NAVAL SECRETARY AND ROUGH RIDER 55 



"would bring that damned cowboy regiment so far in the rear that it 

 would not get another chance/' But when later on news of the cowboy 

 victory reached him he wrote a flattering letter to Lieutenant-Colonel 

 Roosevelt, in command, congratulating him on the brilliant success 

 of his attack. 



Roosevelt and his men were not to be kept back. They fairly 

 struggled to the front. On July ist a correspondent saw them moving 

 in columns of twos through a densely wooded roadway leading to the 

 "Bloody Angle," and while his men were falling wounded around him 

 Roosevelt answered the correspondent's "Hello, there!" with a wave 

 of his hand and an exclamation that showed that his heart was in the 

 fight. 



Up San Juan Hill they went, Roosevelt leading the charge, the 

 Spaniards, from their intrenchments at the top, pouring down a thick 

 hail of shells and Mauser bullets. This is the way the charge was 

 described in press despatches from the field : 



"Roosevelt was in the lead waving his sword. Out into the open 

 and up the hill where death seemed certain, in the face of the con- 

 tinous crackle of the Mausers, came the Rough Riders, with the 

 Tenth Cavalry alongside. Not a man flinched, all continuing to fire 

 as they ran. Roosevelt was a hundred feet ahead of his troops, yelling 

 like a Sioux, while his own men and the colored cavalry cheered him 

 as they charged up the hill. There was no stopping as a man's neigh- 

 bor fell, but on they went faster and faster. Suddenly Roosevelt's 

 horse stopped, pawed the air for a moment, and fell in a heap. Before 

 the horse was down Roosevelt disengaged himself from the saddle and^ 

 landing on his feet, again yelled to his men, and, sword in hand, 

 charged on afoot. 



"It seemed an age to the men who were watching, and to the 

 Rough Riders the hill must have seemed miles high. But they were 

 undaunted. They went on, firing as fast as their guns would work. 

 At last the top of the hill was reached. The Spaniards in the trenches 

 could still have annihilated the Americans, but the Yankees' daring 

 dazed them. They wavered for an instant and then turned and ran. 

 The position was won and the blockhouse captured. In the rush more 

 than half of the Rough Riders were wounded." 



