since he was a man essentially of out-of-doors, of action and of
administration. Yet he seems to have made such a success of the work
that he became the personal friend of both Cleveland and McKinley. His
relations with President Cleveland were of the most intimate sort,
resulting from mutual respect and liking as well as a mutual
understanding on the part of both men of the other's good qualities.
He saw him in the White House at all hours of the day and night; saw
him with his family and his children about him; noted their fondness
for their father and his devotion to them. It was a quality so marked
in Lincoln, so strong in most great men {60} of the sound, calm,
fearless, administrative sort. Wood himself has exhibited the same
quality in his own family. And in those days the perfect understanding
of the father and his children, the simple family life that went on in
the splendid old house in Washington which combined the dignity of a
State and the simplicity of a home unequaled by any great ruler's
house upon this earth--all tended to bring out this native quality in
the President's medical adviser.
It was at the conclusion of Cleveland's second term that Wood was
assigned to this position. On one of the President's trips for
recreation and rest--a shooting expedition on the inland waters near
Cape Hatteras--he was one of the party which included also Admiral
Evans and Captain Lamberton. The hours spent in shooting boxes or in
the evenings in the cabin of the lighthouse tender gave opportunity
for him to study Cleveland off duty when the latter liked to sit
quietly and talk of his early life, of his political battles, of
fishing, shooting, and of the urgent questions which beset him as
President. And Wood brought away with him a profound respect for the
{61} combination of simplicity and unswerving love and devotion to his
country, coupled with rugged uncompromising honesty which seem to have
been the characteristics of Grover Cleveland.
This particular trip was immediately after the inauguration ceremonies
of President McKinley, and Cleveland was not only tired from the
necessary part which he himself had taken in them, but also from the
first natural let-down after four years of duty in the White House.
Wood has given a little sketch of the man:
"I remember very well his words, as he sat down with a sigh of relief,
glad that it was all over. He said: 'I have had a long talk with
President McKinley. He is an honest, sincere and serious man. I feel
that he is going to do his best to give the country a good
administration. He impressed me as a man who will have the best
interests of the people at heart.'
"Then he stopped, and said with a sigh: 'I envy him to-day only one
thing and that was the presence of his own mother at his inauguration.
I would have given anything in the world if my mother could have been
at my inauguration,' {62} and then, continuing: 'I wish him well. He
has a hard task,' and after a long pause: 'But he is a good man and
will do his best.'"
He has spoken often, too, of Cleveland's love of sport, of the days
which Jefferson, the actor, and Cleveland spent together fishing and
shooting on and near Buzzard's Bay--the same spot where he himself as
a boy spent his days in like occupations. The sides of Cleveland's
character that appealed to him were the frankness with which he
expressed his views on the important questions of the day, the
sterling worth and high ideals which emphasized his sense of duty, his
love of country and his desire to do the best possible for his fellow
citizens, coupled with his perfectly unaffected family feelings and
the amazing devotion and affection which he invariably elicited from
all those who came into association with him, even to the most humble
hand on the light house tender. Jeffersonian simplicity could have
gone no further, nor could any man have been more definite,
far-sighted and fearless than was Cleveland in his Venezuelan Message.
These two extremes made a vivid and lasting impression upon {63} the
young man, because both sides struck a sympathetic chord in his own
nature.
There followed, then, the same association with McKinley, growing out
of the necessary intimacy of physician and patient. But in this latter
case two events, vital to this country as well as to the career of
Leonard Wood, changed the quiet course of Washington official life to
a life of intense interest and great activity.
These two events were Wood's meeting with Theodore Roosevelt and the
Spanish War.
One night in 1896 at some social function at the Lowndes house Wood
was introduced to Roosevelt, then assistant Secretary of the Navy. It
seems strange that two men so vitally alike in many ways, who were in
college at about the same time, should never have met before. But when
they did meet the friendship, which lasted without a break until
Roosevelt's death, began at once.
