A Brief History of the
1st United States Volunteer Cavalry
("Rough Riders")
By Patrick McSherry
Please Visit our Home Page to learn more about the Spanish
American War
Click here for a
roster
of the Rough Riders
Click here
to read a Newsapper Account of the Skirmish at Las Guasimas, Cuba
Click here to read
Thedore
Roosevelt's Account of the Attack on Kettle and San Juan Hills
Click
here to read Rough Rider David Leahy's Account of the Attack on
Kettle
and San Juan Hills
Click here to read Sgt. John
Turner's Account of the Rough Rider's Campaign
Click here to
read Rough Rider Carl Lovelace's letters from the Santiago Campaign
Click here to read Rough
Rider Frank McArty's Account of the Rough Riders in Cuba
Click here to read about
Sgt. Ousler's Account of San Juan Hill
Click here to read
Theodore Roosevelt's "Round Robin" Letter
Click here to
read Pvt. Alexander Wallace's letter home about San Juan Hill
Click here to read
Sgt.
Burrowes report on the use of the Dynamite Guns
Click here to read about
removing a jammed dyamite gun shell with an axe
Click here to read about
the Rough Rider's transport in a near-collision
Click
here to read Rough Rider David Leahy's Letter from Camp
Click here to
read
Rough Rider Amaziah Morrison's Letter from Camp
Click here to
read
the Raton, New Mexico newspaper's account of the Rough Riders
Click here to read
Richard Harding Davis' Account of Visting San Juan Hill Circa 1918
Click here to read one
of Theodore Roosevelt's Letters to his Young Children from Camp in
Florida
Click here to
read
the biography of Theodore Roosevelt
Click here to read the
biography of Rough Rider John Martin Adair
Click here to read the
biography of Rough Rider Dillwyn Bell
Click here to read the
biography
of Rough Rider Frank Brito
Click here to read the
biography of Rough Rider Pvt. Peter Butler
Click here to read the
biography
of Rough Rider Capt. George Curry
Click here to read
the biography of Rough Rider Lt. Frank Donaldson, Asst. Surg
Click here to read the
biography of Rough Rider Lt. John Green.
Click here to read
the biography of Rough Rider Capt. William H. H. Llewellyn
Click here to read the
biography of Rough Rider Pvt. Carl Lovelace
Click here to read the
biography of Rough Rider Frank McArty
Click here to read the
biography of Rough Rider 2nd Lt. John Avery McIlhenny
Click here to read the
biography
of Rough Rider "Bucky" O'Neill
Click here to read the
biography of Rough Rider Pvt. William Page
Click here to read the
biography of Rough Rider 1st Sgt. Green Settle
Click here to read the
biography of Rough Rider Pvt. John G. Torbett
Click here to read the
biography
of Rough Rider Pvt. Edwin Eugene Casey
Click
here to see a Rough Rider Uniform
Click here to see the Rough
Rider Regimental Flag
Click here to read about
the
Rough Riders at camp Wikoff
Click here
for
Information on the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry ("RoughRiders") Troop K
Living
History Group
Click
here for information on the 1927 film about the Rough Riders
General:
The 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry, better known as the "Rough
Riders" is one of the most well-documented and famous volunteer
fighting
forces in American history. This page will provide the basic
information
on the organization, but will not attempt an in-depth account, as that
has been published many times elsewhere.
Unit History:
The "Rough Riders" was formed from men from the western frontier of
the United States - men who were used to life in the saddle and to the
use of firearms - and from some eastern high-class young men who were
athletic
and also skilled in horsemanship and the use of guns...but for entirely
different reasons. In addition there were men from almost everywhere
else!
The unit included miners, cowboys preachers, tradesmen, writers,
professors,
athletes, and clergymen. Remarkably, there were men from each of the
forty-five
states then in existence, the four territories and from fourteen
countries!
