NAVAL SECRETARY AND ROUGH RIDER 
55 
“would bring that damned cowboy regiment so far in the rear that it 
would not get another chance/' But when later on news of the cowboy 
victory reached him he wrote a flattering letter to Lieutenant-Colonel 
Roosevelt, in command, congratulating him on the brilliant success 
of his attack. 
Roosevelt and his men were not to be kept back. They fairly 
struggled to the front. On July ist a correspondent saw them moving 
in columns of twos through a densely wooded roadway leading to the 
“Bloody Angle," and while his men were falling wounded around him 
Roosevelt answered the correspondent's “Hello, there!" with a wave 
of his hand and an exclamation that showed that his heart was in the 
fight. 
Up San Juan Hill they went, Roosevelt leading the charge, the 
Spaniards, from their intrenchments at the top, pouring down a thick 
hail of shells and Mauser bullets. This is the way the charge was 
described in press despatches from the field: 
“Roosevelt was in the lead waving his sword. Out into the open 
and up the hill where death seemed certain, in the face of the con- 
tinous crackle of the Mausers, came the Rough Riders, with the 
Tenth Cavalry alongside. Not a man flinched, all continuing to fire 
as they ran. Roosevelt was a hundred feet ahead of his troops, yelling 
like a Sioux, while his own men and the colored cavalry cheered him 
as they charged up the hill. There was no stopping as a man's neigh¬ 
bor fell, but on they went faster and faster. Suddenly Roosevelt's 
horse stopped, pawed the air for a moment, and fell in a heap. Before 
the horse was down Roosevelt disengaged himself from the saddle and; 
landing on his feet, again yelled to his men, and, sword in hand, 
charged on afoot. 
“It seemed an age to the men who were watching, and to the 
Rough Riders the hill must have seemed miles high. But they were 
undaunted. They went on, firing as fast as their guns would work. 
At last the top of the hill was reached. The Spaniards in the trenches 
could still have annihilated the Americans, but the Yankees’ daring 
dazed them. They wavered for an instant and then turned and ran. 
The position was won and the blockhouse captured. In the rush more 
than half of the Rough Riders were wounded.” 