That night the two men walked home together and in a few days they
were hard at it, walking, riding, playing games and discussing the
affairs of the day.
This strange fact of extraordinary similarities {64} and vivid
differences in the two men doubtless had much to do with bringing them
together and keeping them allied for years. Both were essentially men
of physical action, both born fighters, both filled with an amazing
patriotism and both simple family men.
On the one hand, Roosevelt was a great individualist. He did things
himself. He no sooner thought of a thing than he carried it out
himself. When he was President he frequently issued orders to
subordinates in the departments without consulting the heads of the
departments. Wood, on the other hand, is distinctly an organizer and
administrator. When he later filled high official positions, he
invariably picked men to attend to certain work and left them, with
constant consultation, to do the jobs whatever they were. If a road
was to be built, he found the best road builder and laid out the work
for him leaving to him the carrying out of the details.
Yet again both men had known life in the West, Roosevelt as a cowboy
and Wood as an Indian fighter. Both had come from the best old
American stock, Roosevelt from the Dutch of {65} Manhattan and Wood
from New England. They were Harvard men and lovers of the outdoor,
strenuous life. Their ideals and aspirations had much in common and
they were both actuated by the intense feeling of nationalism that
brought them to the foreground in American life.
Soon they were tramping through the country together testing each
other's endurance in good-natured rivalry. When out of sight of
officialdom, they ran foot races together, jumped fences and ran
cross-country. Both men had children and with these they played
Indians, indulging in most exciting chases and games. They explored
the ravines and woods all about Washington, sometimes taking on their
long hikes and rides various army officers stationed at Washington.
Few of these men were able to stand the pace set by the two energetic
athletes, and it was of course partially due to this fact that
Roosevelt in later years when he was President ordered some of the
paunchy swivel-chair Cavalry and Infantry officers out for
cross-country rides and sent them back to their homes sore and
blistered, and with {66} every nerve clamoring for the soothing
restfulness of an easy chair.
Wood was dissatisfied in Washington, bored with the inaction. He
longed for the strenuous life of the West. The desire became so strong
that he began a plan to leave the army and start sheep-ranching in the
West. It was the life, or as near the life as he could get, that he
had been leading for years; and the present contrast of those days in
the open with the life he was now leading in Washington became too
much for him.
Here again seemed to arise a turning point. Had it not been for his
own confident conviction that war was eventually coming with Spain,
Wood would probably have gone to his open life on the prairie. What
this would have meant to his future career nobody can tell, nor is
speculation upon the subject very profitable. But it is interesting to
note that what deterred him were his ideas on patriotism and a man's
duty to his country, which struck a live, vibrating chord also in
Theodore Roosevelt's nature and influenced Wood to stay in his
position and wait.
It is only possible to imagine now the {67} conversations of these two
kindred spirits on this subject. Roosevelt, as is well known, was for
war--war at once--and he did what little was done in those days to
prepare. There must have been waging a long argument between the now
experienced Indian fighter and doctor, and the great-hearted American
who knew so little of military affairs.
These talks and arguments became so frank and outspoken that they were
well-known in Washington circles. Even President McKinley used to say
to Wood:
"Have you and Theodore declared war yet?"
And Wood's answer was:
"No, we think you ought to, Mr. President."
As each day passed it seemed more likely that Spain and America would
become involved over the injustices Cuba and the Philippines were
being forced to suffer at the hands of their greedy and none
too-loving mother country. On their long walks they discussed all the
phases of such a conflict and each of them became anxious for war
without further delay, for delay was costing time and money, and
peaceful readjustment seemed {68} quite out of the question. So keen
had they become in this war question that the two of them became known
in Washington as the "War Party."
