206 The Rough Riders 



and that it should at once be recalled. At first there 

 was naturally some hesitation on the part of the 

 regular officers to take the initiative, for their entire 

 future career might be sacrificed. So I wrote a 

 letter to General Shafter, reading over the rough 

 draft to the various Generals and adopting their 

 corrections. Before I had finished making these 

 corrections it was determined that we should send 

 a circular letter on behalf of all of us to General 

 Shafter, and when I returned from presenting him 

 mine, I found this circular letter already prepared 

 and we all of us signed it. Both letters were made 

 public. The result was immediate. Within three 

 days the army was ordered to be ready to sail for 

 home. 



As soon as it was known that we were to sail for 

 home the spirits of the men changed for the better. 

 In my regiment the officers began to plan methods 

 of drilling the men on horseback, so as to fit them 

 for use against the Spanish cavalry, if we should go 

 against Havana in December. We had, all of us, 

 eyed the captured Spanish cavalry with particular 

 interest. The men were small, and the horses, 

 though well trained and well built, were diminutive 

 ponies, very much smaller than cow ponies. We 

 were certain that if we ever got a chance to try 

 shock tactics against them they would go down like 

 nine-pins, provided only that our men could be 



