Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} The Rough Rider by . The most famous of all the units fighting in , the "Rough Riders" was the name given to the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry under the leadership of Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt resigned his position as Assistant Secretary of the Navy in May 1898 to join the volunteer cavalry. The original plan for this unit called for filling it with men from the Indian Territory, New Mexico, Arizona, and Oklahoma. However, once Roosevelt joined the group, it quickly became the place for a mix of troops ranging from Ivy League athletes to glee-club singers to Texas Rangers and Indians. The graves of the Rough Riders Photographic History, p. 251. Download an uncompressed TIFF (.tif) version of this image. Roosevelt and the commander of the unit Colonel trained and supplied the men so well at their camp in San Antonio, Texas, that the Rough Riders was allowed into the action, unlike many other volunteer companies. They went to Tampa at the end of May and sailed for on June 13. There they joined the Fifth Corps, another highly trained, well supplied, and enthusiastic group consisting of excellent soldiers from the regular army and volunteers. The Rough Riders saw battle at Las Guásimas when General Samuel B. M. Young was ordered to attack at this village, three miles north of Siboney on the way to Santiago. Although it was not important to the outcome of the war, news of the action quickly made the papers. They also made headlines for their role in the , which became the stuff of legend thanks to Roosevelt's writing ability and reenactments filmed long after. T. R. the Rough Rider: Hero of the Spanish American War. Among Theodore Roosevelt's many lifetime accomplishments, few capture the imagination as easily as his military service as a "Rough Rider" during the Spanish-American War. America had become interested in Cuba's liberation in the 1890s as publications portrayed the evil of Spanish Rule. No one favored Cuban independence more than Roosevelt. As Assistant Secretary of the Navy, he beat the war drum and prepared the Navy for war with Spain. The battleship USS Maine was dispatched to Havana, Cuba. After a few quiet months, anchored in Havana Harbor, the Maine suddenly exploded, killing 262 American sailors. Spain denied blowing up the Maine, but a US Navy investigation concluded that the explosion was caused by a mine. The cause of the explosion remains a mystery, but American journalists and Assistant Secretary Roosevelt, at the time, felt certain that it was a Spanish act of war. Shortly thereafter, war was declared. Roosevelt served gallantly during this brief conflict, which lasted from May to July, 1898. An eager Roosevelt resigned his post of Assistant Secretary of the Navy and petitioned Secretary of War Alger to allow him to form a volunteer regiment. Although he had three years of experience as a captain with the National Guard, Roosevelt deferred leadership of the regiment to Leonard Wood, a war hero with whom he was friendly. Wood, as Colonel, and Roosevelt, as Lt. Colonel, began recruiting and organizing the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry. They sorted through twenty- three thousand applications to form the regiment! Roosevelt's fame and personality turned him into the de-facto leader of this rag-tag group of polo players, hunters,cowboys, Native Americans, and athletic college buddies. The regiment of "Roosevelt's Rough Riders" was born. The Rough Riders participated in two important battles in Cuba. The first action they saw occurred at the Battle of Las Guasimas on June 24, where the Spanish were driven away. The Rough Riders lost seven men with thirty-four wounded. Roosevelt narrowly avoided bullets buzzing by him into the trees, showering splinters around his face. He led troops in a flanking position and the Spanish fled. American forces then assembled for an assault on the city of Santiago through the San Juan Hills. Colonel Wood was promoted in the field, and in response, Roosevelt happily wrote,"I got my regiment." The Battle of San Juan Heights was fought on July 1, which Roosevelt called "the great day of my life." He led a series of charges up Kettle Hill towards San Juan Heights on his horse, Texas, while the Rough Riders followed on foot. He rode up and down the hill encouraging his men with the orders to "March!" He killed one Spaniard with a revolver salvaged from the Maine. Other regiments continued alongside him, and the American flag was raised over San Juan Heights. Hostilities ceased shortly after Santiago fell to siege, and the Treaty of Paris gave the its first possessions: Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. The war had lasting impacts. The "splendid little war" lasted ten weeks. It destroyed the