUTENANT COLONEL THEODORE ROOSEVELT _Frontispiece_
From a portrait by Levey-Dhurmer
COLONEL ROOSEVELT IN AMERICA TO LIEUTENANT COLONEL
ROOSEVELT IN FRANCE 20
A GROUP OF OFFICERS OF THE 1ST BATTALION, 26TH INFANTRY 24
Haudivillers, April, 1917
BRIGADIER GENERAL FRANK A. PARKER, LIEUTENANT COLONEL
THEODORE ROOSEVELT, AND MRS. ROOSEVELT AT ROMAGNE 38
"CHOW" 58
Drawn by Captain W. J. Aylward, A. E. F., 1918
BEFORE THE OFFENSIVE 78
Drawn by Captain W. J. Aylward, A. E. F.
THE SIGNAL CORPS AT WORK 86
Drawn by Captain Harry E. Townsend, A. E. F.
A TRENCH RAID 130
Drawn by Captain George Harding, A. E. F., Montfaucon
AN AIR RAID 172
Drawn by Captain George Harding, A. E. F. August, 1918
THE RHINE AT COBLENZ 226
Drawn by Captain Ernest Peixotto, A. E. F.
THREE THEODORE ROOSEVELTS 240
Copyright, Walter S. Shinn
AVERAGE AMERICANS
CHAPTER I
BOYHOOD RECOLLECTIONS
"'Tis education forms the common mind,--
Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined."
ALEXANDER POPE.
From the time when we were very little boys we were always interested in
military preparedness. My father believed very strongly in the necessity
of each boy being able and willing not only to look out for himself but
to look out for those near and dear to him. This gospel was preached to
us all from the time we were very, very small. A story, told in the
family of an incident which happened long before I can remember,
illustrated this. Father told me one day always to be willing to fight
anyone who insulted me. Shortly after this wails of grief arose from
the nursery. Mother ran upstairs and found my little brother Kermit
howling in a corner. When she demanded an explanation I told her that he
had insulted me by taking away some of my blocks, so I had hit him on
the head with a mechanical rabbit.
Our little boy fights were discussed in detail with father. Although he
insisted on the willingness to fight, he was the first to object to and
punish anything that resembled bullying. We always told him everything,
as we knew he would give us a real and sympathetic interest.
Funny incidents of these early combats stick in my mind. One day one of
my brothers came home from school very proud. He said he had had a fight
with a boy. When asked how the fight resulted he said he had won by
kicking the boy in the windpipe. Further investigation developed the
fact that the windpipe was the pit of the stomach. My brother felt that
it must be the windpipe, because when you kicked someone there he lost
his breath. I can remember father to this day explaining that no matter
how effective this method of attack was it was not considered
sportsmanlike to kick.
Father and mother believed in robust righteousness. In the stories and
poems that they read us they always bore this in mind. _Pilgrim's
Progress_ and _The Battle Hymn of the Republic_ we knew when we were
very young. When father was dressing for dinner he used to teach us
poetry. I can remember memorizing all the most stirring parts of
Longfellow's _Saga of King Olaf_, _Sheridan's Ride_, and the _Sinking of
the Cumberland_. The gallant incidents in history were told us in such a
way that we never forgot them. In Washington, when father was civil
service commissioner, I often walked to the office with him. On the way
down he would talk history to me--not the dry history of dates and
charters, but the history where you yourself in your imagination could
assume the role of the principal actors, as every well-constructed boy
wishes to do when interested. During every battle we would stop and
father would draw out the full plan in the dust in the gutter with the
tip of his umbrella.
When very little we saw a great many men serving in both the army and
navy. My father did not wish us to enter either of these services,
because he felt that there was so much to be done from a civilian
standpoint in this country. However, we were taught to regard the
services, as the quaint phraseology of the Court Martial Manual puts it,
as the "honorable profession of arms." We were constantly listening to
discussions on military matters, and there was always at least one
service rifle in the house.
We spent our summers at Oyster Bay. There, in addition to our family,
were three other families of little Roosevelts. We were all taught
out-of-door life. We spent our days riding and shooting, wandering
through the woods, and playing out-of-door games. Underlying all this
was father's desire to have all of us children grow up manly and
clean-minded, with not only the desire but the ability to play our part
at the country's need.
