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   A group of Rough Riders in Camp (Library of Congress, Hispanic Division)

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The following data concerns members of the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, better known as the "Rough Riders," from the state of Texas. Below are the comments and observations of the researcher and compiler of the data Laureen M. Geppert Jacobs, followed by a table with the data on the individual Rough Riders.

Continue to read the researcher's comments or go directly to the Texas Rough Rider Database.

To work on this project and look for possible motivations for Texans signing up for the Spanish-American War, I examined the muster roll for the Rough Riders that is in the National Archives and I tried to pick out the Texans among the 1235 men listed. The official name of this section of the Archives is “Carded Records Showing Military Service of Soldiers Who Fought in Volunteer Organizations during the Spanish-American War, 1899-1927.”

Among the officers and enlisted men, there are impressive records for General Leonard Wood and Colonel Theodore Roosevelt. The service records of all the men are rather uneven, that is, the given facts vary quite a bit. The best ones show place of birth, age, occupation and there are physical descriptions of each man (height, complexion, eye color, and hair color.) Many of the records have none of that information. All the records include rank and the assigned company they were in but the personal facts are limited to name birthplace or place of residence and place of discharge. Some rudimentary pay records are there, also.

Each set of data was in a folder of sorts and that paper has darkened considerably. On some records there are notes on the back of the folders. I saw initials in these notes that I couldn’t decipher but some of the notes were fascinating, such as service in World War One or World War Two and medals awarded, pensions applied for, lived in a Soldiers Home, etc. The one set of initials I did figure out was HDST—headstone requested. I understood that to be an approximate time of death, although in a couple of cases that wasn’t true.

I went through all 1235 records at 20 to a page and I wrote notes on each man that I thought was a Texan, noting their birthplace identification or their stated Texas residence. As I worked on a record, I said the man’s name aloud, as a token of respect and as a place marker for myself. Later, I put all the men’s names in alphabetical order and put the information into a table. There are 150 Texan Rough Riders there, ranked as privates through captain in my database. I placed General Wood and Colonel Roosevelt at the end of the list.

Before I discuss the Texans, I want to give some of my own observations of the entire Muster Roll. I saw some unusual things that fascinated me and I will include them here.

One of the things I noticed was that there were no obvious Native American names. There were quite a few Native Americans among the Rough Riders, some of whom were singled out as good soldiers in Theodore Roosevelt’s book. Anglicized names were the norm on this list. Some of these Native American were educated in Indian Schools and they may have gotten their new names there. Some were the sons of mixed marriages and some names may have been given out in the muster roll to make it easier for them to fit into this multicultural group.

While reading the rolls, I also enjoyed keeping track of unusual names. As far as first names go I included: Boot, Ollie, Sibird, Elhanan, Irad and Icem. There were also James Monroe Hamilton, Henry Clay Davis, U S Grant Morgan and someone named Wentworth Conduit. There were also some last names I don’t remember seeing before—Azbill, Bardshar, Adsit, Chilcoat, Detamore, Fandree, Gillan, Henderleider, Knoblauch, Maytubby, Sexsmith, Muxlow and Stelzriede.

I was surprised by the large number of immigrants in the Rough Riders (at least 18 but more than that, really.) The immigrant participants came from England, Germany, Scotland, Mexico, Ireland, Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, the West Indies and one man came from Cuba.

 I was also taken aback by the variety of professions listed. They certainly weren’t all cowboys, although there were a lot of those among the Texans. There were Native American, miners and hunters, as  Roosevelt boasted. My list of professions is too long to include them all here but I want to mention a good number to show their breathtaking variety. Among them were: tailor, wagoner, saddler, stenographer, shoemaker, policeman, farrier, hotel keeper, watchmaker, nurseryman, machinist, teamster, plasterer, farmer, detective and laborer. There were sets of brothers on the list and there was a man from Russia with a Jewish name.

Another thing that is evident while reading these records is the number of men who were sick during their service time. This was primarily due to malaria but also heat exhaustion. The military men in Cuba lacked food—especially nutritious food. They existed for weeks on not much more than hardtack and coffee. I found that just over 1/3 of the Texans, 35%, showed that they were sick repeatedly during their service time. This was also true of the men in Tampa, Florida. At one time, Roosevelt described what it was like for his men to be sick from malaria. He said most men became very ill at first and gradually got better but then they were struck down again. Roosevelt said the hospital facilities on land and on ship were meager and unhelpful so the Rough Riders did their best to keep ill men with the regiment. That was not always possible, though.

A few other things I’ll mention about these records is that exact ages were sometimes given. Examples of that are 27 3/12 or 21 9/12. Quite a few of the recruits identified their place of residence as counties, rather than cities or towns. I was amazed at how some of these men got around. They might have been born in California. Their parent or wife was in New Mexico and they signed up in Tampa. The accessibility of the railroad system probably had something to do with that. Also, scars and tattoos were sometimes noted on the records, making identification easier in case of death or wounding.

