b'What WouldTheodoreRoosevelt Do?PART 3 By Alan RockmanB y far the most famous of thehe possibly could up to the time of his death, always Old West characters wholooking after them as if they were his family, applauding served in the Rough Riderstheir accomplishments, expressing concern whenever they was Sheriff Benjamin Franklinended up in prison as Frank Brit did for shooting up his Daniels, the former Sheriff ofsister-in-law by mistake, or grieving when a few of his men Dodge City who "cut his lawmandied an untimely death. Rodeo rider Tom Darnell was a teeth" serving alongside Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, andtrooper in H troop, one of the four companies that had to Big Bill Tilghman. Daniels was Tilghman\'s deputy and hebe left behind in Tampa as the remainder of the regiment then rose to take over a relatively tamed Dodge City in thesailed off to Cuba. Humiliated, though no fault of his own, mid-1880s when Tilghman resigned and went south to theunable to adjust to civilian life, he took to drinking and was Oklahoma Territory. Roosevelt became quite fond of thisshot and killed in a saloon gun battle. Roosevelt grieved old western lawman, who had served right alongside someover his death, as he would grieve for the equally untimely of his heroes in bringing law and order to the streets of thedeaths of Cherokee Bert Holderman, ofL Troop, who then-wild and woolly cow town and he wrote of Sheriffdied of meningitis while serving on an Oklahoma territory Daniels in his An Autobiography, "One of the best soldiersgrand jury, and William Pollock, of Troop D, who had just of my regiment was a huge man whom I made marshal ofsigned a contract to participate in Buffalo Bill\'s Wild West a Rocky Mountain state. He had spent his hot and lustyShow when he was stricken with a fatal bout of pneumonia.youth on the frontier during its Viking age, and at that time had naturally taken part in incidents which seemed queerThe Cowboy president remained friends with many of the to men accustomed to dying decentlynotable surviving characters of Old West lore and legendStaff of the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry Regiment of zymotic diseases." I told him thateven after his sudden ascent to the presidency. Bullock as(The Rough Riders) in Tampa FL ca. 1898.an effort would be made to preventmentioned was a lifelong friend, as was Marshal DanielsFrom left to right: Major George Dunn, Major his confirmation by the Senate,and Major Alexander Brodie, the West Pointer who was and therefore that I wantedan Arizona mine engineer when he enlisted in the RoughAlexander Brodie, Major General Joseph Wheeler, to know all the facts in hisRiders, and would subsequently become governor ofChaplain W. Brown, Colonel Leonard Wood and case. Had he played faro?Arizona. Buffalo Bill was a valued friend too, RooseveltLieutenant Colonel Theodore Roosevelt.He had, but it was whenonce writing of a particularly amusing incident of his everybody played faro, andfriendship with the almost lifelong Democrat great scout.he had never played a braceBuffalo Bill is a fine fellow, a Medal of Honor man, who game. Had he killed anybody?"Buffalo Bill used to hunt bear and white goat and cariboufought gallantly in the Civil War and the Indian Wars, was Yes, but it was in Dodge City onand elk with me in Montana, Idaho, and British Columbia.one of the most remarkable scouts we ever had on the plains occasions when he was deputy marshaland is now a good citizen, much interested in irrigation or town marshal at a time when Dodgebesides his Wild West show. I remember when I was running for vice president I struck a Kansas town just when the Wild West show was there. He got up on the platform The Bronco Buster byof my car and made a brief speech on my behalf, ending Frederic Remington. with the statement that a "cyclone of the west had come, no wonder the rats hunted their cellars" (Ruddy, Theodore Roosevelt\'s History of the United States, p. 258).City, now the most peaceful of communities, was the toughest town on the continent and crowded with man- Two men who were even more particularly close than killing outlaws and road agents; and he provided telegramsColonel Cody were Bat Masterson, the legendary lawman, from judges of high character testifying to the need of theand gambler who was once Benjamin Franklin Daniel\'s actions he had taken. superior in Dodge City, and for a time, Pat Garrett, the New Mexico lawman famed for shooting down Billy the Kid.Finally, I said: "Now Ben, how did you lose that half of your ear?" To which, looking rather shy, he responded:In the case of Bat Masterson Roosevelt was such in awe of "Well, Colonel, it was bit off." "How did it happen, Ben?"the legend that in 1905 he offered his friend the office of U.S. "Well, you see, I was sent to arrest a gentleman, and himMarshal for Oklahoma Territory. But Masterson, a crack and me mixed it up, and he bit off my ear." "What didand deadly gunfighter who had proven himself for so many you do to that gentleman, Ben?" And Ben, looking coyerdecades in Dodge City and throughout several Colorado than ever, responded: "Well Colonel, we broke aboutmining towns, including Denver, knew by this time two even!" I forebear to inquire what variety of mayhem hedecades later that his efficiency with a gun and keeping order had committed on the "gentleman." After a considerablewas long past. He wrote Roosevelt in a poignant yet matter-struggle I got him confirmed by the Senate, and he madeof-fact letter that he "was not the man for the job. Oklahoma one of the best marshals in the entire service, exactly as heis still woolly, and if I were marshal some youngster would had already made one of the best soldiers in the regiment;try to put me out because of my reputation. I would be bait and I never wish to see a better citizen, nor a man in whomfor grown-up kids who had fed on dime novels. I would I would more implicitly trust in every way" (Roosevelt, Anhave to kill or be killed. No sense to that. I have taken Autobiography, pp. 126-127). my guns off, and I don\'t ever want to put them on again" Sheriff Benjamin Franklin Daniels, (Paul Trachtman and the Editors of Time-Life Books, The When the regiment returned home and was disbanded,the former Sheriff of Dodge City who "cut hisGunfighters, Time-Life Books, Alexandria, Virginia, 1974, p. their final gift of a regiment of Cowboys to their Cowboylawman teeth" serving alongside Bat Masterson,125). Masterson had all but accepted the sedimentary life of a leader was the famed Remington bronze sculpture, "TheNew York sportswriter, but once again Roosevelt didn\'t give Bronco Buster." His men never forgot him, and he neverWyatt Earp, and Big Bill Tilghman. up easily, he then offered the old gunfighter the much quieter forgot them either, attending every Rough Riders reunionposition of U.S. Deputy Marshal for southern New York, 44 August 2020'