The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (176 page)

40.
Marshall,
Story
, 91.

41.
Stephen Crane, writing from the opposite point of view, said that the Rough Riders looked like “brown flies” as they swarmed up the bluff. Cosby, “A RRR Looks Back,” 82.

42.
RR
.56.

43.
See Stallman, R. W.,
Stephen Crane: A Biography
(NY, 1968) for a full analysis of the relationship of TR and Crane.

44.
Davis,
Campaigns
, 139.

45.
RR
. 104 (TR says the body was “Cuban”); Azo.86; Davis,
Campaigns
, 141.

46.
Ib., 142; Marshall,
Story
, 99–100; Davis,
Campaigns
, 141.

47.
Marshall,
Story
, 99–100.

48.
Ib. Most other sources, including several defensively cited by TR in Ch. IV of
RR.
, say that the first shots did not come until
after
Wood had deployed the Rough Riders against the enemy. However all these sources represent a revisionist view of events, since the Rough Riders were much embarrassed by reports that they had been ambushed (as indeed they were). The author chooses to follow Marshall, who was with TR when the first shot came, and who had especial reasons for remembering the Battle of Las Guásimas with clarity.

49.
Marshall,
Story
, 119–21, 124.

50.
Azo.90. The statistic of course refers to military, rather than naval, operations.

51.
Hagedorn memo, “Wood under Fire,” TRB mss.

52.
RR.68–9
.

53.
Marshall,
Story
, 104.

54.
Mor. 844.

55.
Azo.91; see also Hag.LW.I. 164–7 (Wood afterward confessed that he had been thinking much of the time about life insurance); Marshall,
Story
, 104.

56.
RR
.57–8; Marshall,
Story
, 110. TR insisted afterward that the sounds
were
bird calls at least “until we came right up to the Spanish lines.”
RR
.56. But Edward Marshall (93) and Stephen Crane, who had been in Cuba much longer than he, recognized the calls. “Ah, the wood-dove!” wrote Crane, “the Spanish guerrilla wood-dove which had presaged the death of gallant marines at Guantanamo!” Crane,
Dispatches
, 156. One senses a certain ornithological embarrassment in TR’s disclaimer, not to mention unwillingness to admit that he had been victim of an ambush.

57.
Davis,
Campaigns
, 149 points out that Wood had to plot all his tactical movements by ear, being unable to see more than two or three of his own troops at a time, let alone the enemy.
RR
.59; Mil.116.

58.
Crane,
Dispatches
, 157; Davis,
Campaigns
, 146.

59.
Ib.

60.
Hag.LW.I.165. The best overall accounts of the battle are Freidel,
Splendid Little War
, 102–9, and Azo.83–85.

61.
Davis,
Campaigns
, 148–9; Azo.95.

62.
Azo.95.

63.
Lawton, qu. Azo.96.

64.
RR
.50; Azo.83, 95.

65.
See Stallman,
Crane
, 383; Crane,
Dispatches
, 158.

66.
McIntosh,
Cuba
, 89–90.

67.
Brown,
Correspondents’ War
, 321–2.

68.
McIntosh,
Cuba
, 117; see
New York Times
, June 27, 1898, “Rough Riders Prove Heroes” for sample press treatment. Not one of the article’s six headlines made reference to any other regiment. For gubernatorial announcement, see ib., June 28.

69.
See, e.g., TR.Auto.245 ff.; Foulke, William D.,
A Hoosier Autobiography
(NY, 1922), 119. TR.Auto.245.

70.
Cosby, “A RRR Looks Back,” 87.

71.
Davis,
Campaigns
, 167;
RR.68;
un. clip, TR.Scr.

72.
Mor.844.

73.
RR
.70. Capt. Capron’s body was buried separately. See
N.Y.T.
, June 27, 1898, for another account of the hilltop funeral.

74.
Mor.845, 846;
RR
.67. See Ranson, “British Observers,” for details of the landing operation.

75.
Copy entitled “Progressive Principles” in TRB. See also slightly different version in TR.Auto.257–8.

76.
Mor.845. TR carried one sack of the beans back to camp himself, over eight miles of jungle road. EKR to Emily Carow, Aug. 8, 1896 (Derby mss.).

