Editing Rough Riders (section)

== Spanish–American War ==
[[File:Rough Riders arrive at Tampa.jpg|thumb|left|Troops arriving in Tampa]]
[[File:Yucatan carrying rough riders to cuba.jpg|thumb|Rough Riders heading to Cuba aboard the steamship ''Yucatan''.]]

=== Departure from the United States ===
On May 29, 1898, 1,060 Rough Riders and 1,258 of their horses and mules made their way to the Southern Pacific railroad to travel to [[Tampa, Florida]], where they would set off for Cuba. The lot awaited orders for departure from Major General [[William Rufus Shafter]]. Under heavy prompting from Washington D.C., General Shafter gave the order to dispatch the troops early before sufficient traveling storage was available. Due to this problem, only eight of the 12 companies of The Rough Riders were permitted to leave Tampa to engage in the war, and many of the horses and mules were left behind. Aside from Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt's first-hand mention of deep, heartfelt sorrow from the men left behind, this situation resulted in a premature weakening of the men. Approximately one-fourth of them who received training had already been lost, most dying of [[malaria]] and [[yellow fever]]. This sent the remaining troops into Cuba with a significant loss in men and morale.<ref name="ReferenceA">Hutton, "T.R. takes charge," 30(11).</ref>

Upon arrival on Cuban shores on June 23, 1898, the men promptly unloaded themselves and the small amount of equipment they carried with them. Camp was set up nearby and the men were to remain there until further orders had been given to advance. Further supplies were unloaded from the ships over the next day including the very few horses that were allowed on the journey. "The great shortcoming throughout the campaign was the utterly inadequate transportation. If they had been allowed to take our mule-train, they could have kept the whole cavalry division supplied," Roosevelt later wrote.<ref name=TR />{{rp|45}} Each man was only able to carry a few days worth of food which had to last them longer and fuel their bodies for rigorous tasks. Even after only 75 percent of the total number of cavalrymen was allowed to embark into Cuba, they were still without most of the horses they had so heavily been trained and accustomed to using. They were not trained as infantry and were not conditioned to doing heavy marching, especially long-distance in hot, humid, and dense jungle conditions. This ultimately served as a severe disadvantage to the men who had yet to see combat.<ref name=TR />{{rp|45}}

=== Battle of Las Guasimas ===
[[File:Stand of the Rough Riders at Las Guasimas.jpg|thumb|"The Battle of Las Guasimas, June 24 – The heroic stand of the 'Rough Riders'" in ''Harper's Pictorial History of the War with Spain''.]]
{{Main|Battle of Las Guasimas}}

Within another day of camp being established, men were sent forward into the jungle for reconnaissance purposes, and before too long they returned with news of a Spanish outpost, Las Guasimas. By afternoon, The Rough Riders were given the command to begin marching towards Las Guasimas, to eliminate opposition and secure the area which stood in the path of further military advance. Upon arrival at their relative destination, the men slept through the night in a crude encampment nearby the Spanish outpost they would attack early the next morning.<ref name=" ReferenceB">Pierson, "What the Rough Riders lacked ...," 10.</ref> The American side included the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, under [[Leonard Wood]], the [[1st Cavalry Regiment (United States)|1st U.S. Regular Cavalry]], and the [[10th Cavalry Regiment (United States)|10th U.S. Regular Cavalry]] (this consisted of [[Afro-American]] soldiers, then called [[Buffalo soldiers]]). Supported by artillery, the American forces numbered 964 men,<ref name=Wheeler>Wheeler, J., 1899, ''The Santiago Campaign in Campaigns of Wheeler and His Cavalry'', Atlanta: Hudgins Publishing Company</ref>{{rp|9}} supported by 800 men from Castillo.{{Citation needed |reason=A ref tag named Nofi with a notation for page 124 was specified, but no citation was provided in the article for the tag name. |date=February 2020}}