Spanish Empire and ushered in a new era of American Empire. Roosevelt's political career ignited as he returned a war hero and national celebrity. He charged on horseback to victory at Kettle Hill and, collectively, San Juan Heights, and continued riding that horse all the way to the White House just three years later. Roosevelt was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, one hundred years later, for what was described as "…acts of bravery on 1 July, 1898, near Santiago de Cuba, Republic of Cuba, while leading a daring charge up San Juan Hill." Theodore Roosevelt Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University. We hope you enjoy reading TR's own words about the Charge on San Juan Hill, or his reflections on the Rough Riders and the images that accompany them. If you are primarily interested in images relating to Theodore Roosevelt's experience in Cuba, please visit our Spanish American War & Rough Riders photo album ! The video shown below this text is of Theodore Roosevelt leaving his job as Assistant Secretary to the Navy. It is a silent film, apart from the introduction, which informs the viewer that this video is from the Library of Congress. In the scene, TR, in formal dress with hat, walks down the steps of the Treasury Building in Washington, D.C. and turns and walks toward the stationary camera. The south portico of the White House is visible through trees in background. #TRleaving. Theodore Roosevelt, 1897. In his own words . Who were the Rough Riders? Excerpts taken from the The Rough Riders by Theodore Roosevelt. Theodore Roosevelt Collection, Harvard College Library. "Secretary Alger offered me the command of one of these regiments. If I had taken it, being entirely inexperienced in military work, I should not have known how to get it equipped most rapidly, for I should have spent valuable weeks in learning its needs, with the result that I should have missed the Santiago campaign, and might not even have had the consolation prize of going to Porto Rico. Fortunately, I was wise enough to tell the Secretary that while I believed I could learn to command the regiment in a month, yet that it was just this very month which I could not afford to spare, and that therefore I would be quite content to go as Lieutenant-Colonel, if he would make Wood Colonel. This was entirely satisfactory to both the President and Secretary, and, accordingly, Wood and I were speedily commissioned as Colonel and Lieutenant-Colonel of the First United States Volunteer Cavalry." (pp.6 -7) "But owing to the fact that the number of men originally allotted to us, 780, was speedily raised to 1,000, we were given a chance to accept quite a number of eager volunteers who did not come from the Territories, but who possessed precisely the same temper that distinguished our Southwestern recruits, and whose presence materially benefited the regiment. We drew recruits from Harvard, Yale, Prince ton, and many another college; from clubs like the Somerset, of Boston, and Knickerbocker, of New York; and from among the men who be longed neither to club nor to college, but in whose veins the blood stirred with the same impulse which once sent the Vikings over sea." ( p. 9-10) Theodore Roosevelt Collection, Harvard College Library. "Then I went down to San Antonio [Texas] myself, where I found the men from New Mexico, Arizona, and Oklahoma already gathered, while those from Indian Territory came in soon after my arrival. These were the men who made up the bulk of the regiment, and gave it its peculiar character. They came from the Four Territories which yet remained within the boundaries of the United States; that is, from the lands that have been most recently won over to white civilization, and in which the conditions of life are nearest those that obtained on the frontier when there still was a frontier. " ( p. 14-15) "All—Easterners and Westerners, Northerners and Southerners, officers and men, cow-boys and college graduates, wherever they came from, and whatever their social position—possessed in com mon the traits of hardihood and a thirst for adventure. They were to a man born adventurers, in the old sense of the word." ( p. 19) "The life histories of some of the men who joined our regiment would make many volumes of thrilling adventure." ( p. 24) Image published in TR's Rough Riders. "There was Bucky O'Neill, of Arizona, Captain of Troop A, the Mayor of Prescott, a famous sheriff through out the West for his feats of victorious warfare against the Apache, no less than against the white road-agents and man-killers. , who was, on the whole, the best soldier in the regiment. In fact, I think he was the ideal of what an American regular army officer should be. He was the fifth in descent from father to son who had served in the army of the United States, and in body and mind alike he was