The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt

by Edmund Morris

  108. Hag.LW.I. 145–6; RR.7.

  109. Wes.34; see also Mil.218.

  110. Hag.LW.I.151; ib., 146–7

  111. Mil.171; Her.236–7; Rho.71–3; ib., 74; Mor.822–3. See also May.220: “Only a few prescient Europeans had even guessed that the war might extend to Spain’s Philippine possessions. The best informed writers had not credited the American navy with such enterprise and efficiency.” In 1902 JDL tried, not very convincingly, to discount TR’s large responsibility for the success of the Battle of Manila. He claimed, in the privacy of his Journal (Jan. 3), that “… of my own notion I took [Dewey’s] name to the President and recommended the assignment.” Long had no choice but to recommend it, in that the President had already asked for it. He also denied as “a lie” the story that TR armed Dewey at the last minute with a special despatch of ammunition, but TR never made any such claim. Her.206 shows that JDL was actually obstructive of TR’s support plans for Dewey in early 1898. See Mil.150 fn.; Bea.63; Alfonso, Oscar S., TR and the Philippines (NY, 1974).

  112. Mor.822; TR.War.Di. May 6, 1898; Mor. 823, 824, 831, 825 (for JDL’s equally fulsome letter to TR, see Bis.I.104), 823; TR.War.Di. May 12.

  113. Long, Journal, Apr. 25, 1898, LON.

  24: THE ROUGH RIDER

  Important sources not in Bibliography: 1. Davis, Richard Harding, The Cuban and Porto Rican Campaigns (Scribner’s, 1898). 2. Cosmas, Graham A., An Army for an Empire: The U.S. Army in the Spanish-American War (U. Missouri Press, 1971).

  1. Sun clip. n.d., TR.Scr.

  2. TR.Wks.XI.8. (This vol. of ib. contains complete text of The Rough Riders. Henceforth cited as RR.) TR was able to accept only one application in ten from his alma mater. Leonard Wood, too, was a Harvard man. Other sources: TR to B, May 5, 1898; RR. 10–11; Wes.56–7, qu. Denver Evening Post, May 4.

  3. RR. 10; Wis.7–8.

  4. Jones, Virgil Carrington, Roosevelt’s Rough Riders (Doubleday, 1971) 35; RR.9; Stallman, R. W., Stephen Crane: A Biography (NY, 1968) 385.

  5. TR to B, May 5, 1898; RR.8–10, 27–30; Wes.56–7; Cosby, Arthur S., “A Roosevelt Rough Rider Looks Back,” unpublished ms., 1957, TRC, 27.

  6. RR. 10.

  7. TR.War.Di. May 15, 1898; Jones, Rough Riders, 35; Hag.LW.I.151–2.

  8. Wes.79; Hag.LW.I.151.

  9. Ib., 152; Jones, Rough Riders, 36.

  10. RR. 10. “Why, he knows every man in the regiment by name”—a Rough Rider qu. in McLure’s Magazine, Nov. 1898; Sun, May 8.

  11. RR.16.

  12. Ib.

  13. Jones, Rough Riders, 282–340 has a complete alphabetical roster of the regiment.

  14. Mor.832.

  15. Hag.LW.I.147; Cosby, “A RRR Looks Back,” 25; RR.22; pics in TRC.

  16. The following timetable of a typical day at Camp Wood is based on a letter of George Hamner (d. Feb. 6, 1973) to his sweetheart, qu. in Walker, Dale, “The Last of the Rough Riders,” Montana, XII.3 (July 1973) 43–4.

  17. Cosby, “A RRR Looks Back,” 36.

  18. RR.23–4; Cosby, “A RRR Looks Back,” 39; see also Wes.80. Mounted drill usually took place at the nearby Mission of San Jose, where there was more space available. Ib., 80.

