Rough Riders | Page 2

character. It was a pleasure to deal with a
man of high ideals, who scorned everything mean and base, and who
also possessed those robust and hardy qualities of body and mind, for
the lack of which no merely negative virtue can ever atone. He was by
nature a soldier of the highest type, and, like most natural soldiers, he
was, of course, born with a keen longing for adventure; and, though an
excellent doctor, what he really desired was the chance to lead men in
some kind of hazard. To every possibility of such adventure he paid
quick attention. For instance, he had a great desire to get me to go with
him on an expedition into the Klondike in mid-winter, at the time when
it was thought that a relief party would have to be sent there to help the
starving miners.
In the summer he and I took long walks together through the beautiful
broken country surrounding Washington. In winter we sometimes
varied these walks by kicking a foot-ball in an empty lot, or, on the rare

occasions when there was enough snow, by trying a couple of sets of
skis or snow-skates, which had been sent me from Canada.
But always on our way out to and back from these walks and sport,
there was one topic to which, in our talking, we returned, and that was
the possible war with Spain. We both felt very strongly that such a war
would be as righteous as it would be advantageous to the honor and the
interests of the nation; and after the blowing up of the Maine, we felt
that it was inevitable. We then at once began to try to see that we had
our share in it. The President and my own chief, Secretary Long, were
very firm against my going, but they said that if I was bent upon going
they would help me. Wood was the medical adviser of both the
President and the Secretary of War, and could count upon their
friendship. So we started with the odds in our favor.
At first we had great difficulty in knowing exactly what to try for. We
could go on the staff of any one of several Generals, but we much
preferred to go in the line. Wood hoped he might get a commission in
his native State of Massachusetts; but in Massachusetts, as in every
other State, it proved there were ten men who wanted to go to the war
for every chance to go. Then we thought we might get positions as
field-officers under an old friend of mine, Colonel--now General
--Francis V. Greene, of New York, the Colonel of the Seventy-first; but
again there were no vacancies.
Our doubts were resolved when Congress authorized the raising of
three cavalry regiments from among the wild riders and riflemen of the
Rockies and the Great Plains. During Wood's service in the Southwest
he had commanded not only regulars and Indian scouts, but also white
frontiersmen. In the Northwest I had spent much of my time, for many
years, either on my ranch or in long hunting trips, and had lived and
worked for months together with the cowboy and the mountain hunter,
faring in every way precisely as they did.
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, 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. This
was the official title of the regiment, but for some reason or other the
public promptly christened us the "Rough Riders." At first we fought
against the use of the term, but to no purpose; and when finally the
Generals of Division and Brigade began to write in formal
communications about our regiment as the "Rough Riders," we adopted
the term ourselves.
The mustering-places for the regiment were appointed in New Mexico,
Arizona, Oklahoma, and Indian Territory. The difficulty in organizing
was not in selecting, but in rejecting men. Within a day or two after it
was announced that