224 The Rough Riders 



to handle), it was easy to develop non-commissioned 

 officers out of men who had been round-up foremen, 

 ranch foremen, mining bosses, and the like. These 

 men were intelligent and resolute; they knew they 

 had a great deal tD learn, and they set to work to 

 learn it ; while they . .ere already accustomed to man- 

 aging considerable interests, to obeying orders, and 

 to taking care of others as well as themselves. 



As for the officers, the great point in our favor 

 was the anxiety they showed to learn from those 

 among their number who, like Capron, had already 

 served in the regular army ; and the fact that we had 

 chosen a regular army man as Colonel. If a volun- 

 teer organization consists of good material, and is 

 eager to learn, it can readily do so if it has one or 

 two first-class regular officers to teach it. More- 

 over, most of our captains and lieutenants were men 

 who had seen much of wild life, who were accus- 

 tomed to handling and commanding other men, and 

 who had usually already been under fire as sheriffs, 

 marshals, and the like. As for the second in com- 

 mand, myself, I had served three years as captain 

 in the National Guard ; I had been deputy sheriff in 

 the cow country, where the position was not a sine- 

 cure; I was accustomed to big game hunting and to 

 work on a cow ranch, so that I was thoroughly fa- 

 miliar with the use both of horse and rifle, and knew 

 how to handle cowboys, hunters, and miners ; finally, 