  19. Prentice, Lt. Royal A., “The Rough Riders,” New Mexico Historical Review, 26.4 (Oct. 1951) and 27.1 (Jan. 1952) 269.

  20. Ib., 264; RR. 18–19.

  21. Cosby, “A RRR Looks Back,” 39; Jones, Rough Riders, 39.

  22. RR.25.

  23. Ib., 22; Hall, Thomas W., The Fun and Fighting of the Rough Riders (NY, 1899) 42.

  24. Mor.832.

  25. Prentice, “The RRs,” 267: “After the day’s work was done there would be hardly a man left in camp, as each troop had its own gateway.”

  26. Hall, Fun and Fighting, 42.

  27. Ib.

  28. This sentence is taken nearly verbatim from ib., 43.

  29. See Wes.77; Hag.LW.I.145–6.

  30. “Theodore has already a great hold on them—before long he will be able to do anything he likes with them.” Robert Ferguson to Douglas Robinson, c. May 15, 1898 (Alsop Papers, TRC). Wood qu. Hag.LW.I.157.

  31. Jones, Rough Riders, 37; TR qu. Hag.LW.I.154. This incident seems mild enough now, but in those pre-prohibition days it was a serious breach of military discipline. The modern equivalent would be for an officer to join his men after drill for a friendly joint of marijuana. “Nectar,” sighed one trooper, “never tasted as good as that beer.” Prentice, “The RRs,” 267.

  32. RR.25; Mor.832. Arthur S. Cosby, a late recruit who arrived in camp on May 26, was impressed by the regiment’s flawless performance during mounted drill. “It was a fine sight to see these men marching their mounts in formation or launching on thunderous gallops—all at quick response to the nasal, high-pitched commands of Col. Roosevelt.” Cosby, “A RRR Looks Back,” 29. TR qu. Sun clip, n.d., TR.Scr.

  33. Har.103.

  34. Wes.83; Chicago Tribune, May 27, 1898 (“Teddy’s Terrors Cut Up High Jinks at San Antonio”), qu. Wes.82. Jones, Rough Riders, 43, says that two thousand shots were fired.

  35. Wood qu. Hag.LW.I.149.

  36. Jones, Rough Riders, 43; Hag. LW.I. 155; Azo.54–5.

  37. See Lor.304–5.

  38. TR.War.Di. May 29, 1898; Cosby, “A RRR Looks Back,” 39 ff; RR.34; see also Jones, Rough Riders, 44.

  39. RR.32. The Rough Rider Special consisted of 25 day coaches, 2 Pullmans, 5 baggage cars, 8 box cars, and 60 livestock cars. Sections traveled about a mile apart. Jones, Rough Riders, 43.

  40. RR.35.

  41. See RR.32 for TR’s amused rejection of Demolins’s military thesis.

  42. Cosby, “A RRR Looks Back,” 45.

  43. See Wes. passim for an indication of the depth and extent of this coverage through the West and South. Cosby, “A RRR Looks Back,” 43–6; RR.34–5; Hall, Fun and Fighting, 68–74; Sun, d.l. Waldo, Fla., June 2, 1898.

  44. RR.35.

  45. Cosby, “A RRR Looks Back,” 49. The exact point was Ybor City. RR.36.

  46. Prentice, “The RRs,” 272; Mor.834; Davis, Campaigns, 46.

  47. Cosby, “A RRR Looks Back,” 50, mentions a pleasant breeze on June 2, tempering the 90-degree heat. Davis, Campaigns, 46 and passim; RR.37; Mil.241; Azo.38; Brown, Charles H., The Correspondents’ War (NY, 1967) 206 ff; pics in TRB and TRC.

  48. Davis, Campaigns, 50.

  49. RR.37.

  50. Mor.835.

  51. Cosmas, An Army, 193. According to Shafter’s chief commissary, the General “couldn’t walk two miles in an hour, just beastly obese.” Qu. ib.

  52. Mor.849. Cosmas, An Army, 193–4, in the most balanced opinion of Shafter, points out that the General was a distinguished career soldier, a recipient of the Medal of Honor, and a man whose mental quickness belied his bulk. However “his worst failing as a commander … was a lack of experience in organizing and maneuvering large formations. Never, before taking command at Tampa, had he directed so many men—25,000 infantry, cavalry and artillery—in an independent campaign.”