77.
Qu. Wes.79.

78.
Mor.845; Cosby, “A RRR Looks Back,” 93; Davis,
Campaigns
, 176; Azo.99–101.

79.
Ranson,
British Observers
.

80.
Davis,
Campaigns
, 183; Freidel,
Splendid Little War
, 122; Azo.102. The following descriptions of the battlefield of San Juan are based on prose sources as quoted, plus sketches, maps, and photographs, in, e.g., Lor.312–15; Freidel,
Splendid Little War, passim
, and Spanish-American war picture book collection in TRC.

81.
See Davis,
Campaigns
, 174 for copy of Shafter’s map. It was, in the opinion of one foreign attaché, so “laughably inadequate” that the Battle of San Juan was fought almost blind. Ranson, “British Observers
,”
qu. Arthur Lee.

82.
Azo.104; Davis,
Campaigns
, 183; Freidel,
Splendid Little War
, 120; Hag.LW.I.173.

83.
Pri.193.

84.
Azo.104–5; Freidel,
Splendid Little War
, 122 ff; Hag.LW.I.173–4.

85.
Davis,
Campaigns
, 188; Hag.LW.I. 172–3; TR.Auto.245.

86.
Davis,
Campaigns
, 190; Azo.107.

87.
Cosby, “A RRR Looks Back,” 96–7.

88.
RR
.74. The promotions were of course unofficial, and the titles “Acting” until the confirmation and notification from Washington; but wartime conditions made such formalities irrelevant.

89.
TR to Hermann Hagedorn, Harvard Club, Aug. 14, 1917: “San Juan was the great day of my life. I rose over those regular army officers like a balloon.”

90.
RR
.72; Cosby, “A RRR Looks Back,” 98; McIntosh,
Cuba
, 120; Davis,
Campaigns
, 193; Azo.107; Freidel,
War
, 144 ill.;
RR
.75.

91.
Cosby, “A RRR Looks Back,” 98.

92.
Description by Howard Chandler Christy, war artist, qu. Brown,
Correspondents’ War
, 338. (TR on June 30, 1898: author assumes he was wearing the same clothes, having slept in them overnight.)

93.
RR
.74; Azo.110-11, 147.

94.
Ib., 110;
RR
.75. The commander of Lawton’s battery was Captain Allyn
Capron, father and namesake of the victim of Las Guásimas.
RR
.76.

95.
Azo.115; Davis,
Campaigns
, 200 ff.; Hag.LW.I.174.

96.
Azo.116. TR to EKR, July 30, 1898.

97.
Davis,
Campaigns
, 217. The reporter describes TR and Gen. Hawkins, leader of Kent’s division, as the most conspicuous figures on the battlefield. But whereas the white-haired general “was so noble a sight that you felt inclined to pray for his safety,” the blue-scarfed colonel, “mounted high on horseback, and charging the rifle-pits at a gallop and quite alone, made you feel that you would like to cheer.” (Ib.) See also Marshall,
Story
, 187.

98.
Azo.117–8; Cosby, “A RRR Looks Back,” 103.

99.
RR
.77; Azo. 118.

100.
Davis,
Campaigns
, 189, 208;
RR
.81; Azo.120–1;
RR
.77; Cosby, “A RRR Looks Back,” 103–4.

101.
RR
.77; Cosby, “A RRR Looks Back,” 33; Freidel,
War
, 157 ill.

102.
Cosby, “A RRR Looks Back,” 104, 78; Davis,
Campaigns
, 204–12.

103.
RR
.79.

104.
RR
.78 TR qu. Azo.126.

105.
RR
.79–80; Davis,
Campaigns
, 207; Azo.127; Freidel,
War
, 157.

106.
Davis,
Campaigns
, 204; Mor.853. Lt. Royal Prentice, “Rough Riders,” 34, remembers the fusillade as “a solid sheet of bullets and shells … it appeared that nothing could live to get over the top.”

107.
RR
. 80; Marshall,
Story
, 203.

108.
Azo.135;
RR
.81.

109.
RR
.81.

110.
See, e.g., RR.84, and TR.Auto. 245: “Memory plays funny tricks in such a fight [as San Juan], where things happen quickly, and all kinds of mental images succeed one another in a detached kind of way, while the work goes on.…”

111.
TR.Wks.XII.306.

112.
The following collage is based on
RR
.82 ff.; TR.Auto.247 ff.; Mor.847, 856–7. See also the eyewitness accounts reprinted by TR in TR.Auto., Appendix B to Ch. VII. There is some confusion as to whether TR killed his man on the first hill (Kettle), or the second (San Juan). The overwhelming weight of evidence is that he did so on Kettle. See Mor.853, TR to HCL: “Did I tell you that I killed a Spaniard with my own hand when I led the storm of the first redoubt?” TR to EKR, July 3, 1898 (TRB transcript) confirms. But TR prints a letter by Maj. M. J. Jenkins in TR.Auto.274, saying that the kill was on San Juan, and TR himself in
RR
.89 includes it in his account of the second charge. Close analysis of his language, however, indicates that he was indulging in a sort of flashback to the first. Maj. Jenkins must simply have been mistaken, and TR careless in printing his testimony.

