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Col. Roosevelt and his "Rough Riders" at San Juan Hill, Puerto Rico. (U.S. Army photo)
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Col. Theodore Roosevelt
Rough-Rider to Receive Medal of Honor Tuesday at White
House
By Bethanne Kelly Patrick
Military.com Columnist
The Rough Riders, a volunteer cavalry unit called into
service for the Spanish-American War, reveled in broad contrasts, nicknaming a
Jewish colleague "Pork Chop," a foul-mouthed fellow "Prayerful James," and the
group hick "Metropolitan Bill." The unit itself was a mishmash of Southwestern
frontiersmen, Ivy League graduates, New York policemen, and even members of a
German oompah band.
Yet none of these rag-tag cavalrymen could match the study in contrasts that was
Theodore Roosevelt. A sickly child, Roosevelt transformed himself into an athlete
through training and discipline. The scion of an Eastern aristocratic family,
he lost the foppishness he cultivated at Harvard during his years as a Dakota
rancher. At the time the Spanish-American War was heating up, he had embarked
on a promising bureaucratic career as assistant secretary of the Navy, but he
quit to volunteer for service.
Roosevelt's combination of breeding and bravado endeared him to his men. Like
the rest of the Army, the Rough Riders were not prepared for combat. Roosevelt
set about turning them into warriors through a rigorous schedule of drill and
physical training. Originally Gen. Leonard Wood's second in command, Roosevelt
had been promoted to head of the regiment shortly before the battle with which
he would forever be identified. The Rough Riders followed him up Kettle Hill on
June 30, 1898, despite temperatures over 100 degrees and a barrage of Spanish
artillery fire.
Much debate surrounds the ensuing Battle of San Juan Hill. Did Lt. Col. Roosevelt
lead the charge, or was he behind others? Should he have been awarded the Medal
of Honor, to which he felt entitled, for these efforts? The answers are both complimentary
to Roosevelt and unsatisfactory to his defenders. Whether or not Roosevelt led
the charge, he risked his life by riding his horse as far as he could through
a rain of Spanish bullets.
However, no reliable testimony that he led the charge
could be found. Roosevelt's actions do not stand alone. Historian Graham Cosmas
said that "in most regiments [in this conflict], the officer casualty rate was
about double that for enlisted men -- and indication of the extent and price of
leadership from the front. Col. Roosevelt and his fellow officers gave their all
in a war that Assistant Secretary of the Navy Roosevelt had been eager to see
happen. Due to the Spanish-American War's establishment of the United States as
a naval superpower, it is likely that the commander of the Rough Riders will long
remain an emblem of heroism.
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