IXCampaigning in Cuba

TheRough 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 anddemanded 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, ascommander 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.

COPYRIGHT, UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOODBEFORE 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

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 hadnot 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.

When the Rough Riders reached the scene of action they had first to climb a very steep hill. They went into action with less than five hundred men.

Captain Capron’s troop was in the lead, followed by Colonel Wood. Roosevelt rode close behind them at the head of the other three troops of his squadron. The trail was so narrow that at many places the men had to march in single file. At other times they had to force their way through dense, tangled jungles. After marching for over an hour they came to a halt, but Colonel Wood announced that the advance guard had come upon a Spanish outpost.

A minute later Wood gave Roosevelt orders to deploy three troops to the right of the trail and advance. A roar in front of them soon announced that the fight was on.

Roosevelt and his officers were searching for the place from which the smokeless powder of the Spaniards was pouring Mauser bullets upon his men.

It was the famous war correspondent, Richard Harding Davis, who first showed Roosevelt’s men where to direct their fire. He had accompanied the Rough Riders and had taken a place at the extreme front of the line, from which place he spotted with his glasses the exact location of the Spaniards.

“There they are, Colonel!” he suddenly cried. “Look! Over there! I can see their heads near that glade!”

Roosevelt looked across the valley where Davis was pointing. He, too, discovered the heads of the Spanish soldiers and directed his sharp-shooters to fire on them.

The Spaniards sprang out of the cover and ran to another spot. The shots of the Americans had told. The Spaniards continued to retreat. The Rough Riders and the other troops pursued. They were forced to leave the wounded in the jungle where they fell.

Harry Hefner of G Troop, fell mortally wounded in the hip. Two of his companions dragged him behind a tree. He propped himselfup and asked for his canteen and his rifle. He then resumed shooting, and continued firing until he died.

Roland, a New Mexican cow-puncher, fought beside Roosevelt. The Colonel noticed blood issuing from his side and ordered the trooper to go to the rear. Roland grumbled, but went back. Fifteen minutes later he was on the firing line again. He told the Colonel that he could not find the hospital. Roosevelt doubted it, but let him stay until the end of the fight, when it was discovered that a bullet had broken one of his ribs.

When the scrimmage began some of the men began to curse. “Don’t swear—shoot!” Wood growled at them.

Toward the end of the engagement Roosevelt was falsely informed that Wood had been killed. The command of the regiment for the time being devolved upon the Colonel. He started to lead his men toward the main body, but met Wood himself, who told him that the fight was over and that the Spaniards had retreated.

In this first scrimmage the Rough Riders lost eight men killed and thirty-four wounded. They had taken a Spanish fort, defended by more than twelve hundred men, and had won from them complete possession of the entire Spanish position.

Next came the historic battle of San Juan. When news of the battle reached General Shafter he was told that the Americans had been cut to pieces. It was also said that the regiment had passed the advanced outpost without orders. Shafter exploded.

“I will send that damned cowboy regiment,” he said, “so far to the rear that it will not get another chance.”

Later, however, came the news that the cowboys had been victorious, so Shafter wrote a flattering letter to Roosevelt, in command, congratulating him on the success of his attack.

There followed a period of inaction. Then the Rough Riders received orders to proceed against Santiago.

The regiment struck camp and marched to the front behind the 1st and 10th Cavalry. Every man carried three days’ rations.

Roosevelt’s command joined General Wood at El Paso Hill and camped for the night.

The next morning it was announced that the main fighting against Santiago was to be done by Lawton’s infantry division, which was ordered to take El Caney, while the Rough Riders wereordered simply to make a diversion with artillery.

When the firing began shrapnel shells exploded over Roosevelt’s head. One of the shrapnel bullets struck his wrist. The same shell wounded four men of his regiment. He at once led his men from their exposed position into the underbrush.

General Wood then ordered Roosevelt to follow behind the 1st Brigade, and the Rough Riders began a march toward the ford of the San Juan River. They reached the ford and crossed it. In front of them was a rise of ground, afterward called Kettle Hill. Roosevelt found the 1st Brigade engaged in a hot battle, so he halted his men and sent back word for orders.

On top of Kettle Hill were large haciendas, or ranch buildings. The Spaniards, from their stations on the hills, poured a heavy fire on the American troops, who were hidden in sheltered lanes and along the edge of the San Juan River, or in patches of jungle grass. Roosevelt, lying with his troops under this severe fire, sent messenger after messenger to General Sumner or General Wood to secure permission to advance. He had about determined to go ahead when Lieutenant-Colonel Dorst rode up with the command to “move forward and support the regulars inthe assault on the hills in front.” The impatient Roosevelt leaped upon his horse. He had intended to go into action on foot, but he saw that he would be unable to run up and down the line and superintend matters if he were on foot. His men went eagerly to the attack. The Colonel started in the rear of his men, as was the custom for a Colonel, but his ardor soon bore him to the head of the regiment.

