num_pages: 336
description: The first definitive account of this legendary fighting force and its extraordinary leader Theodore Roosevelt Mark Lee Gardners Rough Riders is narrative nonfiction at its most invigorating and compulsively readable. Its dramatic unfolding of a familiar yet not-fully-known story will remind readers of James Swansons Manhunt.Two months after the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor in February 1898 Congress authorized President McKinley to recruit a volunteer army to drive the Spaniards from Cuba. From this army emerged the legendary Rough Riders a mounted regiment drawn from Americas western territories and led by the indomitable Theodore Roosevelt. Its ranks included not only cowboys and other westerners but several Ivy Leaguers and clubmen many of them friends of TR. Roosevelt and his men quickly came to symbolize American ruggedness daring and individualism. He led them to victory in the famed Battle at San Juan Hill which made TR a national hero and cemented the Rough Riders place in history. Now Mark Lee Gardner synthesizes previously unknown primary accounts as well as period newspaper articles letters and diaries from public and private archives in Arizona Texas Oklahoma New Mexico Boston and Washington DC to produce this authoritative chronicle. He breathes fresh life into the Rough Riders and pays tribute to their daring feats and indomitable leader. Gardner also explores lesser-known aspects of the story including their relationship with the African-American Buffalo Soldiers with whom they fought side by side at San Juan Hill.Rich with action violence camaraderie and courage Rough Riders sheds new light on the Theodore Roosevelt sagaand on one of the most thrilling chapters in American history.
language: English
title: Rough Riders: Theodore Roosevelt, His Cowboy Regiment, and the Immortal Charge Up San Juan Hill
publisher: Mariner Books