There are several different estimations of how many Texans served in the Rough Riders. By my count there were 150. By Theodore Roosevelt’s count (in the back of his book) there were 109. In the Rough Riders organization, Texans were spread throughout the 12 different companies but the company with the largest number of Texans was Company “H.” This troop stayed in Tampa with the horses and supplies.

In Theodore Roosevelt’s book, The Rough Riders, I have already noted that many recruits came from Texas and Roosevelt boasted that they seemed ready for battle. It was especially helpful that horsemen such as the Texas Rangers were accustomed to living in the open, to enduring great fatigue and hardship, and to encountering all kinds of danger.”

Besides the San Antonio mustering station, there were at least five other places to sign up for this duty. They were at—Muscogee, Indian Territory, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Tampa, Florida, Guthrie, Oklahoma Territory and Whipple Barracks, Prescott, Arizona Territory. One  Texan signed up in Washington, D. C.

Why did Texans sign up, anyway? There were probably as many reasons as there were people but there are certainly duplications among them. Texans were affected by the yellow press, which appealed to patriotic emotions. Some probably signed up to avenge the destruction of the Battleship MAINE. Some men supported the Cuban cause for independence. In an article I found online, author John Leffler said the Spanish-American War appealed to Texans’ sense of duty. He also said it represented challenges and opportunities for Texans to prove themselves. The act of signing up gave them opportunities for personal advancement, self-improvement and certainly excitement. 

The ranchers, Rangers and farmers of Texas were good shots and good horsemen. They were known as gutsy men, and it would not take much training to make them cavalry men.

Most of the Texans who volunteered on this list of recruits were young and unmarried. They had nothing to lose. On the muster role many men did not report anyone to contact if they were injured or killed. They were orphans.

I think the two most important reasons Texans signed up for this service is that the frontier was already disappearing by 1893. The railroads were mostly built out, too. There were fewer opportunities for cowboys and frontier fighters.

The other reason was economic. According to an article found online, by Professor David Whitten, the Depression (or “Panic” of 1893) hit America hard. For six years in a row inflation was over 10%, plus there was a downturn in agriculture, which Texans relied heavily upon. World prices for cotton and wheat fell and Professor Whitten estimated agriculture only accounted for 19% of the Gross National Product. Other hits to farms and cattle production were storms and drought, plus some agricultural overproduction. Manufacturing was becoming more important in the overall U. S. economy. I think in 1898 young men were looking for new opportunities for work. That is evident in the list of previous employments on the muster rolls. Men from a variety of professions needed new ways to make money. For the short term, the military offered steady pay.

As I indicated earlier, Texans had a reputation for being gutsy. Later, in the Mexican War, Texans were called “los diablos Tejanos,”  the devil Texans. The Spanish-American War gave Texans opportunities to use their high spirits and daring. It didn’t exactly work out that way for many of them (as we’ve seen previously in Tampa, FL) but they took chances and forged new paths for their futures. That was certainly worth a try.

Texas Rough Rider Database

Key to Abbreviations in Texas Veteran Information of the Rough Riders

Information for this database is taken from https://catalog.archives.gov/id/300400 (Carded records showing military service of soldiers who fought in volunteer organizations during the Spanish-American War) and Theodore Roosevelt’s The Rough Riders, Dover Publications, Mineola, NY, 1899. Laureen also used records from the archive in the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum in Waco, TX for the 5 Texas Rangers who volunteered for the Rough Riders. For additional public information she used findagrave.com.


Rank abbreviations

Pvt=private
Cpl=corporal
Sgt=sergeant
2nd Lt=second lieutenant
1st Lt=first lieutenant
Capt=captain
Maj=major
Lt Col=lieutenant colonel
Col=colonel
Gen=general

Place Names

SA=San Antonio
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CW=Camp Wikoff, Montauk Point
LI=Long Island
OT=Oklahoma Territory
IT=Indian Territory
AT=Arizona Territory

Service Details

CO=Company or Troop
MI=muster in
E=enlistment
MO=muster out

Military Abbreviation Detail

HDST=headstone applied for, approximate death date

(As a service to our readers, clicking on title in red will take you to that book on Amazon.com)

Carded Records Showing Military Service of Soldiers Who Fought in Volunteer Organizations during the Spanish-American War    https://catalog.archives.gov/id/300400Roosevelt, Theodore. The Rough Riders. Dover Publications, Inc., Mineola, NY, 2006. Originally published by Charles Scribers and Sons, NY, 1899.

Leffler, John J. https://www.rbhayes.org/research/hayes-historical-journal-paradox-of-patriotism
“The Paradox of Patriotism: Texans in the Spanish-American-War” Spring, 1989. Article taken from the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library and Museum.

Quote taken from the introductory movie at the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum, Waco, TX

The author found many birth and death dates, cemeteries of the veterans, as well as occasional obituaries at https://www.findagrave.com.  There was one use of geni.com