There were even sixty Native Americans on the roster. The unique
combination reflected the interesting contrasts in one of the men who
was
one of the driving forces behind the unit – Theodore
Roosevelt, the man who was initially the regiment’s lieutenant
colonel
and later its colonel.
When word went out that Roosevelt and
Colonel
Leonard Wood, were raising a regiment, volunteers from all over
appeared.
Twenty-three hundred men volunteered in the first twenty-four hours, of
which only a small percentage could be accepted. Even the future
creator
of Tarzan, Edgar Rice Burroughs tried to
enlist.
The unit was mustered into service between May 1 and May 21, 1898
in various locations in Texas, New Mexico and what was then termed
“Indian
Territory” (Arizona and Oklahoma). At the time of muster in, the unit
consisted
of 47 officers and 994 enlisted men. The uniqueness of the regiment,
the
bombastic energy of Roosevelt (until recently
the
assistant secretary of the navy) and Roosevelt’s
gift for public relations and self-promotion brought the unit much
publicity
even before its worth was proven in battle.
From San Antonio, Texas, the unit was ordered, on May 27, to Port
Tampa, Florida, for the invasion of Cuba.
At
Port Tampa, things were in great disarray, and the Vth
Corps, of which the Rough Riders were now a part, was highly
disorganized.
In the confusion of embarking on the transports,
several regiments were assigned to the same transport,
the YUCATAN. Roosevelt
got his men aboard, realizing that once aboard, would probably not be
forced
to disembark. The Rough Riders stayed aboard, to the chagrin of the
other
regiments. Sadly for some, because of a lack of room in the army transports,
only eight of the regiment's twelve troops (troops A, B, D, E, F, G, K,
and L) went to Cuba, with the other
four
(troops C, H, I, and M) remaining behind in Florida. Also, the regiment
had to leave its horses behind in Florida, and essentially served in
Cuba
as an infantry regiment.
In Cuba, the regiment fought at Las
Guasimas, and then at the famous San Juan and Kettle Hills. The
regiment
proved its worth and truly lived up to all of the publicity it had
already
received. For his efforts to lead in the assault at Kettle and San Juan
hills, Roosevelt would eventually be awarded the
Medal of Honor (an honor he truly earned, but which, for political
reasons,
he would not receive until over eighty years after his death).
After the fighting ended and the summer wore on, disease among
the
troops began to rise. Eventually the War Department was embarrassed
into
bringing the battle-worn troops back home, to be replaced by other,
fresh
troops. The Rough Riders arrived back in the U.S. on August 15, three
days
after an armistice had been declared, and went into camp at Montauk
Point,
Long Island (Camp Wikoff), New York (click
here to read about their time at Camp Wikoff).
The unit was mustered out of service on September 15, 1898 at Camp
Wikoff. At the time of muster out, the unit consisted of 52
officers,
and 1,185 enlisted men. During its term of service, the unit lost two
officers
and 21 enlisted men killed in action; and three more men died of wounds
received in battle. Nineteen more men died of disease, and twelve men
deserted.
Additionally, seven officers and 97 enlisted men were wounded. The
Rough
Riders had the highest casualty rate of all of the regiments involved
in
the actions in Cuba.
For only being in existence for 133 days, the unit won its place
in history, and has since passed into legend.
As a service to our readers, clicking on any title in red
will take them to that book on Amazon.com
Correspondence relating to the War with Spain And Conditions
Growing
Out of the Same Including the Insurrection in the Philippine Island and
the China Relief Expedition. Vol. 1 (Washington: Government
Printing
Office, 1902) 625.
Jones, Virgil Carrington, Roosevelt's
Rough Riders. (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1971)
150-151.
Nofi, Albert A., The
Spanish-American War, 1898 . (Conshohocken, PA: Combined
Books,
1996).
Statistical Exhibit of Strength of Volunteer Forces Called
into
Service During the War with Spain; with Losses from All Causes.
(Washington:
Government Printing Office, 1899).
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