fitted to play his part to perfection. Tall and lithe, a remarkable boxer and walker, a first-class rider and shot, with yellow hair and piercing blue eyes, he looked what he was, the archetype of the fighting man. He had under him one of the two companies from the Indian Territory; and he so soon impressed himself upon the wild spirit of his followers, that he got them ahead in discipline faster than any other troop in the regiment, while at the same time taking care of their bodily wants. His ceaseless effort was so to train them, care for them, and inspire them as to bring their fighting efficiency to the highest possible pitch. He required instant obedience, and tolerated not the slightest evasion of duty; but his mastery of his art was so thorough and his performance of his own duty so rigid that he won at once not merely their admiration, but that soldierly affection so readily given by the man in the ranks to the superior who cares for his men and leads them fearlessly in battle." Roosevelt, Theodore, Rough Riders, (p.18-19) Theodore Roosevelt Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University. "From the Indian Territory there came a number of Indians —Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, and Creeks. Only a few were of pure blood. The others shaded off until they were absolutely indistinguishable from their white comrades; with whom, it maybe mentioned, they all lived on terms of complete equality…One of the gamest fighters and best soldiers in the regiment was Pollock, a full blooded Pawnee. He had been educated, like most of the other Indians, at one of those admirable Indian schools which have added so much to the total of the small credit account with which the White race balances the very unpleasant debit account of its dealings with the Red. Pollock was a silent, solitary fellow—an excellent pen man, much given to drawing pictures." Roosevelt, Theodore Rough Riders (p. 20-21) Rough Riders by Theodore Roosevelt. In his own words . The charge on San Juan Hill, Cuba. Excerpts taken from the The Rough Riders by Theodore Roosevelt. "I sent messenger after messenger to try to find General Sumner or General Wood and get permission to advance, and was just about making up my mind that in the absence of orders I had better 'march toward the guns,' when Lieutenant Colonel Dorst came riding up through the storm of bullets with the welcome command 'to move forward and support the regulars in the assault on the hills in front.' " (p.125) Rough Riders by Theodore Roosevelt. "In the attack on the San Juan hills our forces numbered about 6,600.* There were about 4,500 Spaniards against us. Our total loss in killed and wounded was 1,071. Of the cavalry division there were, all told, some 2,300 officers and men, of whom 375 were killed and wounded. In the division over a fourth of the officers were killed or wounded, their loss being relatively half as great again as that of the enlisted men—which was as it should be. was as it should be. I think we suffered more heavily than the Spaniards did in killed and wounded (though we also captured some scores of prisoners)." (p.156-158) When Colonel Wood gets promoted, so does Theodore Roosevelt. This is an "Oath of Office" certifies Theodore Roosevelt's promotion to colonel of the First Volunteer Cavalry. (NARA, Records of the Adjutant General's Office, 1780s-1917, RG 94) Text includes: I Theodore Roosevelt having been appointed a Colonel First Volunteers Cavalry in the military service of the United States, do, solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will Support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance of the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God. [Signed] Theodore Roosevelt col 1st U.S.V. Sworn to and subscribed before me, at Santiago de Cuba , this 31st day of July, 1898 [signed] John H Parker. Want to explore more images & information about the War of 1898 (Spanish-American War)? Check out the Theodore Roosevelt Collection at Harvard College, the Library of Congress , & National Archives. For a short video of Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders, click here . For a short video of troops disembarking, click here. click here to explore the Library of Congress collection of short videos relating to the Spanish American War. THE ISSUE: Theodore Roosevelt and the Rough Riders. Theodore Roosevelt crossed my mind recently, prompted by a conversation with comics historian, former Marvel editor, and world's greatest Roosevelt expert Rick Marschall , which led me to think about the term "Rough Rider" because of course the word seeps into several corners of the dime novel field. Naturally, for every question about history, there is an issue (and typically many issues) which can help point the way towards answering that question. In this case, I chose Young