The Roughest Riders

by Jerome Tuccille

  General Powell stated his own feelings poetically on the day of the dedication: “They are the wind beneath my wings.” Indeed, they will be the wind beneath the wings of many generations to come.

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  The battlefields are in different places now, and many of the old ones have changed over the decades. The Civil War killing fields where the Buffalo Soldiers spilled their blood a century and a half ago are mostly national parks where Americans and foreign tourists can visit and get a rough idea of what special kind of hell the country lived through back then. The plains where the Buffalo Soldiers first got their name from the Comanche and Cheyenne warriors they battled in the late 1800s have been parceled into vast corporate ranches, upscale leisure communities, public parks, and reservations for the folks who first roamed the land. And the hills in Cuba, where the Buffalo Soldiers rescued Teddy Roosevelt and his colorful band of Rough Riders from almost certain annihilation, have changed most of all.

  Today, the former Spanish stronghold at Santiago de Cuba is an industrial city on the harbor, replete with warehouses, factories, wharves, and other maritime facilities strewn along the water’s edge. The historic center of town has been preserved much the way it looked in 1898 and has become a draw for tourists from around the globe. The San Juan Heights north of the city are dotted with residential developments that undulate across the rolling terrain to the top of San Juan and Kettle Hills and other peaks in the area. The original blockhouse at the crest of San Juan Hill where so many lives were lost no longer exists; the Cuban government ripped it down and built a replica that sits at the center of a park and museum, which were established twenty-five years after the war ended. The park contains well-preserved Spanish and US artillery pieces and other weapons used during the war, plus a plethora of statues and plaques commemorating the Cuban and American troops who together defeated the Spanish. Visitors can look out from the edges of the park and see the village of El Caney to the northeast and the peak of El Pozo to the east.

  Perhaps the biggest eyesore in the area is the former Hotel Leningrad, more recently the Hotel San Juan, which was constructed by Soviet-era architects for Russian tourists in a clumsy attempt to capture the tropical splendor of the region. Fortunately, the grounds are covered with palm trees and other flora, which hide some of the monotonous outlines of the structure. Equally troubling are the size and location of the hotel, which cuts off views of the siege lines during the war. A zoo and amusement park also rest incongruously on the slopes. More appropriately, a hospital adorns the side of the hill, a vivid reminder of the carnage that took place there. The steepness of the slope leading to the crest of San Juan remains much in evidence, although some commercial and residential structures obscure the contours of near-lying Kettle Hill.

  El Caney is much less recognizable as the quaint, historic battlefield village it once was, except for the church in the center of town, the main plaza, and the ruins of El Viso, which have been left standing. More modern and less imaginative developments engulf the winding, twisting streets and narrow passageways where much of the fighting occurred. Las Guasimas has been left largely intact, and both Siboney and Daiquiri are unaltered by the passage of time, except for a hotel compound that sits on the hill above the latter.

  The memory of the Buffalo Soldiers lingers on in the hills of southeastern Cuba, as it does in other battle sites in the United States and abroad where they fought bravely for their country. The terrain and killing fields may look different these many years later, but the memory cannot be erased. What the Buffalo Soldiers accomplished during their long, remarkable history—which until now has remained a mere footnote in the pages of time—remains the wind beneath the wings of the black warriors who followed them into combat in later wars.

  Acknowledgments

  This book would not have seen the light of day were it not for my agent, Linda D. Konner, who encouraged me to move forward with it from the time I first mentioned it to her. No writer has ever had better representation. Many thanks go to my editor Jerry Pohlen. Ernest Hemingway once said that no good writers would need an editor if they had the leisure to wait five years from the time they finished until they published a book. But deadlines are rarely stretched out quite that far. Jerry served me well from the time I submitted the book until it was ready for publication, and I am indebted to him for that. Thanks also to Michelle Williams, Lisa Marietta, and the rest of the dedicated staff at Chicago Review Press, who ushered my manuscript from the typed page through the final stages of production and promotion.

  I would like to thank General Colin L. Powell, who brought the Buffalo Soldiers to the forefront of the nation’s consciousness by establishing the monument in their honor at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, more than two decades ago. His stirring words on that occasion appear in the forefront and penultimate chapter of this book. His astonishing career is an inspiration to everyone who values military service as the ultimate guardian of liberty in a free society.