As he rode down the line he saw a slacker hidden behind a little bush. To urge the soldier forward he called:

“Are you afraid to stand up while I am on horseback?”

While Roosevelt was speaking, a bullet, evidently aimed at him, struck and killed the man who was hiding.

There has been much discussion as whether Roosevelt exceeded his authority in the capture of Kettle Hill. In reviewing the matter it is best to take the Colonel’s own account of what happened. In his book “The Rough Riders” he thus describes the charge:

“By the time I had come to the head of the regiment we ran into the left wing of the 9th Regulars, and some of the 1st Regulars, who were lying down while the officers were walkingto and fro. The officers of the white and colored regiments alike took the greatest pride in seeing that the men more than did their duty; and the mortality among them was great.

“I spoke to the captain in command of the rear platoons, saying that I had been ordered to support the regulars in the attack upon the hills, and that in my judgment we could not take these hills by firing at them, and that we must rush them. He answered that his orders were to keep his men lying where they were, and that he could not charge without order. I asked where the colonel was, and, as he was not in sight, said: ‘Then I am the ranking officer here and I give the order to charge,’ for I did not want to keep the men longer in the open suffering under a fire which they could not effectively return.

“Naturally, the captain hesitated to obey this order when no word had been received from his own colonel. So I said: ‘Then let my men through, sir,’ and rode on through the lines, followed by the grinning Rough Riders, whose attention had been completely taken off the Spanish bullets, partly by my dialogue with the regulars and partly by the language I had been using to themselves as I got the lines forward, for I had been joking with some and swearing atothers, as the exigencies of the case seemed to demand.

“When I got to where the head of the left wing of the 9th was lying, through the courtesy of Lieutenant Hartwick, two of whose colored troopers threw down the fence, I was enabled to get back into the lane, at the same time waving my hat and giving the order to charge the hill on our right front. Out of my sight, over on the right, Captains McBlain and Taylor, of the 9th, made up their minds independently to charge at just about this time; and at almost the same moment Colonels Carroll and Hamilton, who were off, I believe, to my left, where we could see neither them nor their men, gave the order to advance. But of all this I knew nothing at the time. The whole line, tired of waiting and eager to close with the enemy, was straining to go forward; and it seems that different parts slipped the leash at almost the same moment. The 1st Cavalry came up the hill just behind, and partly mixed with my regiment and the 9th. As already said, portions of the 3d, 6th and 10th followed, while the rest of the members of these three regiments kept more in touch with the infantry on our left.”

Roosevelt, at the head of his cheering, firingmen, galloped toward the hill. Forty yards from the top he ran into a wire fence and was forced to dismount from his horse, Little Texas, and turn it loose.

The Spaniards fled from the ranch buildings as the Americans approached, and soon the hill was covered with Rough Riders and the colored troopers of the 9th, with some men from the 1st. On the top of the hill was a huge iron kettle, used probably for sugar refining. From this big pot the battle derived its name of Kettle Hill.

Having aided materially in the capture of Kettle Hill, Roosevelt and his men looked toward their left, to where the Spaniards were fighting in the trenches under the San Juan blockhouse. General Hawkins’ brigade was storming this blockhouse and soon captured it. When the blockhouse fell the Colonel ordered a charge to a line of hills still further on.

Only four men started with him. Three of these were shot. Roosevelt gave one of the wounded his canteen of water and ran back to find out why the other soldiers had not followed. He found that nobody had heard his orders.

By this time General Sumner had come up andRoosevelt asked of him permission to lead the charge. Sumner gave his consent and the Rough Riders stormed the Spanish entrenchment. There was close fighting, which resulted in the taking of a few prisoners, and what was more important to the men, the capture of Spanish provisions.

Later in the day the Spaniards counter-attacked. The Rough Riders were glad of the chance to fight in the open, and drove back the Spaniards with laughter and cheers. During this fight Roosevelt was the highest officer in command at his part of the front.

A rumor went around that the men were to be ordered to fall back. That evening after the fight, General Wheeler visited the front and told Roosevelt to keep himself in readiness to fall back if necessary. Roosevelt answered:

“Well, general, I really don’t know whether we would obey an order to fall back. We can take that city by a rush and if we have to move out of here at all I should be inclined to make the rush in the right direction.”

General Wheeler thought for a moment, then he expressed his hearty agreement with the Colonel’s sentiments and promised that there would be no falling back. Wheeler had been ill for a couple of days, but like the old gamecock he was,he had managed to take a strong part in the fight.