Rough Riders Weekly #64 , July 8, 1905 from publisher Street and Smith. As in many such cases, it's really just a hook into helping us understand the context of the times. The Issue is a regular column about vintage comics and other vintage periodicals from throughout world history. The idea behind The Issue is simple: for each post, I'll choose something from my collection and talk about what's going on in it, and discuss the publishers and creators behind it. And essentially I'm just going to end up stepping through comics history one issue at a time. There is just one rule in The Issue : No recent stuff. Everything will be from before 1940, and most of it will be from before 1920. Regarding the origin and popularity of the term "Rough Rider" in the context of Theodore Roosevelt, Wikipedia tells me: Wood's second in command was former Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt, a strong advocate for the Cuban War of Independence. When Wood was promoted to become commander of the 2nd Cavalry Brigade, the regiment became known as "Roosevelt's Rough Riders." That term was borrowed from Buffalo Bill, who called his travelling Western show "Buffalo Bill's Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders of the World". One should always be skeptical of Wikipedia and indeed of any history you haven't confirmed with your own eyes, but let's see if they're right. A quick bit of research in various newspaper archives brings me to the obvious conclusion that the phrase "rough rider" started off meaning, basically "horse breaker" or "horse tamer" during the colonial era, both here and in England. By around the time of the American Civil War, the term began to take on a particular military meaning in addition to that, here in America at least — it was part of a cavalryman's skill set, and being good at it indicated competence and self-sufficiency. By the end of the war, "rough riders" became something akin to a guerrilla cavalry force. There the meaning of the term sat until the 1880s, when… yes indeed, Buffalo Bill and other showmen came on the scene. Newspaper reports of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and similar shows referred to some of the performers as "rough riders" — in a context that appears to mean what we'd refer to today as rodeo riders — and in particular bull riders. By the early 1890s Buffalo Bill had incorporated the name "rough riders" into the name of his act, as wiki indicates. But again, the usage has evolved somewhat — from descriptions, it's clear that this now means very very skilled horsemen. It's been generalized. From there, the phrase became even more broad, but harkens back to is civil-war-era meaning, such as this bit from an 1896 newspaper: "These last named are in the saddle in the United States Senate, and they are rough riders. They do not intend to allow any wholesome legislation to get through congress…" This leads us to 1898, Roosevelt, and the Spanish American War, and while Wiki is not completely wrong — Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show certainly did help popularize the term — I think it's clear that in the context of the cavalry, the meaning of the term is likely more similar to the civil war era meaning. Speaking of the meanings of phrases, I must leave you with this… while burning through the above research, this little gem from an 1897 newspaper column caught my eye: "Why do they say 'as smart as a steel trap?' asked the talkative boarder. I never could see anything particularly intellectual about a steel trap. A steel trap is called smart, explained Mr. Ashbury Peppers, in his sweetest voice, becaus it knows exactly the right time to shut up." Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders. When you purchase an independently reviewed book through our site, we earn an affiliate commission. By Candice Millard. June 4, 2019. THE CROWDED HOUR Theodore Roosevelt, the Rough Riders, and the Dawn of the American Century By Clay Risen. It is almost impossible to write a book in which Theodore Roosevelt plays a supporting role. If he’s in it, he’s the star. Roosevelt’s ability to take over a story is all the more remarkable because none of the 20th century’s most defining events — from international economic depression to ideological revolutions to devastating world wars — took place during his presidency. Even today, 100 years after his death, it is less Roosevelt’s achievements that we remember than the sheer force of his personality. “The Crowded Hour” is a rare exception to this rule. In Clay Risen’s fast-paced, carefully researched new history of Roosevelt’s regiment of Rough Riders, which dazzled Americans during the Spanish-American War, the future president may be in the thick of the action, but he does not monopolize the story, quietly stepping aside for long stretches of time. In