6 The Rough Riders 



with sincere horror. But I found plenty of sym- 

 pathizers, especially in the navy, the army, and the 

 Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs. Commo- 

 dore Dewey, Captain Evans, Captain Brownson, 

 Captain Davis with these and the various other 

 naval officers on duty at Washington I used to 

 hold long consultations, during which we went over 

 and over, not only every question of naval admin- 

 istration, but specifically everything necessary to do 

 in order to put the navy in trim to strike quick and 

 hard if, as we believed would be the case, we went 

 to war with Spain. Sending an ample quantity of 

 ammunition to the Asiatic squadron and providing 

 it with coal ; getting the battleships and the armored 

 cruisers on the Atlantic into one squadron, both to 

 train them in manoeuvring together, and to have 

 them ready to sail against either the Cuban or the 

 Spanish coasts; gathering the torpedo-boats into a 

 flotilla for practice; securing ample target exercise, 

 so conducted as to raise the standard of our marks- 

 manship; gathering in the small ships from Euro- 

 pean and South American waters; settling on the 

 number and kind of craft needed as auxiliary cruis- 

 ers every one of these points was threshed over in 

 conversations with officers who were present in 

 Washington, or in correspondence with officers who, 

 like Captain Mahan, were absent. 



As for the Senators, of course Senator Lodge 



