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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 26, 1905)
33 W7 IJFif ,07 771HW c?yzG7r LONG before the war "with Spain broke out two men. used to taKe stiff wallts thi-outh the Washington suburbs tnd discuss the best way of getting Into the active fighting as soon as the trouble . which, was brewing should come to a boat!. These talks were big with consequences j to each of the two men. Theodora Hoose- I volt, then Assistant Secretary of the JCavy, has become, by reason of them, President of the United States, and is in . tkjf days to bo Inaugurated for another terra. Leonard "Wood, a surgeon with the rank of Captain, Is now slatedby rou tine preferment to command th& Armies of the United States within ten years For during their long walks both men got tight hold of a rung from which they have shot like meteors up the ladder of tame. From those talks came lntoeing the Rough Riders, which is the most famous regiment the world has ever known, considering its length of service, und from the Rough Riders have come Individuals who have had no small share In molding the history of the present decade. Thirty of these same Rough Riders, chosen by Colonel Alexander Brodie, are fathering from XewTork, Arizona and all points between, to form the Immediate ebcort of their chief In the Inaugural pa rade at "Washington. March 4. Among thorn are polo players, statesmen, ath letic champions and frontiersmen with motley records. But not one of the 30 would miss being present If it cost him a leg. New Yorkers of the exclusive set and lightning "gun-play artists" of Ari zona will meet on a common basis of good-fellowship. They fared together and faced the twin dangers of Mauser bul lets and fever in those eventful days in Cuba. The New Yorker has a vision of Ben Daniels climbing like a schoolboy up that bullet-swept hill in front of San tiago, and Arizona sees the cotillion lead er of Newport washing dishes, doing sen try go in an all-night soaking rain and stopping Spanish bullets with the same uncomplaining good cheer. That is why Captain "Woodbury Kane, of the polo and yachting sets; Private Ben Daniels, late of the penitentiary: Sherman Bell, private and General and the best-hated man in Colorado since he crushed the Western Federation of Miners with his iron heel, and Governor Brodie, once of West Point, but for 20 years an Arizona frontiersman, will be proud to ride be side each other at their leader's carriage. It matters not how far -apart they were before, npr how widely" their roads have , 4 jr$5 diverged since. Those few weeks in the i trenches and the jungles before Santiago made them comrades in arms and they learned to respect the American man hood that was common to all. Respects the Primal Virtues. And that Is why Theodore Roosevelt, the cowboy President, asked Governor Brodie to choose him an escort from the members of his old regiment. Of poli ticians and lobbyists and place seekers he sees enough and to spare, but his heart turns back to these soldiers who know what It is to win the plaudits of society on the polo field or to spend a weary, dusty day In the saddle at the roundup. The President Is democratic enough to respect the primal virtues of hardihood, loyalty and physical pluck. When the news of the sinking of the Maine flashed through the country like a bolt from the blue. Congress soon au thorized the raising of thne regiments among the riders and riflemen of the plains and the Rockies. Secretary AJger offered the command of one of these cavalry regiments to Theodore Roosevelt, who had massed all his influence to get into active service, despite th advice of President McKinley and Secretary of the Navy Long, both of whom thought he. was ruining his career. Roosevelt had never been In active military service, so he parsuaded Secretary Alger to appoint aB Colonel Leonard Wood, who ' bad served for years In General Miles' Apache' THE SUNDAY OBEGONIAff, PORTLAND, FEBRUARY 26, 1905. mm 4 5' Jim. .0 campaigns In the Southwest- To Roose- velt was given, the position of -Lieutenant Colonel. He had been in the National Guard for several years, and had been Deputy .marshal of a cow-town In the West, and had been under fire frequent ly. Besides, It was recognized that Roosevelt was by temperament a sol dier. To havo raised a division instead of a regiment would have been an easy task Appllcatlons poured in from all over the country. Whole companies wore prof fered by various states. The point was to choose tho best out of the many thou sands available. From the four terri toriesArizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Indian Territory' the bulk of the men were taken. They were a splendid, sol dierly type, these Southwegterners tall, lithe fellows with the sinews of the pan ther, resolute men who had looked death In the face and laughed a score of tlmeH. clear-eyed Centaurs who could ride any thing that was alive and had four legs. Ideal Soldiers. Among the Ideal soldiers picked out by WoOd and Roosevelt wero hunters nnd miners, wanderers on the face of the earth, men Imired to hardship and simple livjng. They were all men who knew how to shift for themselves, to handle the bronco and the rifle and to meet danger with the exhilaration of a lover Reeking his mistress. In a meas uso they were unused to - discipline, 3v -N'T- . r- V7T& COL XJECSr 5 WW mi 88$ yet even the cowpuncher on the roundr j up accepts and obeys the