THE ROUGH RIDER
In 1897 the Republican Party came again into power; Mr. McKinley was
inaugurated as President. Roosevelt was appointed Assistant Secretary
of the Navy, and came with his family to Washington. The Secretary of
the Navy was Mr. John D. Long.
America was within a year of getting into war, and as usual was not
ready for it. There are men so foolish as to rejoice because we have
never been ready for the wars in which we have taken part about every
twenty or thirty years in our history. This simply means that they
rejoice at the unnecessary deaths of thousands of other Americans who
die from disease in camp, or are killed in the field through neglect
to prepare in advance. Preparation for war is not wholly the matter of
having weapons ready to fight the enemy. It also means healthy camps
for our soldiers to live in, and readiness to furnish clothing, food
and medical supplies. For lack of these, thousands of our friends and
relatives die in every war we are in.
A rebellion had been going on in Cuba for years. The cruel government
of Spain had kept the Cubans in misery and in rebellion, and disturbed
the friendship between Spain and the United States. It was our duty to
see that Cuban expeditions did not sail from our coast to help their
friends, and in this work a great many ships of our Navy were busy all
the time. Nobody liked to have to do this for we naturally sympathized
with the Cubans, who were making such a brave fight against stupid and
tyrannical governors sent from Spain. One of the last of these was
particularly bad. He herded the Cuban people into camps where they
died of disease and starvation, and he had great numbers of them shot
without mercy. We had justly revolted against the mis-government of
King George III in 1776, but nothing that King George's governors and
generals had done to us was as bad as the things the Spaniards were
doing in Cuba, in 1896 and 1897.
Many of the men in Washington felt that war would come sooner or later.
Roosevelt believed it and worked constantly to have the Navy ready.
He had the support of the President and of Secretary Long in nearly
everything that he proposed, and so was able to do some useful work. It
is important to understand what Roosevelt thought about war, not only
about this, but about all wars. Here it is in his own words.
I abhor unjust war. I abhor injustice and bullying by the strong
at the expense of the weak, whether among nations or individuals,
I abhor violence and bloodshed. I believe that war should never be
resorted to when, or so long as, it is honorably possible to avoid
it. I respect all men and women who from high motives and with sanity
and self-respect do all they can to avert war. I advocate preparation
for war in order to avert war; and I should never advocate war unless
it were the only alternative to dishonor.[9]
[9] "Autobiography," p. 226.
You will be able to see from what he did while he was President, when
he was in a position where he could have plunged the country into war
half a dozen times, whether these words were true, or whether he was
really the fire-eater which some of his enemies insisted he was.
He secured from Congress nearly a million dollars, to permit the
Navy to engage in target-practice. To those who were alarmed at such
"waste," he remarked that gun-powder was meant to be burned, and that
sailors must learn to shoot, since in battle, the shots that hit
are the only ones that count. There is nothing wonderful about such
remarks. In looking back at them there seems to be nothing wonderful
about many things that he said and did. They are merely examples of
plain, common-sense, and it appears ridiculous that anybody should
have had to make such remarks, or to fight hard to get such clearly
necessary things done. Yet he did have to fight for them. It had to be
driven into the heads of some of the men in Congress that it is not the
proper use of gun-powder to keep it stored up, until war is declared,
then bring it out, partly spoiled, and give it to soldiers and sailors,
who for lack of practice, do not know how to shoot straight.
Roosevelt also was able to help in having appointed to command the
Asiatic squadron, a naval officer named Commodore George Dewey.
On February 15, 1898, while affairs were at their worst between America
and Spain, our battleship _Maine_ was blown up in Havana Harbor. She
had gone there on a friendly visit, but now was destroyed and sent to
the bottom. Over two hundred and fifty of our men were killed. Almost
every one knew that war was now certain. For weeks the country debated
as to the cause of the explosion which sank the _Maine_, and the matter
was investigated by naval officers assisted by divers. They found that
the explosion had come from the outside. Somebody had set off a mine
or torpedo beneath the ship. Nobody in America disputed this, except
a few of the peace-at-any-price folk, who preferred to think that the
carelessness of our own sailors had been the cause. These gentlemen
always think the best of the people of other nations, which is a fine
thing; but they are always ready to believe the worst of their own
countrymen, which is, on the whole, rather a nasty trait.