It was the opinion of the Rough Riders that if there had been one in high command to press the attack that afternoon the Americans would have gone right into Santiago.

The next day the battle became a siege and most of the fighting was done from trench works. The flag of truce was sent to demand the surrender of the city. Each day thereafter the soldiers expected to see Santiago surrendered, and whatever fighting was done was of a minor nature.

During the truce certain military attachés and foreign officers came out to visit the Rough Riders. Interesting, in view of the warm relations between Britain and America during the world war, was the incident that happened when Prince X, a Russian, visited Roosevelt. The Colonel introduced him to one of the regular army officers, a splendid fellow, who yet viewed foreign relations from a strictly mid-Western viewpoint. Roosevelt overheard him remark to the Russian, whom he called “Prince” as familiarly as a Kentuckian called his neighbor “Colonel”:

“You see, Prince, the great result of this war is that it has united the two branches of the Anglo-Saxon people; and now that they are together they can whip the world, Prince! They can whip the world!”

Other army officers, who had not received the training in diplomacy and international relationship that our American officers have received in the late conflict, had the habit of grouping all of these foreign attachés under the title of “Dutchmen.”

When this same Russian was making his farewell round, a general shook hands with him heartily, with this parting remark:

“Well, goodby; sorry you are going. Which are you anyhow—a German or a Russian?”

On the 17th of July, Santiago formally surrendered, and the Rough Riders with the rest of the army were drawn up beside their trenches. The American flag was hoisted, the trumpets sounded and the men cheered. Their fighting was over.

After the siege, the army officers in Washington proposed to keep the army stationed around Santiago. General Shafter tried his best to have the army ordered home. The health of the troops was becoming very bad. Yellow fever and malarial fever had attacked them. If the soldiers remained it is possible that at least one-half of them would have died or have become invalided.

General Shafter’s attempts failed and at last he called a council of his commanders and generalmedical officers and consulted them in the matter.

Roosevelt, while he had command of a brigade, was only a colonel and did not mean to attend the conference, but General Shafter sent word to him that he was wanted particularly, and he went.

The general explained to his officers that he could not get the War Department to appreciate their situation and that the public itself was ignorant of the ravages disease was making upon their ranks. He felt that there should be some announcement issued which would make the War Department take action before most of the men were down with sickness.

At this point General Shafter sought Roosevelt’s assistance. He explained to him that as he was a volunteer officer, about to return immediately to civil life, he could afford to take risks which regular army men could not afford to take. Therefore, he suggested that the Colonel write a letter or make a statement appealing for a withdrawal of the army from the fever holes of Cuba.

Roosevelt left the meeting with the understanding that he would give an interview on the subject to the press. General Wood, however, hinted to him that it would be better to put his statement in the form of a letter to General Shafter. This Roosevelt did. Then he presentedthe letter to General Shafter, who waved it away and said:

“I don’t want to take it; do what you wish with it!”

The Colonel, however, persisted in handing it to him. At the same time a “Round Robin” was in course of preparation by the commanding officers. This also was addressed to General Shafter.

This document, at the request of the commanding officers, was written by General Wood, who being a surgeon, keenly realized the need of removing the men from their pestilential quarters, and was signed by Generals Kent, Bates, Chaffee, Sumner, Ludlow, Ames and Wood.

The Associated Press representative was anxious to secure a copy of this “Round Robin,” but Wood told him it was impossible for him to have it or see it.

Wood then went to General Shafter, handed him the paper and said:

“The matter is now in your hands.”

Shafter said: “I don’t care whether this gentleman has it or not,” referring to The Associated Press correspondent.

The Associated Press representative thensecured a copy of the dispatch and thus the affair became public. The result of this publicity became immediately felt. Within three days the army received orders to prepare to sail for home.

On August 7 the Rough Riders embarked on the transport Miamee. At last the transport sighted the Long Island coast, and late on the afternoon of the 14th it entered the waters of the Sound and cast anchor at Montauk Point.

The Rough Riders stood by their Colonel to the man. In the United States disparaging remarks had been made about the Colonel and his regiment. Some of the officials in Washington, angered at his criticisms of the canned beef and the short supplies sent to the men, took occasion to sneer at his campaign.

In the jungles of Cuba, however, the Rough Riders saw Roosevelt in his true light. He looked after their comfort and well-being. He sympathized with them in their predicaments. He understood them and helped them out of many difficulties. When they broke rules he was as merciful to them as it was possible to be, and whatever attitude he assumed toward them was felt by them to be for their own good.

These were times when battles were won, not by the side that had the greatest amount of shellsand shock troops, but by those who displayed a personal bravery, and Roosevelt fought in such a gallant manner that those who had accused him of enlisting for personal motives soon grew ashamed of their spitefulness.