Father himself was our companion whenever he could get away from his
work. Many times he camped out with us on Lloyd's Neck, the only
"grown-up" of the party. We always regarded him as a great asset at
times like these. He could think up more delightful things to do than we
could in a "month of Sundays." In the evening, when the bacon that
sizzled in the frying-pan had been eaten, we gathered round the fire.
The wind soughed through the marsh grass, the waves rippled against the
shore, and father told us stories. Of the children who composed these
picnics, two died in service in this war, two were wounded, and all but
one volunteered, regardless of age, at the outbreak of hostilities.
When we were all still little tadpoles, father went to the war with
Spain. We were too little, of course, to appreciate anything except the
glamour. When he decided to go, almost all his friends and advisers told
him he was making a mistake. Indeed, I think my mother was the only one
who felt he was doing right. In talking it over afterward, when I had
grown much older, father explained to me that in preaching self-defense
and willingness to fight for a proper cause, he could not be effective
if he refused to go when the opportunity came, and urged that "it was
different" in his case. He often said, "Ted, I would much rather explain
why I went to the war than why I did not."
At school and at college father encouraged us to take part in the games
and sports. None of us were really good athletes--father himself was
not--but we all put into it all we had. He was just as much interested
in hearing what we had done on the second football team or class crew as
if we had been varsity stars.
He always preached to us one maxim in particular: take all legitimate
chances in your favor when going into a contest. He used to enforce this
by telling us of a man with whom he had once been hunting. The man was
naturally a better walker than father. Father selected his shoes with
great care. The man did not. After the first few days father was always
able to outwalk and outhunt him just on this account. Father always went
over his equipment with the greatest care before going on a trip, and
this sort of thoroughness was imbued in all his sons.
Long before the European war had broken over the world, father would
discuss with us military training and the necessity for every man being
able to take his part.
I can remember him saying to me, "Ted, every man should defend his
country. It should not be a matter of choice, it should be a matter of
law. Taxes are levied by law. They are not optional. It is not permitted
for a man to say that it is against his religious beliefs to pay taxes,
or that he feels that it is an abrogation of his own personal freedom.
The blood tax is more important than the dollar tax. It should not
therefore be a voluntary contribution, but should be levied on all
alike."
Father was much interested in General Wood's camps for the training of
the younger boys and was heartily in sympathy with them. Both Archie
and Quentin attended them. Quentin had a badly strained back at the
time, but that did not keep him from going.
At the sinking of the _Lusitania_ a very keen realization of the gravity
of the situation was evident all over the country. A number of younger
men between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-five met together to talk
things over. In this group were Grenville Clarke, Philip A. Carroll,
Elihu Root, Jr., Cornelius W. Wickersham, J. Lloyd Derby, Kenneth P.
Budd, and Delancy K. Jay. They felt that it was only a question of time
until we would be called to the colors, and realized most keenly the
fact that it is one thing to be willing and quite another to be able to
take your part. They felt, as this war has shown, the lamentable
injustice and grievous loss that is entailed by putting against men who
are trained in the business of fighting untrained men who, no matter how
good their spirit and how great their courage, do not know the game.
The outcome of the conference of these men was the decision to ask
General Wood if it would be possible for him to hold a training camp,
for men up to forty-five years, similar to those held for boys. With the
usual patriotism that characterizes him, General Wood said at once that
he would hold the camp even if they were able to get only twenty-five
men to attend. In the beginning, converts came slowly, but after a
campaign of personal solicitation, in which members of the original
group went individually to various cities in the vicinity of New York,
the movement got under way with such success that the first so-called
"Business Men's Plattsburg Camp" numbered about one thousand, and was
immediately followed by another nearly as large.
At this time the average man did not know what military training and
service meant. The camp was composed of men of all types and all ages.
Many of them, too old for active service, had come as an earnest of
their belief and through the desire to teach by their actions as well as
by their preachings. Robert Bacon and John Purroy Mitchel attended this
camp, both of them men whose memory will always be treasured by those
who were fortunate enough to know them.