113.
“Jack-rabbit” quote: R. H. Ferguson to EKR (using TR’s own words), July 5, 1898. See also n. 119 below.
RR
.86.

114.
Ib.; Davis,
Campaigns
, 218;
RR
.86.

115.
RR
.87. The Rough Riders’ crossfire was extremely deadly: see below.

116.
RR
.88; Hall,
The Fun and Fighting of the Rough Riders
(NY, 1899) 34.

117.
RR
.90; TR.Auto.248; ib., Appendix B to Ch. VII. Memo of John H. Parker to Stanley Allen,
The Register
, Feb. 14, 1938 (TRB); See also Mor.856–7, and Davis,
Campaigns
, 220 ff.

118.
RR
.89.

119.
R. H. Ferguson to EKR, July 5, 1898. TR’s exultation, however excessive, must be considered in the light of undeniable atrocities by the other side during the Battle of San Juan. See Davis,
Campaigns
, 208, on the sharpshooters who methodically pumped bullets into
the surgeons, Red Cross personnel, litter-bearers, and even the wounded themselves at Bloody Ford Hospital; also Mor.858. As for the sheer hatred of the enemy which battle instinctively inspires, see Cosby, “A RRR Looks Back,” 101, on his reaction to the fusillade at Kettle Hill: “Now we were hating mad—anger began to wriggle through our minds—and on down through our arms and hands.” But TR’s killing triumph lasted well beyond the date of final victory. Isaac Hunt, his old Assembly colleague, heard him talk about “doubling up” the Spanish soldier in later years, and “it made cold chills run down my back. He told it about like … I would talk about shooting a squirrel.” HUN.90. See also Wag.250.

120.
Azo.144;
RR
. 101, 100. During four and a half months of official existence, the Rough Riders attained a 37% casualty rate, highest of any regiment in the war (1 out of every 3 dead, wounded, or diseased).

Note:
TR’s heroism on San Juan Heights has been called into question by some historians, but an eloquent contemporary tribute to it, written by Admiral French E. Chadwick, on the eve of the tenth anniversary of the battle, is available in Maguire, Doris D.,
French Ensor Chadwick: Selected Letters and Papers
(Washington, D.C., 1981), 462–63.

121.
R. H. Ferguson to EKR, July 5, 1898.

122.
Within a week, Gen. Wheeler had agreed to send a formal Medal of Honor recommendation to Washington. Mor.850.

123.
Mor.853; TR.Auto.250; Prentice, “Rough Riders,” 46; R. H. Ferguson to EKR, July 5, 1898; Hall,
Fun and Fighting
, 218.

124.
R. H. Ferguson to EKR, July 5, 1898.

125.
RR
.110 ff.; Freidel,
War
, 120 ff. and 185; Azo.140; Mor.846. Azo. 151–2 quotes Shafter’s letter to Secretary Alger, threatening withdrawal.

126.
Freidel,
War
, 191.

127.
Ib., 179; Shafter qu. Azo.155.

128.
Ib., 156; Hall,
Fun and Fighting
, 218.

129.
Azo.157–8.

130.
Ib., 160.

131.
Although TR did not formally accept his full colonelcy until July 31
(Herald
, Sep. 25, 1898), his commission had already been issued on July 11 and sent to him in Cuba. (Ib.)

132.
Mor.853; TR.War.Di. July 3; Mor.851. TR’s only known ailment in Cuba was a bout of dysentery. EKR to Emily Carow, Aug. 14, 1898 (Derby mss.).

133.
RR
.135.

134.
See Mor.858–9; ib., 855;
RR
.133, 136.
McClure’s
, Nov. 1898, qu. an anonymous Rough Rider.

135.
Mor.851. The lieutenant appears in the photograph at the beginning of this chapter, standing immediately behind TR’s right shoulder.

136.
Greenaway qu. J. J. Leary in TRB mss.

137.
Mor.861; ib., 860.

138.
See Che.18–19.

139.
RR
.138, 142.