io The Rough Riders 



ized the raising of three cavalry regiments from 

 among the wild riders and riflemen of the Rockies 

 and the Great Plains. During Wood's service in 

 the Southwest he had commanded not only regulars 

 and Indian scouts, but also white frontiersmen. In 

 the Northwest I had spent much of my time, for 

 many years, either on my ranch or in long hunting 

 trips, and had lived and worked for months together 

 with the cowboy and the mountain hunter, faring in 

 every way precisely as they did. 



Secretary Alger offered me the command of one 

 of these regiments. If I had taken it, being en- 

 tirely inexperienced in military work, I should not 

 have known how to get it equipped most rapidly, 

 for I should have spent valuable weeks in learning 

 its needs, with the result that I should have missed 

 the Santiago campaign, and might not even have 

 had the consolation prize of going to Porto Rico. 

 Fortunately, I was wise enough to tell the Secretary 

 that while I believed I could learn to command the 

 regiment in a month, yet that it was just this very 

 month which I could not afford to spare, and that 

 therefore I would be quite content to go as Lieu- 

 tenant-Colonel, if he would make Wood Colonel. 



This was entirely satisfactory to both the Presi- 

 dent and Secretary, and, accordingly, Wood and 

 I were speedily commissioned as Colonel and Lieu- 

 tenant-Colonel of the First United States Volunteer 