We took it all very seriously. At one end of the company street you
would see two prominent middle-aged business men trying to do the manual
of arms properly, rain dripping off them, their faces set like the day
of judgment, crowned with grizzled hair. At the other would be Arthur
Woods, the Police Commissioner of New York, "boning" the infantry drill
regulations. George Wharton Pepper was promoted to sergeant, and was as
proud of it as of any of his achievements in civil life. Bishop Perry of
Rhode Island was named as color sergeant.
Men who went to this Plattsburg camp had to pay their own money in order
to try to fit themselves to serve their country. No more undemocratic
arrangement could have been made for it placed beyond the power of the
men of small means, who form the body of the country, to get in advance
the knowledge necessary to act as an officer. Yet this was the only
course open to us. In the ensuing year these camps spread over the
country, and through them passed many thousands of men. Far over and
above their value from the standpoint of military training was their
educational value in national duty. A large percentage of the
commissioned officers on our country's roll of honor attended the
Plattsburg camps.
These camps in themselves furnished the nucleus for the selection of the
commissioned personnel of the national army, and furnished, furthermore,
the system by which the great mass of our junior officers were chosen
and educated. Yet the movement was launched, not with the backing and
help of the national administration, but rather in spite of the national
administration. No official representing the administration visited
these early camps. Solely by private endeavor, therefore, arose the
system of selection of officers which enabled the army in this war, more
than any army this country has had in the past, to choose the men for
commissions with a keen regard for their ability, with a truer
democracy and less of political influence. On account of this movement
the town of Plattsburg is known from one coast to the other.
During this first camp my father came up to address the men. Up to this
time, although he had spoken on universal military training, it had been
considered as such an unthinkable program that no one had paid any
attention. Two or three times people have asked me when my father first
became convinced of the necessity for universal training and service in
this nation. They have always been greatly surprised when I have
referred them back to a message to Congress written during his first
term as President, in which he suggested that the Swiss system of
training would be an advisable one to adopt in the United States. Many
years before this he had directed N. Carey Sawyer to investigate and
report on Switzerland's military policy. So little were people concerned
with it at that time that no comment of any sort was caused by either
act.
The evening of my father's arrival at Plattsburg an orderly came and
directed me to report at headquarters, where my father was sitting in
conference.
"Ted, I have decided to make a speech to-morrow in favor of universal
service," father said to me. "My good friends here, who believe in it as
much as I do, feel that the time is not ripe, that the country would not
understand it, and that it will merely provoke a storm of adverse
criticism. I have told them that although the country may criticize, and
although unquestionably a storm of attacks will be directed against me,
it must be done, because the country must begin thinking on the
subject."
He spoke next day before the assembled students. The ring of serious
khaki-clad men seated on the parade ground, father speaking very
earnestly in the center, speaking until after dark, when he had to
finish by a lantern, is a clear picture to me.
To many of them this exposition was the first they had ever heard on the
subject. Most of them up to this time had not been interested in it,
and had felt vaguely that compulsory military training and service was
synonymous with the German system and was not democratic. When France
and Switzerland were brought to their attention as democracies, as
efficient democracies, and as countries which had a thoroughly developed
system of universal military training, their eyes were opened and they
saw the matter in a new light. From this camp, directed in a large part
by my father's and General Wood's inspiration and ideas, grew a
nation-wide group of young men who felt the seriousness of the
situation, young men who realized we must take our part and who wished,
as one of my private soldiers put it to me, "At least to have a show for
their white alley" when the war broke.
During the ensuing winter and summer in many parts of the country
enthusiasts were working, and many more camps were founded and carried
to a successful completion. Recognition of a mild sort was obtained
from the National Government. Not recognition which permitted men to go
as men should go in a democracy, to learn to serve their country, as
pupils of the country, at the country's expense, but at least as men
doing something which was not unrecognized and frowned on by their
government.
Toward the winter of 1917 father talked ever increasingly to all of us
concerning his chance of being permitted to take a division or unit of
some sort to Europe. When war was declared he took this matter up
directly with the President. What happened is now history. He took his
disappointment as he took many other disappointments in his life. Often
after he had worked with all that was in him for something, when all
that could be done was done, he would say, "We have done all we can; the
result is now on the knees of the gods."
Meanwhile he was constantly interested in and constantly talked with all
of us about what we were doing. At last, two months after we severed
diplomatic relations, training camps for officers were called into
being with enormous waste and inefficiency, and we ambled slowly toward
the training of an army and its commanding personnel.
