Rough Riders by Theodore Roosevelt

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Theodore Roosevelt's personal account of The Rough Riders, the name affectionately bestowed on the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry, one of three such regiments raised in 1898 for the Spanish-American War and the only one to see action. Roosevelt, serving first as Lt. Colonel and 2nd in command, gives a rousing depiction of the men and horses, equipment, talent, their trip to Cuba, battle strategies, losses, injuries and victories. He says: "In all the world there could be no better material for soldiers than that afforded by these grim hunters of the mountains, these wild rough riders of the plains . . accustomed to handling wild and savage horses . . to following the chase with the rifle, both for sport and as a means of livelihood . . they were hardened to life in the open, and to shifting for themselves under adverse circumstances . . My men were children of the dragon's blood, and if they had no outland foe to fight and no outlet for their vigorous and daring energy, there was