  I also appreciate the help I received from the administrators, directors, and other personnel at the Library of Congress, the National Archives and Records Administration, the National Park Service, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian Institution, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, the Presidio Trust, the Spanish-American War Centennial Society, the US Army Garrison at Fort Leavenworth, the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, and other organizations that provided me with pertinent information for this book. In particular, I would like to acknowledge the help and cooperation I received from National Park Service rangers Frederik Penn, Anthony Powell, and Shelton Johnson.

  Many thanks go to my daughter Christine Tuccille Merry, proprietor of Merryhaus Design, who has been an emissary and surrogate for this project every step along the way. Her efforts in researching photographs and securing the rights for their inclusion in the book, promoting the project on social media and other venues, establishing a title-specific webpage, and helping in other ways have been invaluable to me.

  Special thanks go to Don Holman who supplied me with an original research paper on the sinking of the Maine written by his father, Donald A. Holman. The information in it proved to be a valuable source of information unavailable anywhere else. I would like to thank Allen K. Boetig, whose knowledge of military operations was extremely helpful to me. Thanks go to Don Wimmer, who pointed me in the direction of his son Eric Wimmer, who went out of his way to do some legwork for me at the Presidio in San Francisco, the final resting place of 450 Buffalo Soldiers.

  I owe a great deal to my wife of half a century, Marie Winkler Tuccille, who performed the first editorial review of the manuscript in progress and provided me with her usual incisive comments. Marie not only encouraged me to pick up the project after I temporarily put it aside, she also put up with my compulsive work schedule during the five or more years I researched and wrote the book. Her patience and understanding mean more to me than I could ever express.

  A complete list of source material appears in the bibliography following these pages. The list includes dozens of books, articles, monographs, previously published and unpublished documents, and detailed reports about the period covered in this book. There are too many to single out, but I would like to acknowledge my indebtedness to the writers who covered this subject in varying degrees of detail before me. Their own time and labor made it possible for me to complete my job.

  If I have left anyone out who has been helpful to me, I apologize. I truly appreciate all contributions and take full responsibility for any errors that may have found their way into the final printed pages of The Roughest Riders.

  Bibliography

  Books

  Abbott, Lawrence F. Impressions of Theodore Roosevelt. New York: Double-day, Page and Company, 1919.

  Alger, R. A. The Spanish-American War. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1901.

  Atkins, Edwin F. Sixty Years in Cuba. New York: Arno Press, 1980.


  Atkins, John Black. The War in Cuba: The Experiences of an Englishman with the United States Army. London: Smith, Elder and Company, 1899.

  Azoy, A. C. M. Charge! The Story of the Battle of San Juan Hill. New York: Longmans, Green and Company, 1961.

  Berryman, John. Stephen Crane: A Critical Biography. New York: Cooper Square Press, 1950.

  Bigelow, John Jr. Reminiscences of the Santiago Campaign. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1899.

  Bonehill, Ralph. When Santiago Fell. Rahway, NJ: Mershon Company, 1899.

  Brands, H. W. The Reckless Decade: America in the 1980s. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1995.

  Brooks, Elbridge S. The Story of Our War with Spain. Boston: Northrop Publishing Company, 1899.

  Brown, Charles H. The Correspondents’ War. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1967.

  Buckley, Gail. American Patriots: The Story of Blacks in the Military from the Revolution to Desert Storm. New York: Random House, 2001.

  Carlson, Paul. Pecos Bill: A Military Biography of William R. Shafter. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1989.

  Carter, William H. The Life of Lieutenant General Chaffee. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1917.

  Cashin, Herschel V. Under Fire with the Tenth US Cavalry. New York: F. Tennyson Neely, 1899.

  Chesnutt, Charles W. The Marrow of Tradition. New York: Penguin Classics, 1993.

  Chidsey, Donald Barr. The Spanish-American War. New York: Crown Publishers, 1971.

  Davis, Charles Belmont, ed. Adventures and Letters of Richard Harding Davis. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1917.

  Davis, Richard Harding. Cuba in War Time. New York: R. H. Russell, 1899.

  ——. Notes of a War Correspondent. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1912.