The Spanish held an advantage over the Americans by knowing their way through the complicated trails in the area of combat. They predicted where the Americans would be traveling on foot and exactly what positions to fire on. They also were able to utilize the land and cover in such a way that they were difficult to spot. Along with this, their guns used [[smokeless powder]] which did not give away their immediate position upon firing as other gunpowders would have. This increased the difficulty of finding the opposition for the U.S. soldiers. In some locations, the jungle was too thick to see very far.<ref name="ReferenceB" /> Rough Riders on both left and right sides of the trail moved forward and eventually forced the Spaniards back to their second line of trenches. Continuing to advance, the Rough Riders eventually forced the Spanish to withdraw completely from their final positions. Rough Riders from A Troop on the far-right linked up with their regular counterparts and helped them seize the Spanish positions on the long finger-like hill to the right of the right road, with both Rough Riders and Regulars meeting at the base of the hill. By this time it was approximately 9:30&nbsp;a.m. Reinforcements from the regular 9th Cavalry arrived 30 minutes after the fight.<ref name="bartleby.com">[http://www.bartleby.com/51/ Roosevelt, Theodore, ''The Rough Riders''] Chapter III, page 18, Bartleby Website</ref>

General [[Samuel Baldwin Marks Young|Young]], who was in command of the regulars and cavalry, began the attack in the early morning. Using long-range, large-caliber [[Hotchkiss gun]]s, he fired at the opposition, who were reportedly concealed along trenches, roads, bridges, and jungle cover. Colonel Wood's men, accompanied by Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt, were not yet in the same vicinity as the other men at the start of the battle. They had a more difficult path to travel around the time the battle began, and at first they had to make their way up a very steep hill. "Many of the men, footsore and weary from their march of the preceding day, found the pace up this hill too hard, and either dropped their bundles or fell out of line, with the result that we went into action with less than five hundred men."<ref name=TR />{{rp|50}} Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt became aware that there were countless opportunities for any man to fall out of formation and resign from battle without notice as the jungle was often too thick in places to see through. This was yet another event that left the group with fewer men than they had at the start.

Regardless, The Rough Riders pushed forward toward the outpost along with the regulars. Using careful observation, the officers were able to locate where the opposition was hidden in the brush and entrenchments and they were able to target their men properly to overcome them. Toward the end of the battle, Edward Marshall, a newspaper writer, was inspired by the men around him in the heat of battle to pick up a rifle and begin fighting alongside them. When he suffered a gunshot wound in the spine from one of the Spaniards, another soldier mistook him as Colonel Wood from afar and ran back from the front line to report his death. Due to this misconception, Roosevelt temporarily took command as colonel and gathered the troops together with his leadership charisma. The battle lasted an hour and a half from beginning to end with The Rough Riders suffering eight dead and 31 wounded, including Captain [[Allyn K. Capron Jr.]] Roosevelt came across Colonel Wood in full health after the battle finished and stepped down from his position to lieutenant-colonel.<ref name=TR />{{RP|49-60}}

The United States had full control of this Spanish outpost on the road to Santiago by the end of the battle. General Shafter had the men hold position for six days while additional supplies were brought ashore. During this time, The Rough Riders ate, slept, cared for the wounded, and buried the dead from both sides. During the six-day encampment, some men died from fever. Among those stricken by illness was General [[Joseph Wheeler]]. Brigadier General [[Samuel S. Sumner|Samuel Sumner]] assumed command of the cavalry and Wood took the second brigade as brigadier general. This left Roosevelt as colonel of The Rough Riders.<ref name="ReferenceA" />