All of us except my brother Quentin left for Plattsburg. Quentin, on the
day before diplomatic relations were severed, had telephoned from
college to father to say he would go into the air service, where his
real ability as a mechanician stood him in good stead. Of the other
three, Kermit had had the least training from a purely military
standpoint, having been in South America during most of the time when we
had been working on the "Plattsburg movement." His ability and
experience, however, in other ways were greater, as in his hunting trips
in Africa and South America he had handled bodies of men in dangerous
situations. Archie had attended practically all the camps, and was
naturally a fine leader of men and a boy of great daring.
At Plattsburg, Archie and I were fortunate enough to be put in the same
company. During the major part of the month we were there we were in
charge of the company. Our duty was to instruct potential officers in
the art of war which we ourselves did not know. We spent hours
wig-wagging and semaphoring. Neither of these methods of signaling did I
ever see used in action.
In our "conference" periods the floor was opened for questions. The
conversation would be something like this: "What is light artillery?"
"Light artillery is the lighter branch of the artillery."--"That is all
very well, but define it further." Deep thought. "It is the artillery
carried by men and not by horses." One man asked in all solemnity once,
"Does blood rust steel more than water?" It is not necessary to add that
he never became an officer.
We worked like nailers, but were always watching for the word that
troops were to be sent across. To all of us, from the beginning, it was
not a question of deciding whether we should go or not. We had been
brought up with the idea that, deplorable as war was, the only way when
it broke was to go. The only way to keep peace, a righteous peace, was
to be prepared and willing to fight. A splendid example of a fine family
record is given by Governor Manning's family, of South Carolina: seven
sons, all in service, and one paying the supreme sacrifice.
"If we had a trained army like the Swiss, Germany would never dare
commit any offenses against us, and, furthermore, I believe it highly
possible that the entire war might have been avoided," was a statement
often made to me by father at the beginning of the war.
At the end of the first three weeks we heard rumors that a small
expeditionary force was to be sent over immediately. We telephoned
father at Oyster Bay and asked him if he could help us get attached to
this expeditionary force. He said he would try, and succeeded in so far
as Archie and I were concerned, as we already had commissions in the
officers' reserve corps. We offered to go in the ranks, but General
Pershing said we would be of more value in the grades for which we held
commissions. Our excitement was intense when one day in an official
envelope from Washington we received a communication, "Subject--Foreign
Service." The communication was headed "Confidential," so we were forced
to keep all our jubilation to ourselves. Some ten days after we received
another communication, "Subject--Orders," and were directed to report to
the commanding general, port of embarkation, New York, "confidentially
by wire," at what date we would be ready to start.
We both felt this was not the most expeditious way to proceed, but we
obeyed orders and telegraphed. We supplemented this, however, by taking
the next train and reporting in person at the same time the telegram
arrived, in case they could not decode our message. General Franklin
Bell was the commanding general, and he very kindly helped us get off at
once, and we left on the liner _Chicago_ for Bordeaux on June 18th.
Our last few days in this country we spent with the family. Archie and I
went with our wives to Oyster Bay, where father, mother, and Quentin
were. My wife even then announced her intention of going to Europe in
some auxiliary branch, but she promised me she would not start without
my permission. The promise was evidently made in the Pickwickian sense,
as when I cabled her from Europe not to come the answer that I got was
the announcement of her arrival in Paris. There were six of our
immediate family in the American expeditionary forces--my wife, one
brother-in-law, Richard Derby, and we four brothers. Father, busy as he
was, during the entire time we were abroad wrote to each of us weekly,
and, when he physically could, in his own hand.
[Illustration: COLONEL ROOSEVELT IN AMERICA TO LIEUTENANT COLONEL
ROOSEVELT IN FRANCE
The last five years have made me bitterly conscious of the
shortcomings of our national character; but we Roosevelts are
Americans, and can never think of living anything else, and wouldn't
be anything else for any consideration on the face of the earth; a
man with our way of looking at things can no more change his country
than he can change his mother; and it is the business of each of us
to play the part of a good American and try to make things as much
better as possible.
This means, at the moment, to try to speed up its war; to back its
army to the limit; and to support or criticize every public official
precisely according to whether he does or does not efficiently
support its war and the army.]