Roosevelt was not given to profanity, but when there came times when a soldier could only be handled by the use of language he knew, the Colonel did not balk at using that language. It is said of him that he once confessed to another officer in a repentant manner: “I swore today.”

Then he made this explanation:

“A captain riding off in cool disregard of orders is enough to make the sweetest-tempered archangel use ‘language.’ What I said, or rather bellowed was: ‘What in —— are you doing? Good ——, wheel into line!’ What I might have said was: ‘Really, my dear sir, do you not observe that you are acting in direct opposition to my instructions? I beg that you will not march your troop into Kamchatka.’ Well, one always thinks afterward of what one might have said.”

HALL AT SAGAMORE HILL

It is interesting to note that the original idea for a regiment such as the Rough Riders was suggested to Roosevelt several years before the Spanish War by no other man than Baron von Sternburg of the German Embassy. The baron,when only seventeen, had served in the Franco-Prussian War as a hussar. There was no war with Germany on the American horizon in those days and the baron spent a week in camp at Montauk with the Rough Riders upon their return.

On the Sunday before the regiment disbanded at Montauk, there came an occasion of genuine surprise to the Colonel. He was asked out of his tent by Lieutenant-Colonel Brodie and found the whole regiment formed in a hollow square. When he entered the square one of the men stepped forward and presented him with a splendid bronze of Remington’s “The Bronco Buster.” Roosevelt was deeply touched and deeply appreciative of this very appropriate gift. After the presentation the men filed past and Roosevelt shook hands with each and bade him farewell.

The next morning the men scattered to their homes. Some went North and South. Some went to the great cities of the East. Some turned to the plains, the mountains and the deserts.

The straight-from-the-shoulder sermon the Colonel preached to his Rough Riders as they went out to resume their citizen occupations was one that made a permanent impression upon their lives.

“Get action; do things; be sane,” he said to them, “don’t flitter away your time; create; act; take a place wherever you are and be somebody!”

Through the remainder of his historic career the Colonel never reached too great a place to be out of touch with his Rough Riders, no matter what humble positions they held. No member of the regiment ever came to the White House to see his former chief without Roosevelt breaking all engagements to shake his hand and talk over with him the stirring events in Cuba.

It is said that when Senator Shelby M. Cullom, of Illinois, went to call on President Roosevelt and was forced to wait before he could get in to see him he asked of the doorkeeper: “Who is in there?”

“A former Rough Rider,” was the reply.

“Then,” queried Cullom, “what chance have I, merely a Senator?”

He turned away, promising to return at a time when he would not have to compete with such an attraction.

Roosevelt’s experience during the Cuban campaign made him deeply sympathetic with the lot of the soldier. This was in evidence when, while he was President, our army was engaged in combating the guerilla warfare in the Philippines. Anorder was then issued by the War Department that while the names of officers killed should be reported by cable, only the numbers of privates fallen should be sent.

The press of the country announced that a certain regiment had been engaged in battle. The War Department was besieged by the parents of the soldiers for information, but no news as to who were killed or wounded came until the lists arrived by mail.

President Roosevelt was at Sagamore Hill when the facts were reported to him. General Corbin was present. He asked the general what the order meant. The general told him that it had been issued for the purpose of economy, that each officer had a symbol in the cable code, but that to transmit the name and regiment of each private would cost $25 or more for each man. When this explanation had been made Roosevelt said:

“Corbin, can you telegraph from here to the Philippines?”

The general said that he could and suggested that he be allowed to do so when he returned from Washington.

“No,” said Roosevelt, “we cannot wait. Send the order to have the names telegraphed at once.Those mothers gave the best they had to their country. We will not have them breaking their hearts for $25 or $50.”

Now that the world war is over and the question of whether the United States is to depend on volunteer military organization or on regular armies has been definitely settled in favor of the latter view, it is well to admit that the decision is a wise one. A regiment like the Rough Riders was exceptional among volunteers. Roosevelt himself, in his book “The Rough Riders,” makes this comparison between the volunteer regiment and the regular regiment:

“The regiment was a wholly exceptional volunteer organization, and its career cannot be taken as in any way a justification for the belief that the average volunteer regiment approaches the average regular regiment in point of efficiency until it has had many months of active service. In the first place, though the regular regiments may differ markedly among themselves, yet the range of variation among them is nothing like so wide as that among volunteer regiments, where at first there is no common standard at all; the very best being, perhaps, up to the level of the regulars while the very worst are no better than mobs, and the great bulk come in between. Theaverage regular regiment is superior to the average volunteer regiment in the physique of the enlisted men, who have been very carefully selected, who have been trained to life in the open, and who know how to cook and take care of themselves generally.”

Back to Index Next