The Portland daily press., 1898-08-20
GREAT REGIMENT.
'Teddy1 Roosevelt Tells About His
Crackajacks.

Camp Wickoff, Montauk Point, August
15.-Colonel Theodore Roosevelt made
this statement late this afternoon:
"Of course I am proud of my regiment
There was never such another. In fifty
days it was raised, organized, equipped,
armed, mounted, put into transports.
carried to Cuba and put through two
victorious fights. That's the record that
I think will be hard to beat. 1t is mainly
a Southwestern regiment from New Mex
leo, Arizona, Indian Territory and Okla
homa. We have men from almost every
state in the Union, Maine, California,
New York, Massachusetts. Texas, Lo uis-
lana, everywhere, and it is thorough
American regiment. think we have got
about every race and every religion Of our
people represented, though the men are
80 per cent native born. OF the last five
promotions I recommended from the
ranks to the grade of second lieutenant
one was a jew, one Catholic, two
Professionals. The religion of the fifth
I know nothing about. We have men
from East and West, Indians, halfbreeds,
and whites. We..judge each man purely
on his merits. If he can fight and march
and has the knack of commanding men
he will go up.
"The groundwork of the regiment is
the cowpuneher, the man who has herded
cattle on the great plains for living,
and next to him comes the Rocky Noun
tain miner, who has also usually been q
small ranchman, then the professional
hunter, the mining engineer anj civil en-
gineer, and the packer, and mixed with
has always been:fond of rough out-of-
doors sport. They all go in together with
out hitch. Four of the men were New
Yorkfpolicemen, one of whom, Hayward.
a gallant fellow, was killed. We have
two olergymen in the regiment and they
fought nobly."
A numerous recollection of one of his
preachers stirred in Colonel Roosevelt's
mind and he broke out laughing
"You should have seen him" he said
Zone morning sitting just below the
bomb-proof, where the shrappel kept
cracking over his hat. They couldn' t
reach him and he knew 1t. Though they
touched the brim of his hat at times, he
sat perfectly placid, breaking the beans
for his coffee with the butt OF his revolver
and minded the bullets no more than If
there had not been any. He was game
preacher.
"Ninery-five of my men had at one time
or another herded cattle on horseback or
had hunted big game with the rifle. They
were, therefore, natural riders and good
shots, used to -out-of-door life. dead
game lot and intelligent-so we could dis
cipline them. They were not used to 1t,
but it was astonishing how quickly they
became used to it. In the essentials OF
discipline they were as good as any men
could be. They yielded most prompt
obedience and were just as good. in polio
ing the camp and keeping guard as on the
march or in the fight. Very many OF
them had been under fire before. They
had been Indian traders in Arizona,
sneriffs and deputy sheriffs in New Mex
leo, marshals and deputy marshals in the
indian Territory. Scores of them had
been in hard fights with Indians and
white desperadoes. They formed a nu-
cleus.
"The minute fighting began they all
took naturally to Eit. They scrapped by
nature, l suppose. Perhaps it isn't very
elegant language, but it is asfaot. One
of my best men, a Georgian, named
Crockett, had been internal revenue
officer, camping against moonshiners,
pretty good practice for steadying nerves.
He was wounded in the Santiago fig hit.
Our first fight was at Las Guasimas 1t