=== Battle of San Juan Hill ===
{{Main|Battle of San Juan Hill}}
[[File:SanJuanHeightsUSArmyencampmentKettleHillJuly1898.jpg|thumb|US Army encampment, 1st Volunteer Cavalry, Rough Riders, at the base of Kettle Hill about July 5, 1898. San Juan Hill and block houses are in background.]]
[[File:SanJuanHeights1898USArmyencampmentJuly1898.jpg|thumb|US Army photo taken near the base of Kettle Hill about July 4, 1898. The soldier is pointing up to the top of Kettle Hill. In the background are the block houses on San Juan Hill and the American encampment.]]
[[File:The Rough Riders charging up the San Juan Hill cph.3b30041u.jpg|thumb|''The Fight for Santiago. The "Rough Riders" charging up the San Juan Hill, July 1, and driving the Spanish from their intrenchments''{{sic}}. Illustration from ''[[McClure's]]'', October 1898]]
[[File:SanJuanHeightsUSArmyJuly1898VictorsKettleHill.jpg|thumb|upright=2.0|alt=A black-and-white photo of US Army soldiers on July 3, 1898, in an upside-down V-type formation on top of Kettle Hill, two American flags in center and right. Soldiers facing camera.|Original title: "Colonel Roosevelt and his Rough Riders at the top of the hill which they captured, Battle of San Juan Hill." US Army victors on Kettle Hill about July 3, 1898 after the battle of "San Juan Hill(s)." Left to right is 3rd US Cavalry, 1st Volunteer Cavalry (Col. Theodore Roosevelt center) and 10th US Cavalry. A second similar picture is often shown cropping out all but the 1st Vol Cav and TR.]]

The order was given for the men to march the {{convert|8|mi|km|spell=in}} along the road to Santiago from the outpost they had been holding. Originally, Colonel Roosevelt had no specific orders for himself and his men. They were simply to march to the base of [[Battle of San Juan Hill|San Juan Heights]], defended by over 1,000 Spanish soldiers, and keep the enemy occupied. This way the Spanish would be forced to hold their ground while being bombarded by American artillery. The main attack would be carried out by Brigadier General Henry Lawton's division against the Spanish stronghold El Caney a few miles away. The Rough Riders were to meet up with them mid-battle.<ref name=TR />{{RP|69–70}}

San Juan Hill and another hill were separated by a small valley and pond with the river near the foot of both. Together, this geography formed San Juan Heights. The battle of San Juan Heights began with an artillery barrage on the Spanish position. When the Spanish returned fire, the Rough Riders had to move promptly to avoid shells as they were occupying the same space as the friendly artillery. Colonel Roosevelt and his men made their way to the foot of what was dubbed Kettle Hill for the old sugar refinement cauldrons which lay along it.<ref name="ReferenceA" /> There they took cover along the riverbank and tall grass to avoid sniper and artillery fire, but they were left vulnerable and pinned down. The Spanish rifles were able to discharge eight rounds in the 20 seconds it took for the United States rifles to reload.

Theodore Roosevelt, deeply dissatisfied with General Shafter's lack of reconnaissance and failure to issue specific orders, became uneasy with the idea of his men being left sitting in the line of fire. He sent messengers to seek out one of the generals and coax orders from them to advance from their position. Finally, the Rough Riders received orders to assist the regulars in their assault on the hill's front. Roosevelt, riding on horseback, got his men onto their feet and into position to begin making their way up the hill. He later claimed that he wished to fight on foot as he did at Las Guasimas, but that would have made it too difficult to move up and down the hill to supervise his men effectively. He also recognized that he could see his men better from the elevated horseback, and they could see him better as well.<ref name=TR />{{rp|75}} Roosevelt chided his own men to not leave him alone in a charge up the hill, and drawing his sidearm, promised nearby black soldiers separated from their own units that he would fire at them if they turned back, warning them he kept his promises. His Rough Riders chanted (likely in jest): "Oh he always does, he always does!" The soldiers, laughing, fell in with the volunteers to prepare for the assault.<ref name=TR />{{rp|49}}

As the troops of the various units began slowly creeping up the hill, firing their rifles at the opposition as they climbed, Roosevelt went to the captain of the platoons in the back and had a word with him. He stated that it was his opinion that they could not effectively take the hill due to an insufficient ability to effectively return fire, and that the solution was to charge it full-on. The captain reiterated his colonel's orders to hold position. Roosevelt, recognizing the absence of the other colonel, declared himself the ranking officer and ordered a charge up Kettle Hill. The captain stood hesitant, and Colonel Roosevelt rode off on his horse, Texas, leading his own men uphill while waving his hat in the air and cheering. The Rough Riders followed him with enthusiasm and obedience without hesitation. By then, the other men from the different units on the hill became stirred by this event and began bolting up the hill alongside their countrymen. The 'charge' was actually a series of short rushes by mixed groups of regulars and Rough Riders. Within 20 minutes, Kettle Hill was taken, though casualties were heavy. The rest of San Juan Heights was taken within the following hour.{{citation needed|date=July 2019}}