  Dawes, Charles G. A Journal of the McKinley Years. Chicago: The Lakeside Press, 1950.

  Dickman, J. T., ed. The Santiago Campaign: Reminiscences of the Operations for the Capture of Santiago de Cuba in the Spanish-American War, June and July, 1898. Richmond, VA: Williams Printing Company, 1927.

  Dolan, Edward F. The Spanish-American War. Brookfield, CT: The Millbrook Press, 2001.

  Draper, Andrew S. The Rescue of Cuba. Boston: Silver, Burdett and Company, 1899.

  Dyer, John P. “Fightin’ Joe” Wheeler. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1941.

  Egli, Ida Rae, ed. No Rooms of Their Own: Women Writers of Early California, 1849–1869. Berkeley, CA: Heyday Books, 1992.

  Eicher, David J. The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001.

  Fletcher, Marvin. The Black Soldier and Officer in the United States Army: 1891–1917. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1974.

  ——. America’s First Black General: Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., 1880–1970. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1989.

  Foner, Philip S. The Spanish-Cuban-American War. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1972.

  Gatewood, Willard B. Jr. “Smoked Yankees” and the Struggle for Empire: Letters from Negro Soldiers 1898–1902. Urbana, Chicago, and London: University of Illinois Press, 1971.

  Gould, Lewis L. The Spanish-American War and President McKinley. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1950.

  Halstead, Murat. Full Official History of the War with Spain. Chicago: Dominion Company, 1899.

  Hill, Henry. San Juan Hill. New York: Dorchester Publishing Company, 1996.

  Johnson, Edward A. History of Negro Soldiers in the Spanish-American War. Raleigh, NC: Capital Printing Company, 1899.

  Katz, Friedrich. The Life and Times of Pancho Villa. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1998.

  Keithley, Ralph. Buckey O’Neill. Caldwell, ID: Caxton Printers, 1949.

  Konstam, Angus. San Juan Hill 1898: America’s Emergence as a World Power. Chapel Way, Botley, Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 1998.

  Lane, Ann J. The Brownsville Affair: National Crisis and Black Reaction. Port Washington, NY: Kennikat Press, 1971.

  Longacre, Edward G. A Soldier to the Last: Major General Joseph Wheeler in Blue and Gray. Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 2006.

  Lynk, Miles V. The Black Troopers. New York: AMS Press, 1971.

  Mahan, Alfred T. Lessons of the War with Spain. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1899.

  Millard, Candice. Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President. New York: Anchor, 2012.

  Millet, Frank D. The Expedition to the Philippines. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1899.

  Morris, Charles. The War with Spain. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1899.

  Moss, James A. Memories of the Campaign of Santiago. San Francisco: Mysell-Rollins Company, 1899.

  Munroe, Kirk. Forward March: A Tale of the Spanish-American War. London: Forgotten Books, 2012.

  Norris, Frank. The Surrender of Santiago. San Francisco: Paul Elder and Company, 1917.

  O’Toole, G. J. A. The Spanish War: An American Epic 1898. New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company, 1984.

  Quesada, Alejandro. The Hunt for Pancho Villa: The Columbus Raid and Pershing’s Punitive Expedition 1916–17. Chapel Way, Botley, Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2012.

  Rickover, H. G. How the Battleship Maine Was Destroyed. Washington, DC: US Department of the Navy, 1976.

  Roosevelt, Theodore. The Rough Riders. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1899.

  Samuels, Peggy, and Harold Samuels. Teddy Roosevelt at San Juan: The Making of a President. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1997.

  Sears, Joseph Hamblen. The Career of Leonard Wood. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1919.

  Sinkler, George. The Racial Attitudes of American Presidents. Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, 1971.

  Stewart, T. G. Buffalo Soldiers: Colored Regulars in the United States Army. Philadelphia: A. M. E. Book Concern, 1904; reprinted by Humanity Books, 2003.

  Various authors. The Spanish-American War: The Events of the War Described by Eye Witnesses. Chicago and New York: Herbert S. Stone & Company, 1899.

  Wells, Ida B., and Alfreda M. Duster. Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991.

  Wells, Ida B., and Jacqueline Jones. Southern Horrors and Other Writings: The Anti-Lynching Campaign of Ida B. Wells, 1892–1900. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1996.

