Secretary of War Russell Alger offered Roosevelt, at the time the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, the colonelcy of the First U.S. (Image source: WikCommons) Roosevelt initially turned down the command Here are seven things you may not know about this fabled regiment of American adventurers and its extraordinary leader. And they proved themselves to be as brave and steady in the heat of battle as the hardened veterans they fought alongside of. But it was Roosevelt and his Rough Riders, the media darlings of the war, who captured the public’s imagination. Army’s Fifth Corps, both infantry and dismounted cavalry, including four regiments of African American “ Buffalo Soldiers,” participated in the Battle of San Juan Heights. More than 8,000 officers and men of the U.S. Of course, the Rough Riders weren’t the only unit to charge up Cuba’s San Juan Hill on a blistering July day in 1898. But because of a 39-year-old New York bureaucrat-turned-soldier named Theodore Roosevelt, and his ragtag regiment of western cowboys, Indians, and East Coast swells known as the “ Rough Riders,” an iconic moment from one of that war’s pivotal land battles remains forever etched in the American consciousness. THE THREE-AND-A-HALF MONTH Spanish American War is one of United States’ least understood conflicts.

“They proved themselves to be as brave and steady in the heat of battle as the hardened veterans they fought alongside.” Theodore Roosevelt leads the Rough Riders up Kettle Hill.

The Rough Riders by Theodore Roosevelt