his place appears an irresistible cast of characters, from a unit of fearless black soldiers to the swashbuckling artist Frederic Remington, the novelist Stephen Crane and the legendary journalist Richard Harding Davis, whose hagiographic articles would make the Rough Riders not just famous but iconic. It quickly becomes clear, however, that the book’s central character is neither Roosevelt nor any of these men. It is the brash young country they dared the world to dismiss. To its citizens and admirers, the United States “had never been just a country,” Risen writes, “it was an idea too.” Carefully constructed, brutally contested, boldly if imperfectly embodied, this singular idea had stirred widespread hope that liberty and equality might be possible, even contagious. More than a century after winning its independence, however, the United States had yet to turn its fame into what it really wanted: respect. In the eyes of much of Europe, the country still seemed like “a hypertrophied child,” Risen argues, “with astounding economic growth and resources, but without the maturity to play a role in world affairs.” When Cuba launched a war of independence in the winter of 1895, reviving its longstanding struggle against Spain, Americans immediately took notice. Most sympathized with the island, seeing in its fight for independence a reflection of their own, but others saw something more: an opportunity for the United States to claim its rightful place on the world stage. If America wanted to be taken seriously, no tactic was faster or more effective than war with a European power. Although President McKinley had hoped to avoid interfering in Cuba, less than a year after his inauguration the United States warship Maine exploded in Havana Harbor, killing 266 men and making it nearly impossible for him to resist the deafening call to war. In the 121 years since that fateful night, historians have yet to find any definitive evidence that the Spanish blew up the Maine. On the contrary, the overwhelming verdict is that it was an accident. At the time, though, there was little doubt in most Americans’ minds, certainly none in Roosevelt’s, that the Spanish were to blame. When Roosevelt, then an assistant secretary of the Navy and already spoiling for a fight, heard the news, Risen writes, he “grinned, and shouted, and declared that war with Spain had finally arrived.” As soon as the war began, Roosevelt resigned his post and began lobbying to form his own regiment — quickly termed the Rough Riders. Unnerved by his friend’s eagerness “to fight and hack and hew,” the historian Henry Adams, heir to his own political dynasty, wrote, “I really think he is going mad.” Roosevelt didn’t care. He wasn’t interested in idle intellectuals. He wanted men who were ready to fight, and there was no shortage of those. The Rough Riders received enough applications to fill 27 mail sacks, and the variety was even more astonishing than the quantity — East Coast college students, West Coast cowboys, lawyers, tennis players, football stars, gold miners. Together, these men would endure the bloodiest battles of the war, from Roosevelt’s “crowded hour” on Kettle Hill to the Battle of Las Guasimas. Following Roosevelt’s lead, they were always the first to charge. Risen, the deputy Op-Ed editor at The New York Times, is a gifted storyteller who brings context to the chaos of war. “The Crowded Hour” feels like the best type of war reporting — told with a clarity that takes nothing away from the horrors of the battlefield. Although Roosevelt miraculously survived the Battle of San Juan Hill, many of his men did not: 89 Rough Riders were killed or wounded that day. Those who survived were haunted by the sight of so many broken bodies, not just those of their friends, but of their enemies as well. “So help me God, they looked like kids about 12 years old,” one man remembered. “It was pitiful.” Risen’s final verdict on the Spanish-American War is not admiring — “a half-baked, poorly executed, unnecessary conflict that pushed an immature military power onto the world stage.” He does concede, however, that it had the desired effect. After Spain gave Cuba its independence and also turned over Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines to its enemy, the United States was never ignored again. The danger for Roosevelt was that the war might conceivably have had the opposite effect on his own trajectory. “Of course,” Henry Adams wrote at the time, “this ends his political career.” Instead, it vaulted him into the national spotlight, a brave young man bristling with energy and arrogance, as unforgettable as the country he would one day lead. Remember the Maine! Theodore Roosevelt and the Rough Riders. Use this Narrative with The Philippine-American War Narrative and the Redfield Proctor vs. Mark Twain on American Imperialism, 