leadership of the master of the rodeo whom ho has ' elected. They were Ideal cavulrymon. needing only the discipline of drill to ' form a regiment unique and terribly effective. ' A look at the personnel of this com- j mand Is sufficient evidence of the fighting I edge ;which made tho Rough Riders such , a powcXul factor. ' There was Allyn Ca pron. Captain of Troop L. fifth In direct ; line of descent in his family to serve in ! the United States Army. Roosevelt has described Capron as his Ideal of a soldier, j bar none. An athlete from top to toe. he j never asked his men to do as much as he performed himself. He was the very embodiment of the ideal cavalry leader, this yellow-haired and blue-eyed Captain, who fell at Las Guaslmas, pierced through the lungs within a week of the time that his gallant father, in the Regu lar Army, also paid his last debt. Another gallant cavalry leader was Rucky O'Neill, of Troop A. He had, "more than any other man In the regiment, the spirit of the old searovers. No man was ever put together df stranger elements than this poct-soldler. For years his name had been synonymous In the South west with desDerate couraee. No chnnrn was ever too great for him. If it carrled Ith t the thrill of adventure. As sher iff, gambler, fighter of Indians and des peradoes, be had been for long- a -marked figure, and. strangely enough, he had been &0SUECr ;..si 2 4 ISPI n: no less notable as an Incorruptible judge and a shrewd politician. Bucky O Nelll. and a shrewd politician. Bucky O'Neill. in aiiuru .u& a. uuni i;aucr ui men. tie dled Just as he would havo chosen.to die. standing In the trenches before Santiago, smoking a cigarette and making light of Ihf Mauser bullets that plowed up the ain aooiii mm. hp was a iaiausi. ana. u there I anything In his philosophy, the Hull a! Vi o nlriiKlr him In tkn mn.,,V Vni be r v;: : """ i:"i:"t."" " ... . v. .... . k-.kv before. IJ was dead before the smile had left his face, and the jest on his llpa miijffled . with the. death rattle in hi? throat. TiCM W1L1 FORT! 15 Sherman Bell, a Cripple Creek mining man, was another recruit of desperate valor, enlisted as a private. Bell had a hernia which opened several times during- the campaign. He was slated to be returned home, but absolutely refused. When the ambulance came for him he crawled away into the Jungle and hid un til It had gone. The other troopers shield ed him. carried his kit. and helped him along. More dead than alive. Bell reached the front. But he would not give up. and on the final day of the charge there was no blither hlllclimber than "Sherm" Bell. Men of the frontier type poured into the regiments in droves. There were McGin ty and Darnell, the bronco-busters, the former so diminutive that he coiSi not keep step whtn on foot, but who was one of the greatest bronco-busters in the command. Darnell passed through the campaign, only to be killed later in a Western brawl. There was Smith, the big game-hunter of Wyoming: Crockett, of Georgia, an internal revenue officer, who was "death on moonshiners": Ben Dan iels, once Marshal of Dodge City, worst of all "bad" towns, and llollrman and Adair, Cherokee Indian?. From Aus tralia came Osborne, an officer of the New South Wales Mounted Rifles, and from i Kngland came Cook, who had seen South I Seen South African service. There was a soldier o African service. There was a soldier of r ionun- irom ine tfrencn army m South- . . em China, and there were four Baptist and Methodist parsons in the ranks. Wherever the call of coming bStfe reached Then turned with enthusiasm to- ' wara toe itough Riders. : Not all the men were from the wildR. . Tt..JI-.. J T rr- . r"r,w. uom quar- " '" " eieven. ana me iai- ter twice tennis champion of America: hi; rnV ,at "i r-r:r worth, the society steeplechaser; Hamll- -- - f v., x.ni ' UMJ- 1 . amll- r. OF &"2fe. a. S ton Fish, a former captain of the Colum bla crew: Joe Stevens. Woodbury Kan and Horace Devereux, well-known polo players: John Greenway. of Yale, famous both on the gridiron and the diamond: Dave Goodrich, twice captain of the Har vard crew these wore some of the men who came In either as privates or with a uommlsbion. Getting to the Front. To choose, equip, organize and get the Rough Riders to the front in time for active service was a herculean task. Hundreds of regiments were being formed, each of them needing much in the way of equipment, which the War Department was ill-prepared to furnish. Roosevelt and Wobff flung" all their Influence into the scale, worked like beaver?, pulled all the strings they could, and so were ready to move before most of the other new regiments had approached anything likn order. Krng .Torgensens were secured for the men. and the regiment was brigaded with thr lighting regulars. Right up to the lant minute offcers and men worked like Trojans to become efficient, and su-h was the excellent material in th com mand that the "Rough Rider? took their places be.ide the regulars who were t SO in Plllia trhlln nthir rnlnnti... I mnt- r.ina. i ,1 .... u....i,it a. iialUK J" nawing Im- natience and ieilnnr-- Bi th nLV on7w. VT4 u VFJ ?G reachu&s Xoll rtr n"? BIf " . lf fSVS & Good fortune, combined with the ener; j of landing two colored troopers in another regiment 5anK helplessly when a boat overturned. Instantly Bucky O'Neill in ; u u uniform divod after them, but he i COIllf1 nnt rpa, t1Q Colonel Wood hurried his regiment for- could UD the teep 'Coacludcd on Page ST.)