The Rough Riders, as they left their Texas encampment for Tampa, Fla.,
their point of embarkation for Cuba, humorously changed their nickname
to “Wood’s Weary Walkers,” a title that, through their long marches in
the jungles of Cuba, came to have more truth than humor in it.
Viewing the Spanish campaign in the light of the world war, it will be
seen that there is a striking similarity between this regiment and the
French Foreign Legion. This parallel is true not only of the personnel
of the contingent, which included adventurous spirits from all sections
of the country, but also of the fighting spirit of the men.
How to reach the fighting field was the biggest question that
confronted the Rough Riders. They were among the very last to
receive permission to go, and if it had not been for Roosevelt’s
dogged determination they would probably have been left behind. Even
when orders came to entrain for Tampa, transportation was refused.
Roosevelt, however, was equal to the emergency. He jumped aboard the
engine of a coal train and demanded of its crew that they transport
his men. The crew obeyed orders. The regiment reached Tampa covered
with coal dust.
At Tampa the Rough Riders found themselves without an official
assignment to a transport. Nothing daunted, Roosevelt moved his men
immediately on board the nearest vessel.
When the landing place in Cuba was reached the Colonel got his men
ashore among the first and soon after landing began his march to the
front.
While Roosevelt’s picturesque personality led to his figuring largely
in the newspaper accounts of the war, yet in all of these movements he
was in close association with Colonel Wood. The two worked together
as one man. While the men had been intimate before, it was in this
campaign that the friendship was welded that was to last and deepen
until death ended it.
Later in the campaign Colonel Wood was promoted to the rank of general
and Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt become colonel.
The corps to which the Rough Riders were attached was under the command
of Major-General Shafter. Major-General Wheeler, a veteran of the Civil
War and a dashing cavalry leader, commanded the cavalry. Under the
latter, as commander of the 2d Brigade, was Brigadier-General Young.
Young’s brigade was composed of the 1st and 10th regiments of cavalry.
The 10th regiment was composed of negroes and the 1st Regiment of the
Rough Riders.
General Wheeler was anxious to strike the first blow with his cavalry
and while Brigadier-General Lawton, who commanded the infantry, was
protecting the landing from the enemy, General Wheeler ordered General
Young to advance early in the morning from the little village of
Siboney toward Santiago and to attack the enemy wherever he was found.
The Rough Riders were included in this advance.
Two roads about a mile apart, lead from Siboney to Santiago. General
Young advanced on the eastern road and directed Wood and Roosevelt to
take the western road, which led over the mountains. The two roads drew
together near the village of Las Guasimas. Here the two commands were
to meet.
[Illustration: COPYRIGHT, UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD
BEFORE THE BATTLE OF SAN JUAN. ROOSEVELT ON THE EXTREME RIGHT,
COLONEL WOOD IN CENTER. TO THE LEFT: MAJOR DUNN, COLONEL BRODIE
AND CHAPLAIN BROWN, WITH GENERAL WHEELER IN THE FOREGROUND
]
On the march from the landing place inland the troops traveled over
rugged hills, covered for the most part by dense jungles. They
camped on a dusty, brush-covered flat, with jungle on one side and a
disease-breeding pool, fringed with palm trees, on the other side. The
baggage had not yet come ashore, and the soldiers had only what food
they carried with them. Roosevelt’s equipment consisted of a raincoat
and a tooth-brush.
They met hundreds of Cuban insurgents--tattered crews armed with all
sorts of weapons, all of which were in poor condition.