1898-1906 Primary Source to explore the U.S. role in overseas conflicts. In late January 1898, President William McKinley dispatched the U.S.S. Maine to Cuban waters to protect American citizens and business investments during ongoing tensions between Spain and its colony, Cuba. A Cuban revolutionary movement against imperialist Spain had started in 1895, and Spain had responded by mercilessly suppressing the insurgency. General Valeriano Weyler, nicknamed “the butcher,” was sent by Spain to force thousands of into relocation camps and burn crops to deny the countryside to the rebels. Many Americans increasingly wanted to aid the Cuban rebels and prevent European tyranny in what they saw as the nation’s backyard. William Randolph Hearst, Joseph Pulitzer, and other newspaper moguls publicized the atrocities committed by Spain’s military and encouraged sympathy for the Cuban people. Hearst told one of his photographers, “You furnish the pictures. I’ll furnish the war.” During the evening of February 15, Cubans celebrated the pre-Lenten holiday of carnival while the U.S.S. Maine floated quietly in Havana harbor. At 9:40 p.m., a powerful explosion rocked the ship, killing 260 sailors and marines aboard and throwing flames and smoke hundreds of feet into the air. Although the explosion was later ruled an accident, the American press blamed Spain and called for war with a sensationalist style of reporting called “yellow journalism.” Hearst reported the news with an offer to pay a $50,000 reward for capture of the “perpetrator of the Maine outrage.” The public clamored for war with the popular cry, “Remember the Maine! “ This 1898 chromolithograph depicts the Maine ‘s deadly explosion in Havana harbor on February 15, 1898. President McKinley and Congress had sought alternatives to war for years and continued working for a diplomatic solution even after the sinking of the Maine . However, assistant secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt repositioned naval warships close to Cuba and sent Commodore George Dewey to attack the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay in the Philippines when his boss, secretary of the Navy John Long, was out of town. Dewey attacked on May 1 and sank the entire Spanish fleet in the Philippines. Roosevelt thought McKinley had “no more backbone than a chocolate éclair.” Hearst printed an inflammatory private letter from the Spanish ambassador to the United States, Don Enrique Dupuy de Lôme, that called McKinley “weak.” Public pressure mounted on President McKinley to seek a declaration of war. On April 11, he asked Congress to declare war on Spain and invoked Spanish atrocities, the memory of the Maine , and the Monroe Doctrine as justification. A week later, Congress passed the Teller amendment disclaiming any intention to annex Cuba. Congress declared war on April 25, the same day Roosevelt received approval to raise his cavalry regiment, nicknamed the “Rough Riders.” Theodore Roosevelt had been born to a wealthy New York family and raised in privilege. He attended Harvard University and dedicated his life to public service and writing books. He served as a member of the New York Assembly, worked on the U.S. Civil Service Commission, and was the New York City Police Commissioner. He wrote and a series of books called The Winning of the West . He was an admirer of Alfred Thayer Mahan’s The Influence of Sea Power Upon History , which tied national greatness to a strong navy and maritime trade. Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, pictured here in October 1898 in his Rough Riders uniform, which was designed to make the cavalry unit look more like cowboys. Roosevelt felt it was his patriotic duty to serve his country. “It does not seem to me that it would be honorable for a man who has consistently advocated a warlike policy not to be willing himself to bear the brunt of carrying out that policy.” Moreover, Roosevelt praised “the soldierly virtues” to demonstrate virility of individual men and the nation, which he believed had gone soft with the affluence and decadence of the Gilded Age. He sought to test himself in battle and win glory. Roosevelt hopped on a train and headed to Texas to join the new First Volunteer Cavalry regiment of roughneck westerners including cowboys, hunters, wilderness scouts, and American Indians. Ivy League athletes who also sought to serve patriotically and test themselves joined the regiment. Commander Roosevelt felt comfortable in both worlds because he had attended Harvard but also owned a ranch in North Dakota. His regiment trained in the dusty heat of San Antonio, in the shadow of the Alamo, under him and Congressional Medal of Honor winner Colonel Leonard Wood. The men were known as the Rough Riders. The regiment loaded their horses in June and boarded trains for a four-day trip to