Roosevelt worked at top-speed in the Navy Department, and began to
lay plans for going to the war himself. He believed that it was right
and necessary to fight Spain, and end the horrible suffering in Cuba.
And he believed that it was the duty first and foremost of men like
himself, who advised war, to take part in it. He was nearly forty
years old, and had a family. Many other men in his place would have
discovered that their services were most important in Washington. They
would have stayed in their offices, and let other men (whom they called
"jingoes") do the fighting for them. It was never Roosevelt's custom to
act that way.
Later in February, while Mr. Long was away, and Roosevelt was
Acting-Secretary of the Navy, he sent this cable message to Commodore
Dewey:
Washington, February 25, '98.
_Dewey, Hong Kong_
Order the squadron, except the _Monocacy_, to Hong Kong. Keep full of
coal. In the event of declaration of war Spain, your duty will be to
see that the Spanish squadron does not leave the Asiatic coast, and
then offensive operations in Philippine Islands. Keep _Olympia_ until
further orders.
Roosevelt.
War against Spain was declared in April,--the month in our history
which has also seen the beginning of our Revolution, our Civil War, and
our entrance into the Great War against Germany. Congress arranged for
three regiments of volunteer cavalry to be raised among the men in the
Rockies and on the Great Plains who knew how to ride and shoot. Here
Roosevelt saw his chance. He knew these men and longed to go to war in
their company.
The Secretary of War offered to make him Colonel of one of these
regiments. It is worth while to notice what his reply was. He knew how
to manage a horse and a rifle, he had lived in the open and could take
care of himself in the field. He had had three years in the National
Guard in New York, rising to the rank of Captain. Many men in the Civil
War without one half of his experience and knowledge, gayly accepted
Brigadier-Generalships. Also, in the Spanish War, another public man,
Mr. William J. Bryan, allowed himself to be made a Colonel, and took
full command of a regiment, without one day's military experience. Yet
Roosevelt declined the offer of a Colonel's commission and asked to be
made Lieutenant-Colonel, with Leonard Wood, of the regular Army as his
Colonel.
When you hear or read that Roosevelt was a conceited man, always
pushing himself forward, it may be well to ask if that is the way a
conceited man would have acted.
Colonel Wood was an army surgeon, who had been a fighting officer in
the campaign against the Apaches. He had been awarded the Medal of
Honor, the highest decoration an American soldier can win for personal
bravery.
The new regiment, the First United States Volunteer Cavalry, was
promptly called, by some newspaper or by the public, the "Rough
Riders," and by that name it is always known. Most of the men in it
came from Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma and the Indian Territory, but
it had members from nearly every State. Many Eastern college men were
in it, including some famous foot-ball players, polo-players, tennis
champions and oarsmen. The regiment trained at San Antonio, and landed
in Cuba for the attack on Santiago on June 22. The troopers had to
leave their horses behind, so they were to fight on foot after all.
Roosevelt's Rough Riders, somebody said, had become Wood's Weary
Walkers. The walking was not pleasant to some of the cowboys, who never
used to walk a step when there was a horse to ride.
Within a day or two they were in a fight at Las Guasimas. It was a
confusing business, advancing through the jungle and fired at by an
enemy they could not see. The Rough Riders lost eight men killed and
thirty-four wounded. The Spaniards were using smokeless powder, then
rather a new thing in war. Two of our regiments at Santiago were still
using black powder rifles, and the artillery used black powder, which
by its smoke showed the enemy just where they were. Our artillery
was always silenced or driven off, because this country had been so
neglectful of its Army and its men as to let poor, old backward Spain
get better guns, and more modern ammunition than ours. That never
should happen with a rich, progressive country like ours.
A few days later came the fight at San Juan. Colonel Wood had been
put in command of the brigade, so Roosevelt led the regiment of Rough
Riders. It was a fearfully hot day; many men dropped from exhaustion.
