44 The Rough Riders 



into one of the New Mexican troops, and by his 

 high qualities and zealous attention to duty speedily 

 rose to a sergeancy, and finally won his lieutenancy 

 for gallantry in action. 



The tone of the officers' mess was very high. 

 Every one seemed to realize that he had undertaken 

 most serious work. They all earnestly wished for a 

 chance to distinguish themselves, and fully appre- 

 ciated that they rani the risk not merely of death, 

 but of what was infinitely worse namely, failure 

 at the crisis to perform duty well; and they strove 

 earnestly so to train themselves, and the men under 

 them, as to minimize the possibility of such disgrace. 

 Every officer and every man was taught continu- 

 ally to look forward to the day of battle eagerly, but 

 with an entire sense of the drain that would then be 

 made upon his endurance and resolution. They 

 were also taught that, before the battle came, the 

 rigorous performance of the countless irksome duties 

 of the camp and the march was demanded from all 

 alike, and that no excuse would be tolerated for fail- 

 ure to perform duty. Very few of the men had gone 

 into the regiment lightly, and 'the fact that they 

 did their duty so well may be largely attributed to 

 the seriousness with which these eager, adventurous 

 young fellows approached their work. This seri- 

 ousness, and a certain simple manliness which ac- 

 companied it, had one very pleasant side. During 