Tampa, Florida, which served as the embarkation point for troops departing to Cuba. On June 22, the Rough Riders and thousands of American troops landed unopposed at Daiquirí on the coast of Cuba. Though many were without their horses, they gathered up their packs and started marching toward the main Spanish army at the capital of Santiago. The Rough Riders were unprepared for the tropical heat and forbidding jungle terrain they encountered during the difficult march. On June 24, the U.S. Army was slowly advancing when hidden Spanish troops waiting to ambush opened fire from their hidden thickets and the U.S. lines became chaotic. The Americans were unable to see the Spanish troops because they used smokeless gunpowder. Colonel Wood restored order, and the Americans finally spotted the enemy and returned fire. The Spanish withdrew to their fortified positions on the hills in front of Santiago. The Americans continued marching along the road to Santiago for a week, persisting through the humidity, swarms of insects, and tropical rain of the jungle. By June 30, they had made it to the base of Kettle Hill, where the Spanish were entrenched and had their guns sighted on the surrounding plains. The American artillery was brought forward first and fired at the enemy entrenched on Kettle Hill. The Spanish heavy guns answered, ripping into the waiting American lines with hot shrapnel that cut down several Rough Riders and men from other units, including many Cuban allies. Roosevelt himself was wounded in the arm but ignored the pain. He and the entire army grew impatient as they awaited orders to attack. When the order finally came, a mounted Roosevelt led from the front wearing a conspicuous sombrero with a blue polka-dot handkerchief, an inviting target for Spanish sharpshooters and an inspiration for his men. They forded a small river and halted at a sunken lane for protection. The Rough Riders were flanked on either side by the African American “Buffalo Soldiers” of the regular Ninth and Tenth cavalry regiments, commanded by white officer John “Black Jack” Pershing. The American troops charged up the incline yelling and firing their weapons. Roosevelt had dismounted and led the charge on foot. He was one of the first Americans up the hill as the Spanish poured withering fire into the American and Cuban ranks, killing and wounding several dozen men before being driven off. When the Spaniards atop adjacent San Juan Hill fired on the Rough Riders, Roosevelt marched his men down Kettle Hill and prepared to take San Juan Hill. This 1898 photograph shows (center, in glasses) and his men atop San Juan Hill, Cuba, after the battle. Roosevelt called his men to follow him into battle but apparently few heard. Thinking they accompanied him, however, he “jumped over the wire fence in front of us and started at the double.” Running into battle with bullets whizzing into the grass all around him, Roosevelt noticed only four men had joined him, and one was quickly mortally wounded. Angry, Roosevelt ran back to his troops and rallied them. Finally, all heard his orders as he jumped over the fence again and led the charge, supported by the heavy fire of Gatling guns. Once again, the Rough Riders and other regiments successfully drove the Spaniards off the hill and cheered loudly. The Americans dug into their positions for the night and collapsed, exhausted after a day of strenuous fighting. After a week, the Americans had repulsed Spanish counterattacks and taken Santiago relatively easily. The Spanish capitulated and sued for peace by mid-July. Roosevelt was immediately celebrated as a national war hero, and his reputation benefitted from his writing a series of articles and then a book, Rough Riders , describing his experience. A painting, “The Charge of the Rough Riders,” by his friend Frederic Remington, helped to cement his status. Roosevelt rode his fame to high office, first being elected governor of New York and then becoming vice president under McKinley before assuming the presidency when McKinley was assassinated in 1901. Roosevelt believed he was denied the Medal of Honor he desperately wanted because he angered the Army after publicly criticizing it when some of his men perished from tropical diseases, food poisoning, and poor medical care in Cuba after the end of the fighting. Nevertheless, he later stated, “San Juan was the great day in my life.” The contributions of African American soldiers went largely unrecognized; the Rough Riders won most of the fame during this era of Jim Crow segregation. Under President Roosevelt, the United States issued the Platt Amendment in 1901, claiming a right to intervene in Cuban affairs and control its treaty-making ability. The to the Monroe Doctrine in 1904 asserted that the United States could intervene in Latin American affairs to prevent a European