The regular regiments of cavalry, together with the Rough Riders, all
fighting on foot, moved forward against the low hills on which were
the Spaniards in block-houses or trenches. For some while they were
kept waiting in reserve, taking what shelter they could from the Mauser
bullets, which came whirring through the tall jungle grass. This is
the most trying part of a fight. It is all right when at last you can
charge your enemy and come to close quarters with him, but to lie on
the ground under fire, unable to see anybody to fire upon, is the worst
strain upon the soldiers' nerves. As one after another is shot, the
officers begin to watch the men closely to see how they are standing
it. Roosevelt received a trifling wound from a shrapnel bullet at the
beginning of the fight. Later his orderly had a sun-stroke, and when he
called another orderly to take a message, this second man was killed as
he stood near, pitching forward dead at Roosevelt's feet.
Finally came the order to charge. Roosevelt was the only mounted man
in the regiment. He had intended to go into the fight on foot, as he
had at Las Guasimas, but found that the heat was so bad that he could
not run up and down the line and superintend things unless he was on
horseback. When he was mounted he could see his own men better, and
they could see him. So could the enemy see him better, and he had one
or two narrow escapes because of being so conspicuous.
He started in the rear of the regiment, which is where the Colonel
should be, according to the books, but soon rode through the lines and
led the charge up "Kettle Hill,"--so-called by the Rough Riders because
there were some sugar kettles on top of it. His horse was scraped by
a couple of bullets, as he went up, and one of the bullets nicked
his elbow. Members of the other cavalry regiments were mingled with
the Rough Riders in the charge,--their officers had been waiting for
orders, and were glad to join in the advance. The Spaniards were driven
out and the Rough Riders planted their flags on the hill.
But there were other hills and other trenches full of Spaniards beyond,
and again the Rough Riders, mixed with men of other regiments, went
forward. In cleaning out the trenches Roosevelt and his orderly were
suddenly fired on at less than ten yards by two Spaniards. Roosevelt
killed one of them with his revolver. The Rough Riders had had
eighty-eight killed and wounded out of less than five hundred men who
were in the fight.
The American forces were now within sight of Santiago, but they had to
dig in and hold the ground they had taken. There was a short period in
the trenches, which seemed tedious to the riders from the plains, but
was nothing to what men, years later, had to endure in the Great War
against Germany. At last Santiago surrendered, on July 17.
The war ended within about a month. Commodore Dewey had beaten the
Spanish Fleet at Manila and Admiral Sampson and his fleet had destroyed
the Spanish cruisers which were forced out of Santiago Harbor on July
3rd, as a result of the Army getting within striking distance of the
city. One other thing of importance was done by Roosevelt before the
regiment was brought home to Montauk Point and mustered out. After the
surrender of Santiago it was supposed that the war was going on and
that there would be a campaign in the winter against Havana. But the
American Army was full of yellow fever. Half the Rough Riders were
sick at one time, and the condition of other regiments was as bad.
The higher officers knew that unless the troops were taken to some
healthier climate to recover, there would be nothing left of them. Over
four thousand men were sick, and not ten per cent, of the Army was
fit for active work. But the War Department would not listen to the
suggestion that the army be sent for a while to a cooler climate.
What none of the regular Army officers could afford to do, Roosevelt
did. He wrote a letter to General Shafter, the commander of the
expedition, explaining the state of things, and setting out how
important it was, if any of the army was to be kept alive, that they
should be sent away from Cuba, until the sickly season was over.
General Shafter really wished such a letter to be written, and he
allowed the Associated Press reporter to have it as soon as it was
handed to him.
Then, all the Generals joined with Roosevelt in a "Round Robin" to
General Shafter, saying the same things. The Government at Washington
began to take notice, and in a short time ordered the army home.
Roosevelt had taken a leading part in an act which caused him to be
severely blamed by many, to be denounced by all who worship military
etiquette, and charged with "insubordination" by men who would rather
make a mess of things and do it according to the rules of the book,
than succeed in something useful and do it by common-sense rules made
up at the time. He had shocked the folks who like red tape, and he had
helped save the lives of perhaps four thousand men.