  Wolff, Leon. Little Brown Brother: How the United States Purchased and Pacified the Philippines. New York: Oxford University Press USA, 1992.

  Articles

  Addeo, Alicia. “Tampa Is a Bum Place: The Letters of First Sergeant Henry A. Dobson in 1898.” Tampa Bay History, Spring/Summer 1998.

  Allen, Thomas B. “Remember the Maine?” National Geographic, February 1998.

  Cook, Roy. “Plains Indian View of the ‘Buffalo’ Soldier.” American indiansource.com. http://americanindiansource.com/buffalo%20soldiers/buffalosoldiers.html.

  Covington, James W. “The Rough Riders in Tampa.” Tampa Bay History, Spring/Summer 1998.

  Draffen, Duayne. “Roosevelt’s Rough Ride Led to Montauk.” New York Times, May 17, 1998.

  Dumindin, Arnaldo. “Philippine-American War, 1899–1902.” Philippine americanwar.webs.com. http://philippineamericanwar.webs.com/emilioaguinaldoreturns.htm.

  Gatewood, Willard B. “Black Troops in Florida during the Spanish- American War.” Tampa Bay History, Spring/Summer 1998.

  Hicks, George III, and Carmen Weaver Hicks. “Kansas City, Missouri, and Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.” Buffalo Soldiers Research Museum, February 2005.

  Hillestad, James H. “Up, Up and Away!” Toy Soldiers Museum and Shop, Cresco, PA.

  Holman, Donald A. “The Destruction of the Maine, February 15, 1898.” Quarterly Review, Autumn 1953.

  Hubener, Hal. “Army Life in Lakeland, Florida, during the Spanish- American War.” Tampa Bay History, Spring/Summer 1998.

  Hymel, Kevin. “Black Jack in Cuba: General John J. Pershing’s Service in the Spanish-Am
erican War.” On Point, Winter 1998.

  Kite-Powell, Rodney. “All Eyes Were on Tampa in 1898.” Tampa Tribune, August 26, 2012.

  Lorenzen, William A. IV. “The Rocking Chair War: Views of Tampa in the New York Press during 1898.” Tampa Bay History, Spring/Summer 1998.

  McSherry, Patrick. “A Brief History of the 2nd US Artillery, Battery A.” Spanish-American War Centennial Website. www.spanamwar.com/3rd%20Alabamahistory.html.

  O’Malley, Michael. “A Blood Red Record: The 1890s and American Apartheid.” http://chnm.gmu.edu/exploring/19thcentury/empire/lecture.html.

  Plant, Trevor K. “Researching Service in the US Army during the Philippine Insurrection.” National Archives and Records Administration.

  Pohanka, Brian C. “Fort Wagner and the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry.” America’s Civil War Magazine, July 18, 1863.

  Powell, Anthony L. “Black Participation in the Spanish-American War.” Spanish-American War Centennial Website. www.spanamwar.com/AfroAmericans.htm.

  Rattiner, Dan. “Teddy Roosevelt’s Montauk Summer Vacation in 1898 with the Rough Riders.” Dan’s Papers, January 26, 2012.

  Rau, R. “Henry Ware Lawton: Forgotten Warrior.” Library of Congress, 1998.

  Rosenberg, Jennifer. “Pancho Villa.” About.com. http://history1900s.about.com/cs/panchovilla/p/panchovilla.htm.

  Schellings, William J. “Key West and the Spanish American War.” University of Florida, 1958.

  Tessman, Norm. “Captain William Owen ‘Buckey’ O’Neill (1860–1898).” Spanish-American War Centennial Website. www.spanamwar.com/Oneill.htm.

  Select Monographs and Online Postings

  “African-American Civil War Soldiers.” Kansas Historical Society, January 2010. www.kshs.org/kansapedia/african-american-civil-war-soldiers/15122.

  “African-American Milestones in Naval History.” Naval History and Heritage Command. www.history.navy.mil/search.html?q=african+american+milestones+in+american+history.

  “African-Americans and the US Navy: The Golden Thirteen.” Naval History and Heritage Command. www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/photography/us-people/s/sublett-frank-e/nh-95624.html.