It was becoming evident to many others that war was inevitable when
the destruction of the _Maine_ in Havana Harbor brought the situation
to a head. It found both these men prepared in their own minds as to
what their courses should be. When Wood arrived at Fort Huachuca in
1885 he was asked by Lawton why he came into the army. Lawton had
studied law at Harvard after the Civil War and was interested in the
views of a man who had studied medicine there. Wood replied that he
had come into the army to get into the line at the first opportunity;
and from that moment he began systematically his preparation for
transfer. As a part of this policy he took every opportunity to do
line duty. The result was that when the Spanish War came he had strong
letters from Lawton, General Miles, General Graham, Colonel Wagner,
General Forsythe, and others, recommending him for line command. These
recommendations varied from {69} a battalion to a regiment. Both
Roosevelt and Wood had discussed the possibility of organizing
regiments, Roosevelt in New York and Wood in Massachusetts, but as
turmoil and confusion enveloped the War Office they realized that this
plan was not feasible.
The efforts of Roosevelt's superiors to keep him in his official
capacity as Assistant Secretary of the Navy and away from active
service were fruitless. Finally, when it became evident that he would
go into the service and see active fighting, Secretary of War Alger
offered him the colonelcy of a regiment of cavalry. Roosevelt, because
of his lack of experience in military affairs, refused the offer but
agreed to accept the position of lieutenant colonel of such a regiment
if his friend, Leonard Wood, would accept the colonelcy. Secretary
Alger and Leonard Wood agreed, and work was commenced at once
organizing a regiment that was later to become known as the Rough
Riders. The official name of the regiment was the 1st Volunteer
Cavalry. The name Rough Riders "just grew." The organization became
known under that name among the friends {70} of its leaders, later
among the newspaper correspondents and consequently the public, and
finally when it appeared in official documents it was accepted as
official.
Preparedness was all too unknown in those days, but Wood, who became
its nation-wide champion in the days to come, was well schooled even
in those days in its laws. He only learned more as time went on. The
chaos and tangle of red tape, inefficiency, unpreparedness in all
branches of the service blocked every effort that a few efficient and
able men were making. Seeing the hopelessness of trying to accomplish
anything under such conditions Wood introduced a novel method of
organization into the War Department.
Instead of pestering the hopeless and dismayed functionaries of the
various Government departments with requests for things they did not
have and would not have been able to find if they did have them, Wood
merely requested _carte blanche_ to go ahead and get all necessary
papers ready so that they might be signed at one sitting. He made
requisitions for materials that he needed {71} and when these
materials were not to be found in the Government stores he wrote out
orders directed to himself for the purchase in the open market of the
things required. Alger recognized immediately that in Wood he had a
man accustomed to action and full of vision--a man whom nothing could
frighten. The two men understood one another. If those who surrounded
the Secretary of War in those days had been as capable of
organization, the history of Washington during wartime would have been
quite different. But for the most part they failed. The see-nothing,
hear-nothing, do-nothing, keep-your-finger-on-your-number spirit
among many of them was quite great enough to throw the War Office into
chaos. The game of "passing the buck" did not appeal to Wood; neither
did he stop to sympathize with a certain highly placed bureaucrat who
complained:
"My office and department were running along smoothly and now this
damned war comes along and breaks it all up."
When all of his papers and documents were ready. Wood appeared before
Secretary Alger. {72} "And now what can I do for you?" said the
Secretary.
"Just sign these papers, sir. That is all," replied the Rough Riders'
Colonel.
Alger, beset by incompetence, hampered by inefficiency in his staff,
was dumbfounded as he looked through the papers Wood had prepared for
him to sign. There were telegrams to Governors of states calling upon
them for volunteers; requisitions for supplies and uniforms; orders
for mobilization and requisitions for transportation. Alger had little
to say. He placed enough confidence in Wood to sign the papers and
give him his blessing.
When the army depots said that they could not supply uniforms, Wood
replied that his men could wear canvas working clothes. As a result
the Rough Riders, fighting through the tropical country in Cuba, were
far more comfortable than the soldiers in regulation blue. The new
colonel seemed to know what he wanted. He wanted Krag rifles. There
were few in existence, but General Flagler, Chief of Ordnance,
appreciated what the young officer had done and saw that he got them.
