St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1898-11-23
Roosevelt and His Men,.

Roosevelt and His Men,.
There was thunder of hools on the
road that descends the slope from Camp
Wikoff to the Life Saving Station, and
a squad OF borsemen swarmed over the
hill. A stocky, strongly built man on
big horse was in the lead. In his worn
uniform and gray army hat he suggested
lrresistibly, as he swept by, Sheridan on
his wild ride to Winchester, twenty
miles away" They were gone like the
wind, leaping the muddy ford at the loot
of the hill and galloping madly across
the sands. My horse, that had been jog
ging along sedately enough till then.
caught the spirit of the rush and made
after them, hard as he could go. On the
beach we caught up with them, riding in
and out of the surf with shouts of de-
light, like so many centaurs at play.
The salt spray dashed over them in
showers of shining white, but they yelled
back defiance at the ocean. Their leader
watched them from his horse, and
laughed loudly at their sport.
They were Roosevelt and his men.
"Roosevelt's Rough Riders" belong to
history now with the war in which they
held such a picturesque place. Even as |
write, the first steps are being taken
towards mastering them out, and likely
before this meets the eye of the reader
the famous regiment will have been dis
banded, and its members-those who
survived the campaign before Santiago
taox OF Ia.~ ,t,. nC
into the ranks of the people intent upon
the arts OF peace whence they came at
the call of their country almost in a
single day. have seen them go, full of
youthful spirits, spelling for fight, and
it was my privilege to hear the last
spt ech their colonel made to them on the
night when the news OF the disbandment
came. He had ridden up from the COM
manding generals quarters with the
message, and. calling his nen about him
in the broad street facing the officers
tents, told them OF the coming parting.
II know what you were in the field"
he said. you were brave and strong
ask now of you that every man shall
60 back and serve his country as we'll in
peace as he did in war. can trust you
to do it."
They tried to cheer. some OF them, but
they had no heart in it. The men went
to their tents with sober faces, and saw
in them that which warranted the trust
their colonel put in them.
The Rough Riders were not, as many
have supposed, product of the war
with Spain. On the contrary, the
mounted riflemen were the historic arm
Of the United States from the earliest
days of the nation. In the War of the
Revolution they came out OF the West
and killed or captured the whole of the
British forces at Kings Mountain. A
descendant of two of the three colonies
who commanded them fought with
Roosevelt at Las Guasmas and on the
San Juan hill. They furnished the back
bone of Andrew Jackson's forces in the
ware of 1912. Asthe Texas Rangers they
became famous in the troubles with
Mexico. They conquered the French
towns on the Illinois, and won the West
from the Indians in a hundred bloody
fights. In the Civil War they lost, to a
great extent, their identity, but not their
place in the van and the thick of the
fight. Theodore Roosevelt as histo-
rian knew their record and value; as a
hunter and plainsman he knew where
to find the material with which to fill
up the long. broken ranks. 1t came at
his summons from the plains and the
cattle-ranges Of the great West, from the
mines OF the Rocky Mountains, the
hunting-trail of the wilderness, and from
the counting.rooms and colleges of the
East, wherever the spirit OF adventure
had sent young men out with the rifle to
hunt big game or to engage in the out.
door sports that train mind and body to
endure uncomplainingly the hardships Of
campaigning. The Rough Riders were
the most composite lot that ever gather
ed under regimental standard, but
they were at the same time singularly
typical Of the spirit that conquered a
continent in three generations, eminently
American. Probably such another will
never be got together again; in no other
country on earth could it have been mus
tered today. The cowboy, the Indian
trailer, the Indian himself, the packer
and the hunter who had sought and
killed the grizzly in single combat in his
mountain fastness, touched elbows with
the New York policeman who, for love
of adventure, had followed his own chief
to the war, with the college athlete, the
football-player and the oarsman, the
daredevil mountaineer Of Georgia, fresh
from hunting moonshiners as revenue
officer, and with the society man, the
child of luxury and wealth from the
East, bent upon proving that life OF
ease had dulled neither his manhood nor
his sense of our common citizenship.
They did it in way that was revela-
ton to some who under other circum-
stances and in different environment
would have called them dudes" In the
fight they were the coolest and in the
camp frequently the handiest of the lot.
One whose name is synonymous with ex-
clusiveness in New York's smart set"
and who for bravery in the face Of the
enemy rose to command of his troop,
achieved among his brother officers the
reputation OF being handiest at wash.
ing up" after grub" when they had
any. And it happened more than once
on the long marches through the Cuban
IA N IA Ul.ug