presence. The United States also built the during Roosevelt’s administration, to establish a two-ocean navy in the Atlantic and Pacific. The Spanish-American War was a turning point in history because the nation then assumed global responsibilities for a growing empire that included Cuba, Hawaii, the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico. The Filipinos, led by Emilio Aguinaldo, rebelled against the American control just as they had against the Spanish. The insurrection resulted in the loss of thousands of American and Filipino lives. The Spanish-American War that was fought in Cuba and the Philippines sparked a sharp debate between imperialists and anti-imperialists in the United States over the course of American foreign policy and global power, a debate that continued into the next century. This 1898 political cartoon depicts the tension in the Philippines between the United States (represented by Uncle Sam) and Spain, which owned the territory. Review Questions. New York Journal reads “Who Destroyed the Maine? $50,000 reward. Destruction of the war ship Maine was the work of an enemy. Assistant Secretary Roosevelt convinced the explosion of the war ship was not an accident. The journal offers $50,000 reward for the conviction of the criminals who sent 258 American sailors to their death. Naval officers unanimous that the ship was destroyed on purpose.” Printed twice on the page is the advertisement: “$50,000! $50,000 Reward! For the detection of the perpetrator of the Maine Outrage!””> The headline best exemplifies. yellow journalism isolationist sentiment pro-Spanish sympathies rejection of the Monroe Doctrine. 2. During his time as assistant secretary of the Navy, Theodore Roosevelt’s position on American intervention in Cuba agreed least with that of. the Cuban people the American public publishers William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer President William McKinley. 3. At the outset of the Spanish-American War, Congress passed the Teller Amendment, which. declared Cuba to be an American territory stated the United States would not annex Cuba allowed the United States to appoint Cuba’s governor and legislature linked the government of the Philippines with that of Cuba. 4. Alfred Thayer Mahan’s The Influence of Sea Power Upon History influenced figures like Theodore Roosevelt to. question Great Britain’s reliance on naval power reject plans for an interoceanic canal support increased spending for naval forces limit American influence to the Caribbean. 5. Immediately after the Spanish-American War, Theodore Roosevelt’s popularity was enhanced by his. command of an African American unit receipt of the Congressional Medal of Honor valiant but failed attempt to secure San Juan Hill depiction in a painting by artist Frederick Remington. 6. Extended American intervention in Cuba was justified by all the following except. the Monroe Doctrine the Teller Amendment the Platt Amendment the Roosevelt Corollary. Free Response Questions. Explain how the media contributed to an American declaration of war against Spain in 1898. Explain how America’s place in the world changed with the conclusion of the Spanish-American War. AP Practice Questions. From the 1904 book American Boy’s Life of Theodore Roosevelt. 1. The events depicted in this image most directly led to. rejection of American interventionism in Latin America an end to peacetime conscription intense debate about America’s proper role in the world rejection of the at the polls. 2. A historian might use this image to support the point that. innovations in communication and technology contributed to a growth of mass culture war fatigue led to a reevaluation of American foreign policy political instability led to pressure to reform the American political system the American military suffered from inadequate funding. 3. This image was created in response to. the end of the Plains Wars with the American Indians America’s victory in the Spanish-American War America’s entry into World War I the U.S. annexation of the Philippines. Primary Sources. Roosevelt, Theodore. The Rough Riders . New York: Da Capo, 1990. Suggested Resources. Brands, H.W. TR: The Last Romantic . New York: Basic Books, 1997. Dalton, Kathleen. Theodore Roosevelt: A Strenuous Life . New York: Knopf, 2002. Gardner, Mark Lee. Rough Riders: Theodore Roosevelt, His Cowboy Regiment, and the Immortal Charge Up San Juan Hill . New York: William Morrow, 2016. Morris, Edmund. The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt . New York: Ballantine, 1979. Thomas, Evan. The War Lovers: Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to Empire, 1898 . New York: Back Bay Books, 2010. Van Atta, John R. Charging Up San Juan Hill: Theodore Roosevelt and the Making of Imperial America . Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018.