{73} He did not want sabers for the men to run through one another in
the pandemonium of cavalry charges of half wild western horses. The
Rough Riders therefore went into action carrying machetes, an ideal
weapon for the country in which they were to see service. With the
saber they could do nothing; but with the machete they could do
everything from hacking through dense jungle growths to sharpening a
pencil. During the days that followed many troopers equipped with
sabers conveniently lost them, but Wood's Rough Riders found the
machetes invaluable.
The authority to raise the regiment was given late in April, and on
the twenty-fourth day of June, against heavy odds, it won its first
action in the jungles at Las Guasimas. This was quick work, when it is
remembered that two weeks of that short six or seven week period were
practically used up in assembling and transporting the men by rail and
sea. Here is where organization and well-thought-out plans made a
remarkable showing.
It was not only a question of knowing what he wanted. It was his old
slogan: "Do it and don't talk about it."
{74}
{75}
THE SOLDIER
{76}
{77}
IV
THE SOLDIER
The name "Rough Riders" will forever mean to those who read American
history the spontaneous joy of patriotism and the high hearts of youth
in this land. It was the modern reality of the adventurous
musketeers--of those who loved romance and who were ready for a call
to arms in support of their country. They came from the cowboys of the
west, from the stockbrokers' offices of Wall Street, from the athletic
field, from youth wherever real youth was to be found. Something over
20,000 men applied for enrollment. None of them knew anything of war.
None of them wanted to die, but they all wanted to try the great
adventure under such leaders. And they have left an amazing record of
the joyousness of the fight and the recklessness that goes with it.
Now and then there have been organizations of a similar character in
our history, but only here and there. It was the first outburst of
that day {78} of the spirits filled with high adventure; and the
record cheers the rest of us as we plod along our way, just as it
cheers us when we are ill in bed with indigestion to read again the
old but ever-young Dumas.
It would have been impossible for any one to have organized and
controlled such a group without the enthusiasm of men like Roosevelt
and Wood, as well as the knowledge these two had of the West, the
Southwest and the South.
It detracts nothing from Roosevelt's greatness of spirit to say that
it was Wood who did the organizing, the equipping of the regiment. In
fact Roosevelt declined to be the Rough Riders' first Colonel, but
consented to be the second in command only if Wood were made its
commander. The fact that Roosevelt was not only known in the East but
in the Northwest, and that Wood was quite as well known in the
Southwest and the South meant that men of the Rough Riders type all
over the country knew something of one or the other of the regiment's
organizers.
It detracts nothing from Wood's amazing activity in organization and
capacity for getting {79} things done, to say that had it not been for
Roosevelt's wonderful popularity amongst those of the youthful spirit
of the land the regiment would never have had its unique character or
its unique name.
This is not the place to tell the story of that famous band of men.
But its organization is so important a part of Wood's life that it
comes in for mention necessarily.
In the Indian campaign with the regulars he had known the great
importance of being properly outfitted and ready for those grilling
journeys over the desert. In the Spanish War he learned, as only
personal experience can teach, the amazing importance of preparation
for volunteers and inexperienced men. The whole story of the getting
ready to go to Cuba was burned into his brain so deeply that it formed
a second witness in the case against trusting to luck and the occasion
which has never been eradicated from his mind. Yet this episode
brought strongly before him also the fact that prepared though he
might be there was no success ahead for such an organization without
the sense of subordination to the {80} state and the nation which not
only brought the volunteers in, but carried them over the rough places
through disease and suffering and death to the end.
Eight days after the telegram calling upon the Governors of New
Mexico, Arizona, Oklahoma and Indian Territory for men to form the
regiment, the recruits gathered at San Antonio where Wood was waiting
to meet them. The most important thing about them for the moment was
that they knew nothing of military life. Wood believed with Old
Light-Horse Harry Lee "That Government is a murderer of its citizens
which sends them to the field uninformed and untaught, where they are
meeting men of the same age and strength mechanized by education and
disciplined for battle."
