The rise of Theodore Roosevelt - Edmund Morris [453]
32. RR.25; Mor.832. Arthur S. Cosby, a late recruit who arrived in camp on May 26, was impressed by the regiment’s flawless performance during mounted drill. “It was a fine sight to see these men marching their mounts in formation or launching on thunderous gallops—all at quick response to the nasal, high-pitched commands of Col. Roosevelt.” Cosby, “A RRR Looks Back,” 29. TR qu. Sun clip, n.d., TR.Scr.
33. Har.103.
34. Wes.83; Chicago Tribune, May 27, 1898 (“Teddy’s Terrors Cut Up High Jinks at San Antonio”), qu. Wes.82. Jones, Rough Riders, 43, says that two thousand shots were fired.
35. Wood qu. Hag.LW.I.149.
36. Jones, Rough Riders, 43; Hag. LW.I. 155; Azo.54–5.
37. See Lor.304–5.
38. TR.War.Di. May 29, 1898; Cosby, “A RRR Looks Back,” 39 ff; RR.34; see also Jones, Rough Riders, 44.
39. RR.32. The Rough Rider Special consisted of 25 day coaches, 2 Pullmans, 5 baggage cars, 8 box cars, and 60 livestock cars. Sections traveled about a mile apart. Jones, Rough Riders, 43.
40. RR.35.
41. See RR.32 for TR’s amused rejection of Demolins’s military thesis.
42. Cosby, “A RRR Looks Back,” 45.
43. See Wes. passim for an indication of the depth and extent of this coverage through the West and South. Cosby, “A RRR Looks Back,” 43–6; RR.34–5; Hall, Fun and Fighting, 68–74; Sun, d.l. Waldo, Fla., June 2, 1898.
44. RR.35.
45. Cosby, “A RRR Looks Back,” 49. The exact point was Ybor City. RR.36.
46. Prentice, “The RRs,” 272; Mor.834; Davis, Campaigns, 46.
47. Cosby, “A RRR Looks Back,” 50, mentions a pleasant breeze on June 2, tempering the 90-degree heat. Davis, Campaigns, 46 and passim; RR.37; Mil.241; Azo.38; Brown, Charles H., The Correspondents’ War (NY, 1967) 206 ff; pics in TRB and TRC.
48. Davis, Campaigns, 50.
49. RR.37.
50. Mor.835.
51. Cosmas, An Army, 193. According to Shafter’s chief commissary, the General “couldn’t walk two miles in an hour, just beastly obese.” Qu. ib.
52. Mor.849. Cosmas, An Army, 193–4, in the most balanced opinion of Shafter, points out that the General was a distinguished career soldier, a recipient of the Medal of Honor, and a man whose mental quickness belied his bulk. However “his worst failing as a commander … was a lack of experience in organizing and maneuvering large formations. Never, before taking command at Tampa, had he directed so many men—25,000 infantry, cavalry and artillery—in an independent campaign.”
53. Ib., 103–9, 124.
54. Azo.35; Brown, Correspondents’ War, 202; full details in Cosmas, An Army, 123–5.
55. Ib., 129; Azo.54–5.
56. Mil.245; TR.War.Di., June 5, 1898.
57. See Gen. Miles, qu. Mil.245; also Cosmas, An Army, 195–6. Mor.834; Davis, Campaigns, 83.
58. Ib., 82–3 is the basis of this description, supplemented by details from Cosby, “A RRR Looks Back,” passim. According to TR in Mor.834, the foreign attachés expressed “great wonder” at the performance and training of the Rough Riders. Generals Miles and Wheeler also reviewed the regiment at this time “and unhesitatingly said it is the finest volunteer regiment they ever saw … never had they known a regiment, either regular or volunteer, to have learned so much in one month’s service.…” Santa Fe (N.M.) correspondent, qu. Jones, Rough Riders, 53–4.
59. Mor.835; RR.37; Cosmas, An Army, 196. At first TR was under the impression that the horses would be sent on afterward, but this soon proved to be a hollow expectation.
60. RR.37; Mor.836. C, H, I, and M Troops stayed behind.
61. Azo.57.
62. Her.239; Azo.58, 57; see also Mil.246.
63. RR.38–9; Cosby, “A RRR Looks Back,” 59–60.
64. Ib., 60; Frank Brito, qu. Walker, Dale, “The Last of the Rough Riders,” Montana, XII.3 (July 1973) 44; Baltimore Sun, June 11, 1898.
65. RR.39–40. See also Mor.841; Azo. 60; Cosmas, An Army, 195–6 for details of the administrative foul-up.
66. Smith, Albert E., Two Reels and a Crank (NY, 1952) 57. Elsewhere Smith speaks of “the camera’s hypnotic effect on Mr. Roosevelt.” If Smith is to be believed, TR even halted on the advance to San Juan to pose for a final, heroic newsreel