Rough Riders, Theodore Roosevelt and the Medal of Honor

Theodore Roosevelt, who went on to become our twenty-sixth president after the assassination of William McKinley in 1901, was a doer of great deeds. He became known as a "trust-buster, was the driving force behind the Panama Canal, was awarded a Nobel peace Prize, and won the presidency outright on his own in 1904. Theodore Roosevelt was a larger than life individual who packed ten lifetimes of action into his sixty years. One of his proudest moments though would later turn into one of his biggest disappointments, as Theodore Roosevelt's quest for the Medal of Honor would not be fulfilled until he was long in the grave. Theodore Roosevelt's quest for the Medal of Honor would play out over the span of a century!

During the Spanish-American War, Roosevelt, who had been the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, resigned to head the First United States National Cavalry; out of as diverse a group of volunteers as could have been assembled at that time. Lacking military expertise, Roosevelt enlisted the help of United States Army Colonel Leonard Wood in organizing this outfit. Roosevelt was second in command of the unit with a rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He did the majority of the recruiting for the regiment, which the press quickly nicknamed the Rough Riders. He chose a variety of men, all with one thing in common; they were physically fit expert riders. Pawnee Indian scouts, East Coast polo players, veteran ranch hands and Ivy League athletes helped comprise the Rough Riders, who were shipped to San Antonio, Texas and trained for action in one month.