July 2018 34 His Cowboy experiences may have molded his character and set him on a course for the Presidency, but it was Theodore Roosevelt's experiences in the Spanish-American War leading his Rough Riders to victory in that "Crowded Hour" up on Kettle, NOT San Juan Hill that propelled him like a straight arrow to that appointment with destiny three years later when he succeeded the assassinated William McKinley in the Oval Office. To understand how Roosevelt got to the Presidency and how his Rough Riders helped score an almost impossible yet decisive victory on that Cuban hillside 120 years ago this month it is important to know a bit about Theodore (he preferred being called Theodore, not Teddy) Roosevelt the man - and also understanding the men whom he served with. Theodore Roosevelt's childhood was spent during those years of Civil War that tore apart America. His father was a New York Unionist and a friend of Abraham Lincoln's but his mother was a Georgia belle whose two brothers, former U.S. Navy officers, were serving the Confederacy purchasing British-built sea raiders. In fact, one of Roosevelt's uncles, Irvine Bulloch, would become an executive officer on board the notorious raider C.S.S. Shenandoah. Although Theodore Roosevelt Senior wanted very much to enlist in the Union Army, his wife dissuaded him from doing so, and he spent the Civil War years working as a Civilian Allotment Commissioner visiting Army camps making sure the soldiers sent home their pay to their families instead of spending it gambling or on other vices. While this was valuable work, knowing that the father he loved, admired, and respected so much never served left young sickly Theodore with a burning shame. One must remember that the young boy came of age in a time when going off to war was considered romantic. Roosevelt was determined to live the "strenuous life" which would include fighting for his country. Even in all of those years of being active, of riding the range as a working cowboy and a gentleman rancher in the Black Hills (1884-1887), Roosevelt had never forgotten that burning shame, and so readily embraced that martial spirit that was so prevalent in his time. Whenever there was a crisis brewing, whether it was with the British to the north or with the Mexicans to the south after the murder of Captain Emmet Crawford and the ambush of his men (by Mexican irregulars) while searching for Geronimo, Roosevelt constantly petitioned the Secretary of War to be allowed to raise a regiment to fight America's perceived enemies to the north and south. He was gently but firmly rejected - until he became Assistant Secretary of the Navy at a time when the suffering of the Cuban people under Spanish rule reached a boiling point in the mindset of the American people. That boiling point turned volcanic when the battleship U.S.S. Maine was blown up in Havana Harbor on the evening of February 15, 1898. The almost 40-year-old Roosevelt, who had been appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy under President William McKinley, had been instrumental in modernizing an almost decrepit fleet into a world-class navy. He desperately wanted to join what he felt - and knew - would be an imminent conflict with Spain. Aiding and abetting his mindset was a kindred soul, his friend, and the President's own doctor, Leonard Wood. But as a 19-year-old Commissary Sergeant in an Ohio regiment bringing coffee and food to men on the Antietam battlefield, McKinley had remarked: "I have seen war. I have seen the dead piled up, and I do not want to see another war". McKinley chided Roosevelt and Wood, but when the Spanish government refused McKinley's conciliatory offers of negotiation, he had no choice but to order the full mobilization of the U.S. Army and Navy. As said, the navy was fully prepared to go to war. But the 26,000 man regular army, strewn out along frontier forts and in a state of complacency following the last of the Indian Wars was not. McKinley, knowing that Spanish land forces in Cuba numbered 200,000 quickly called up 100,000 volunteers to augment the small U.S. Army. He also authorized the organization of three regiments of volunteer cavalrymen of about 1,000 men each and offered his Assistant Secretary of the Navy Roosevelt the command of one of the regiments. Roosevelt to his credit knew he was no soldier despite his dreams of being one, and would not be able to prepare this regiment on time to go to war. He suggested that Wood be offered the Colonelcy of the new regiment, with him serving as a Lieutenant Colonel as Wood's second-in- command. McKinley agreed - and Wood soon went off to St. Antonio, Texas, organizing this regiment soon-to-be-known as "The Rough Riders" with Roosevelt stayed behind briefly to handle the logistics of equipment procurement and enlistment. And what a regiment - half Westerners, from Arizona, New Mexico, the Indian Territory (Oklahoma) and elsewhere, mostly ex-Cowboys with a few men who contributed to the shaping of the History of the Old West. Men like Benjamin Franklin Daniels, the Marshal of Dodge City who had served as a Deputy Marshal of that town under Bat Masterson and Big Bill Tilghman. There was outlaw Jim Cook, the brother of Bill Cook, and the leader of the Cook gang that had terrorized eastern Oklahoma at about the same time the Doolin- Daltons were creating havoc in the rest of the state. He had recently escaped from a Federal prison and was actually serving under his real name! There was Buckey O'Neill who had helped his friend, former regular Army Officer and West Point graduate Alexander Brodie form an Arizona squadron of 200 men. O'Neill, who would form a close but tragically brief friendship with Roosevelt, symbolized the rugged individualism of the Arizona contingent. A famed lawman who captured four train robbers during a fracas at Diablo Canyon, he was also a state legislator who had bigger dreams of becoming Governor of Arizona. There was also another notable figure who would also meet a tragic end - Captain Allyn Capron of the 7th Cavalry, himself a veteran of the By Alan Rockman continued on page 39 THE IMMORTAL CHARGE UP KETTLE HILL, NOT SAN JUAN HILL That Catapulted Theodore Roosevelt to the Presidency, 120 years ago, July 3rd Famed Sheriff, Territorial Lawmaker and Rough Rider Captain Buckey O'Neill, who died a hero's death just prior to the charge up Kettle Hill. His statue (created by Solon Borglum - the brother of the more famous Gaston who sculpted the Presidents on Mt. Rushmore) dominates the front entry at the  downtown Prescott Courtyard Park. Wood was no ordinary doctor. The 36-year-old Wood, then a Captain in the United States Army had fought the Apache in the Southwest, he had participated in General Miles' final campaign against Geronimo, riding 70 miles alone through hostile country to deliver dispatches, and tracking down the Apache on foot during periods of over 100 degree Arizona heat. The two men petitioned, hectored, and insisted on joining any kind of military expedition against the Spaniards. But there was but one major obstacle in their way. The President of the United States himself, William McKinley. While Roosevelt had unpleasant memories of his father not serving in the Civil War, McKinley had nightmares of that conflict. Serving