Furthermore during the years that he had been in Washington Wood had
used some of his spare time in studying parts of American history that
are not included in school books. He knew that the volunteer system in
the Revolutionary War had worn General Washington sick with
discouragement and fear lest all that he had built up be {81} broken
down through lack of discipline. He knew also that in the Civil War
the volunteer system proved inadequate on both sides and that it was
not until the war had gone on for two years that either the North or
the South had what could properly be called an army.
To aid him in the training of these troops he had the assistance of a
number of officers who had seen service in the Regular Army, and
together they mapped out a course of drills and maneuvers that worked
the men from a valueless mob into a regiment trained for battle. The
human material that they had to work with was the best; for these men
had been selected from many applicants. The lack of discipline and the
ignorance of military etiquette led to many amusing incidents. Colonel
Roosevelt in his history of the Rough Riders tells of an orderly
announcing dinner to Colonel Wood and the three majors by remarking
genially:
"If you fellers don't come soon, everything'll get cold."
The foreign attaches said: "Your sentinels do not know much about the
Manual of Arms, but {82} they are the only ones through whose lines we
could not pass. They were polite; but, as one of them said, 'Gents,
I'm sorry, but if you don't stop I shall kill you.'"
The difficulties to be surmounted were enormous; and any officers less
democratic and understanding might have made a mess of it. Both
Roosevelt and Wood understood the frontiersmen too well to misjudge
any breaches of etiquette or to humiliate the extremely sensitive
natures of men long used to life in the open.
Upon Colonel Wood fell practically all the details of organization.
There were materials and supplies of many kinds to be secured from the
War Department; there were men to be drilled in the bare rudiments of
military life; non-commissioned officers and officers to be schooled,
and a thousand and one other details. At first the men were drilled on
foot, but soon horses were purchased and mounted drill commenced, much
to the delight of many of the cowpunchers who by years of training had
become averse to walking a hundred yards if they could throw their
legs over a horse. There was no end to the {83} excitement when the
horses arrived. Most of them were half-broken, but there were some
that had never seen, much less felt, a saddle. The horses were broken
to the delight of every one in camp, because training them meant
bucking contests, and the more vicious the animal the better they
liked it.
From simple drills and evolutions the men advanced to skirmish work
and rapidly became real soldiers--not the polished, smartly uniformed
military men of the Regular type, but hard fighters in slouch hats and
brown canvas trousers with knotted handkerchiefs round their necks.
The commander of any military unit at that time had much to worry
about. It depended solely on him personally whether his men were
properly equipped, whether they had food; and when orders came to move
whether they had anything to move on. The advice that he could get, if
he was willing to listen to it, was lengthy and worthless, and the
help he could get from Washington amounted to little or nothing.
In May the regiment was ordered to proceed to Tampa. After a lengthy
struggle with the {84} railway authorities cars were put at the
disposal of Colonel Wood, who left San Antonio on the 29th with three
sections, the remaining four sections being left to proceed later in
charge of Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt. The confusion of getting
started was reduced to a minimum by Wood, who had worked out a scheme
for embarkation; but due to delay on the part of the railway
authorities in providing proper facilities for handling the troops and
equipment they were delayed four days. Everywhere along the line of
travel they were cheered enthusiastically by people who came to greet
the train on its arrival in towns and cities.
Tampa was in chaos. There seemed to be no order or system for the
disembarkation of troops. Every one asked for information and no one
could give it. Officers, men, railroad employees and longshoremen
milled about in a welter of confusion. The troops were dumped out with
no prearranged schedule on the part of the officers in charge of the
camp. There were no arrangements for feeding the men and no wagons in
which to haul impedimenta. In such conditions it {85} required all the
native vigor characteristic of their Colonel to bring some sort of
order--all the knowledge he had gained from his Indian campaign. And
even then there was still needed an unconquerable spirit that did not
know what impossibilities were.