  53. Ib., 103–9, 124.

  54. Azo.35; Brown, Correspondents’ War, 202; full details in Cosmas, An Army, 123–5.

  55. Ib., 129; Azo.54–5.

  56. Mil.245; TR.War.Di., June 5, 1898.

  57. See Gen. Miles, qu. Mil.245; also Cosmas, An Army, 195–6. Mor.834; Davis, Campaigns, 83.

  58. Ib., 82–3 is the basis of this description, supplemented by details from Cosby, “A RRR Looks Back,” passim. According to TR in Mor.834, the foreign attachés expressed “great wonder” at the performance and training of the Rough Riders. Generals Miles and Wheeler also reviewed the regiment at this time “and unhesitatingly said it is the finest volunteer regiment they ever saw … never had they known a regiment, either regular or volunteer, to have learned so much in one month’s service.…” Santa Fe (N.M.) correspondent, qu. Jones, Rough Riders, 53–4.

  59. Mor.835; RR.37; Cosmas, An Army, 196. At first TR was under the impression that the horses would be sent on afterwa
rd, but this soon proved to be a hollow expectation.

  60. RR.37; Mor.836. C, H, I, and M Troops stayed behind.

  61. Azo.57.

  62. Her.239; Azo.58, 57; see also Mil.246.

  63. RR.38–9; Cosby, “A RRR Looks Back,” 59–60.

  64. Ib., 60; Frank Brito, qu. Walker, Dale, “The Last of the Rough Riders,” Montana, XII.3 (July 1973) 44; Baltimore Sun, June 11, 1898.

  65. RR.39–40. See also Mor.841; Azo. 60; Cosmas, An Army, 195–6 for details of the administrative foul-up.

  66. Smith, Albert E., Two Reels and a Crank (NY, 1952) 57. Elsewhere Smith speaks of “the camera’s hypnotic effect on Mr. Roosevelt.” If Smith is to be believed, TR even halted on the advance to San Juan to pose for a final, heroic newsreel sequence. “It was not until then that we began to appreciate the full scope of his perception in the field of public relations.” Ib., 148.

  67. See Azo.63 for breakdown of total force. Brown, Correspondents’ War, 274. See also Mil.246: “It is a testimonial to General Shafter’s understanding of his men that orders which in almost any other army in the world would have spelled a disaster ended up with a brilliant success.” Brown, Correspondents’ War, 276; Mil.248.

  68. Azo.61.

  69. Ib., 62–3; TR.War.Di. June 8–14, 1898; Mor.836–43, passim; RR.40–2.

  70. Walker, “Rough Riders,” 44; Azo.62–3.

  71. RR.14.

  72. Azo.63; Davis, Campaigns, 86; RR.42; McIntosh, Burr, The Little I Saw of Cuba (NY, 1898), 44–5. The Yucatán approached Egmont Keys about sunset on May 13, narrowly avoiding a collision with the Matteawan on the way. McIntosh, a Leslie’s photographer, captured the incident on film, and left an interesting footnote to history: “Had the vessel not been brought to a halt the instant she was, it is highly probable that there would have been no Rough Rider deeds to record in Cuba … Thirty-five hundred pounds of dynamite, which was later to be associated with the dynamite gun, rested in her bow.” The final distance separating the two ships was a mere three feet. Ib., 38–44.

  25: THE WOLF RISING IN THE HEART

  Important sources not in Bibliography: 1. Davis, Richard Harding, The Cuban and Porto Rican Campaigns (Scribner’s, 1898). 2. McIntosh, Burr, The Little I Saw of Cuba (NY, 1898). 3. Marshall, Edward, The Story of the Rough Riders (NY, 1899).

  1. Mor.843; TR.Wks.I.43. Ib. contains the text of The Rough Riders, and is henceforth cited as RR. The former source, written on the morning of June 15, 1898, makes it plain that the thoughts expressed in the latter are those of the night of June 14. Morison, incidentally, errs in identifying TR’s addressee as Corinne Roosevelt Robinson. Actually he was writing to his wife. EKR later copied out the letters, minus personal paragraphs, for circulation among members of the family. Original copies in TRB.