The Rough Riders' charge on Kettle Hill was facilitated by a hail of high caliber covering fire from three [[Gatling Gun]]s commanded by Lt. [[John Henry Parker (General)|John H. Parker]], which fired some 18,000 [[.30-40|.30 Army]] rounds into the Spanish trenches atop the crest of both hills. Col. Roosevelt noted that the hammering sound of the Gatling guns visibly raised the spirits of his men:

<blockquote>"There suddenly smote on our ears a peculiar drumming sound. One or two of the men cried out, 'The Spanish machine guns!' but, after listening a moment, I leaped to my feet and called, 'It's the Gatlings, men! Our Gatlings!' Immediately the troopers began to cheer lustily, for the sound was most inspiring."<ref>Parker, John H., ''The Gatlings At Santiago'', preface by Theodore Roosevelt, Middlesex, U.K.: Echo Library (reprinted 2006)</ref><ref>Roosevelt, Theodore, ''The Rough Riders'', Scribner's Magazine, Vol. 25, May 1899, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, p. 568</ref></blockquote>

Trooper Jesse D. Langdon of the 1st Volunteer Infantry, who accompanied Col. Theodore Roosevelt and the Rough Riders in their assault on Kettle Hill, reported:

<blockquote>"We were exposed to the Spanish fire, but there was very little because just before we started, why, the Gatling guns opened up at the bottom of the hill, and everybody yelled, 'The Gatlings! The Gatlings!' and away we went. The Gatlings just enfiladed the top of those trenches. We'd never have been able to take Kettle Hill if it hadn't been for Parker's Gatling guns."<ref>Jones, V.C., ''Before The Colors Fade: Last Of The Rough Riders'', ''American Heritage'' Magazine, August 1969, Vol. 20, Issue 5, p. 26</ref></blockquote>

A Spanish counterattack on Kettle Hill by some 600 infantry was quickly devastated by one of Lt. Parker's Gatling guns recently emplaced on the summit of San Juan Hill, which killed all but 40 of the attackers before they had closed to within {{convert|250|yd}} of the Americans on Kettle Hill.<ref>Parker, John H. (Lt.), ''The Gatlings At Santiago'', Middlesex, U.K.: Echo Library (reprinted 2006), pp. 59–61</ref> Col. Roosevelt was so impressed by the actions of Lt. Parker and his men that he placed his regiment's two 7&nbsp;mm Colt–Browning machine guns and the volunteers manning them under Parker, who immediately emplaced them—along with 10,000 rounds of captured 7&nbsp;mm Mauser ammunition—at tactical firing points in the American line.<ref>Parker, John H. (Lt.), ''History of the Gatling Gun Detachment'', Kansas City, MO: Hudson-Kimberly Publishing Co. (1898), pp. 160–161</ref>

Colonel Roosevelt gave a large share of the credit for the successful charge to Lt. Parker and his Gatling Gun Detachment: <blockquote>"I think Parker deserved rather more credit than any other one man in the entire campaign ... he had the rare good judgment and foresight to see the possibilities of the machine-guns..He then, by his own exertions, got it to the front and proved that it could do invaluable work on the field of battle, as much in attack as in defense."<ref>Roosevelt, Theodore (Col.), ''The Rough Riders'', ''Scribner''{{'}}s Magazine, p. 568</ref></blockquote>