  2. Mor.843; also RR. 12, 27, 44–5.

  3. Ib., 45.

  4. Descriptions of the voyage to Cuba are given in Mor.843–4; RR.42.-6; Hag.LW.I.160; Davis, Campaigns, 89–98; Mil.255–8; Azo.64–8; Ranson, E., “British Military and Naval Observers in the Spanish-American War,” Journal of American Studies (GB) 3.1 (July 1969). Following three paragraphs based on these sources.

  5. Ranson, “British Observers,” 40. “At night the fleet was as conspicuous as Brooklyn or New York, with the lights of the bridge included.” Davis, Campaigns, 90–1.

  6. Ib., 90–1; RR.43.

  7. Cosby, Arthur S., “A Roosevelt Rough Rider Looks Back,” unpublished ms., 1957, TRC, 64; Ranson, “British Observers,” 38; RR.46; Azo.60.

  8. The mountains were the Sierra Maestra range. Hag.LW.I.160; Cosby, “A RRR Looks Back,” 74.

  9. Same two sources.

  10. Azo. 69; Davis, Campaigns, 102; ib., 102–112.

  11. Jones, Virgil Carrington, Roosevelt’s Rough Riders (Doubleday, 1971) 86; war picture-books in TRC. The superlative in praise of Cuba’s beauty of course no longer applies.

  12. Davis, Campaigns, 108.

  13. The hut was at Asserraderos, twenty miles east of Santiago.

  14. Battle orders, qu. Davis, Campaigns, 113. Azo.68; Mil.260–2.

  15. Azo.68.

  16. Jones, Rough Riders, 92.

  17. Azo.72.

  18. Mil.262.

  19. Jones, Rough Riders, 92–100; McIntosh, Cuba, 56; Azo.73.

  20. McIntosh, Cuba, 57; Davis, Campaigns, 115–7; Azo.73; Mil.265; Jones, Rough Riders, 100.

  21. Davis, Campaigns, 117–9; Azo.73; Jones, Rough Riders, 65–6.

  22. Stephen Bonsal, N.Y. Herald correspondent, qu. Brown, Charles H., The Correspondents’ War (NY, 1967) 307.

  23. Smith, Albert, Two Reels and a Crank (NY, 1952) 57.

  24. Mil.267; RR.46.

  25. Pri.184–5. Just to make sure, TR took twelve extra pairs of spectacles to Cuba.

  26. Ranson, British Observers, 42; Cosby, “A RRR Looks Back,” 77; McIntosh, Cuba, 64; Prentice, Lt. Royal A., “The Rough Riders,” New Mexico Historical Review, 26–4 (Oct. 1951) and 27.1 (Jan. 1952) 30.

  27. Azo.82, 31.

  28. Ib.; Pri.189.

  29. RR.50.

  30. Azo.78–9; Mil.270. The details of Wheeler’s advance to the front are rather confused. Mil.270 has him riding to Siboney at the head of the entire Cavalry Division on the afternoon of June 2. Azo.79 accepts this account. But Davis, Campaigns, 136 specifically states that the General reconnoitred the country beyond Siboney that afternoon, and had a plan for the next day’s maneuvers worked out by the time Wood and TR arrived. Marshall, who took part in the march from Siboney, confirms (Story, 83). TR, in RR.50, says that the 1st and 10th Cavalry left Daiquiri before the Rough Riders; it therefore seems that Wheeler must have left with those regiments, much earlier in the day.

  31. McIntosh, Cuba, 82.

  32. Mar.78–83; Jones, Rough Riders, 112.

  33. Marshall, Story, 78. Marshall had been amazed by the violence of TR’s reaction when the Yucatán steamed off without unloading a saddle for Texas. “His wrath was boiling, his grief was heartbreaking.” (Ib.)

  34. Jones, Rough Riders, 111.

  35. McIntosh, Cuba, 69.

  36. Mil.270–1; RR.51; Davis, Campaigns, 136; Freidel, Frank, The Splendid Little War (Little, Brown, 1958) 100; RR.52, 57.

  37. Marshall, Story, 88–9; RR.51–2.

  38. Brown, Correspondents’ War, 313; Hag.LW.162.

  39. The following account of the Battle of Las Guásimas is based on these primary sources: Cosby, “A RRR Looks Back”; Marshall, Cuba, 90; Davis, Campaigns, 138–72; RR. 53–72; TR.Auto.245 ff; Mor.844–6; and Hag.LW.I.163–170, which is itself based on Wood’s written account of the fight. Secondary sources: Azo.; Freidel, Splendid Little War; Mil.; Brown, Correspondents’ War; Crane, Stephen, War Dispatches, ed. R. W. Stallman and E. R. Hageman (N.Y.U. Press, 1964). Crane saw nothing of the fighting.

  40. Marshall, Story, 91.

  41. Stephen Crane, writing from the opposite point of view, said that the Rough Riders looked like “brown flies” as they swarmed up the bluff. Cosby, “A RRR Looks Back,” 82.

  42. RR.56.

  43. See Stallman, R. W., Stephen Crane: A Biography (NY, 1968) for a full analysis of the relationship of TR and Crane.

  44. Davis, Campaigns, 139.

  45. RR. 104 (TR says the body was “Cuban”); Azo.86; Davis, Campaigns, 141.

  46. Ib., 142; Marshall, Story, 99–100; Davis, Campaigns, 141.

  47. Marshall, Story, 99–100.

  48. Ib. Most other sources, including several defensively cited by TR in Ch. IV of RR., say that the first shots did not come until after Wood had deployed the Rough Riders against the enemy. However all these sources represent a revisionist view of events, since the Rough Riders were much embarrassed by reports that they had been ambushed (as indeed they were). The author chooses to follow Marshall, who was with TR when the first shot came, and who had especial reasons for remembering the Battle of Las Guásimas with clarity.

  49. Marshall, Story, 119–21, 124.

  50. Azo.90. The s
tatistic of course refers to military, rather than naval, operations.

  51. Hagedorn memo, “Wood under Fire,” TRB mss.

  52. RR.68–9.

  53. Marshall, Story, 104.

  54. Mor. 844.

  55. Azo.91; see also Hag.LW.I. 164–7 (Wood afterward confessed that he had been thinking much of the time about life insurance); Marshall, Story, 104.

  56. RR.57–8; Marshall, Story, 110. TR insisted afterward that the sounds were bird calls at least “until we came right up to the Spanish lines.” RR.56. But Edward Marshall (93) and Stephen Crane, who had been in Cuba much longer than he, recognized the calls. “Ah, the wood-dove!” wrote Crane, “the Spanish guerrilla wood-dove which had presaged the death of gallant marines at Guantanamo!” Crane, Dispatches, 156. One senses a certain ornithological embarrassment in TR’s disclaimer, not to mention unwillingness to admit that he had been victim of an ambush.

  57. Davis, Campaigns, 149 points out that Wood had to plot all his tactical movements by ear, being unable to see more than two or three of his own troops at a time, let alone the enemy. RR.59; Mil.116.

  58. Crane, Dispatches, 157; Davis, Campaigns, 146.

  59. Ib.

  60. Hag.LW.I.165. The best overall accounts of the battle are Freidel, Splendid Little War, 102–9, and Azo.83–85.

  61. Davis, Campaigns, 148–9; Azo.95.

  62. Azo.95.

  63. Lawton, qu. Azo.96.

  64. RR.50; Azo.83, 95.

  65. See Stallman, Crane, 383; Crane, Dispatches, 158.

  66. McIntosh, Cuba, 89–90.

  67. Brown, Correspondents’ War, 321–2.

  68. McIntosh, Cuba, 117; see New York Times, June 27, 1898, “Rough Riders Prove Heroes” for sample press treatment. Not one of the article’s six headlines made reference to any other regiment. For gubernatorial announcement, see ib., June 28.

  69. See, e.g., TR.Auto.245 ff.; Foulke, William D., A Hoosier Autobiography (NY, 1922), 119. TR.Auto.245.

  70. Cosby, “A RRR Looks Back,” 87.