America's conflict with Spain was later described as a "splendid little war" and for Theodore Roosevelt it certainly was. His combat experience consisted of one week's campaign with one day of hard fighting. "The charge itself was great fun", he declared, and "Oh, but we had a bully fight." His actions during the battle earned a recommendation for the [[Medal of Honor]], but politics intervened and the request was denied. The rejection crushed Roosevelt, yet notability from the charge up San Juan Hill was instrumental in propelling him to the governorship of New York in 1899. The following year Roosevelt was selected to fill the vice presidential spot in President McKinley's successful run for a second term. With McKinley's assassination in September 1901, Roosevelt became president.{{citation needed|date=July 2019}}

In the confusion surrounding their departure from Tampa, half the members of the Rough Riders were left behind along with most of the horses. The volunteers made the charge up San Juan Hill on foot. They were joined in the attack by the 10th (Negro) Cavalry. Though the 10th never received the glory for the charge that the Rough Riders did, one of their commanders—[[John J. Pershing|Captain "Black Jack" Pershing]] (who later commanded American troops in World War I)—was awarded the [[Silver Star]].{{citation needed|date=July 2019}}

=== Siege of Santiago ===
{{Main|Siege of Santiago}}

The Rough Riders played a key role in the outcome of the [[Spanish–American War]] by assisting the American forces in forming a constricting ring around the city of Santiago de Cuba. The ultimate goal of the Americans in capturing the San Juan Heights (also known as Kettle Hill and San Juan Hill) was to attain a strategic position from which to move downhill and attack Santiago, a strong point for the Spanish military. The Spanish had a fleet of cruisers in port. The United States drove the Spanish cruisers out of their port by taking areas around Santiago and subsequently moving in on the city from multiple directions. Two days after the battle on San Juan Heights, the US navy destroyed Spain's Caribbean cruiser fleet at [[Battle of Santiago de Cuba|Santiago Bay]]. This took a tremendous toll on the Spanish military due to their widespread empire and heavy reliance upon naval capabilities.<ref name="Dale L. Walker 2008">Dale L. Walker, "from the San Juan Heights," ''Military History'', XXV (Jul/Aug 2008), 17.</ref>

The primary objective of the American [[Fifth Army Corps (Spanish–American War)|Fifth Army Corps]]' invasion of Cuba was the capture of the city of [[Santiago de Cuba]]. U.S. forces had driven back the Spaniards' first line of defense at the [[Battle of Las Guasimas]], after which General [[Arsenio Linares]] pulled his troops back to the main line of defense against Santiago along San Juan Heights. In the charge at the [[Battle of San Juan Hill]] U.S. forces captured the Spanish position. At the [[Battle of El Caney]] the same day, U.S. forces took the fortified Spanish position and were then able to extend the U.S. flank on San Juan Hill. The destruction of the Spanish fleet at the Battle of Santiago de Cuba allowed U.S. forces to safely besiege the city.

However, the sinking of the Spanish cruisers did not mean the end of the war. Battles continued in and around Santiago. On July 16, after both governments agreed to the terms of capitulation ("surrender" was avoided), in which Toral surrendered his garrison and all troops in the Division of Santiago, an additional 9,000 soldiers.{{Citation needed |reason=A ref tag named Nofi with a notation for page 210 was specified, but no citation was provided in the article for the tag name. |date=February 2020}} The Spanish also ceded [[Guantanamo City]] and [[San Luis, Santiago de Cuba|San Luis]]. The Spanish troops marched out of Santiago on July 17.{{Citation needed |reason=A ref tag named Nofi with a notation for page 210 was specified, but no citation was provided in the article for the tag name. |date=February 2020}} By July 17, 1898, the Spanish forces in Santiago surrendered to General Shafter and the United States military. Various battles in the region continued on and the United States was continuously victorious. On August 12, 1898, the Spanish Government surrendered to the United States and agreed to an armistice that relinquished their control of Cuba. The armistice also gained the United States the territories of [[Puerto Rico]], [[Guam]], and the [[Philippines]]. This large acquisition of land elevated the United States to the level of an imperial power. The Spanish–American War also began a trend of United States intervention in foreign affairs which has lasted to the present day.<ref name="Dale L. Walker 2008" />