The Roughest Riders
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Authors: Jerome Tuccille
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The Roughest Riders:
“Buffalo Soldiers with Sumner's Ninth and Pershing's Tenth rushed ahead first, one of the men in the Tenth carrying his unit's guidon as they ascended to within fifty yards of the peak. They were whooping and yelling, the taste of victory in their mouths as they closed in on the enemy entrenchments. âBy God, there go our boys up the hill! Yes, up the hill!' one of the troops yelled out, astonished. A moment earlier, it had appeared that they would all be cut down.
The cries of impending victory grew louder as they charged ahead, with most of Roosevelt's remaining Rough Riders now beside the Buffalo Soldiers. Roosevelt was startled when a disoriented Spanish bugler, attempting to run away, ran into his arms instead and was taken prisoner. The yelling intensified when the first rank of Americans saw the Spaniards leaving their trenches and streaming southwest toward San Juan Hill, some returning fire as they ran, but most intent on avoiding the newly energized American army. The soldiers of the Tenth planted their guidon on the hill as the troops swarmed across the crest, with a clear view of the retreating defenders heading down the back slope in the direction of San Juan Hill. Roosevelt later claimed that the Rough Riders had planted their standard first, but one of his Rough Riders, Nova Johnson from New Mexico, said later, âYou should have seen the amazement Colonel Teddy's face took on when he reached the top of that first ridge, only to find that the colored troopers had beat us up there.'”
Copyright © 2015 by Jerome Tuccille
All rights reserved
First edition
Published by Chicago Review Press Incorporated
814 North Franklin Street
Chicago, Illinois 60610
ISBN 978-1-61373-046-1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Tuccille, Jerome.
The roughest riders : the untold story of the Black soldiers in the Spanish-American War / Jerome Tuccille. â First edition.
    pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-61373-046-1 (cloth)
1. Spanish-American War, 1898âParticipation, African American. 2. Spanish-American War, 1898âCampaigns. 3. African American soldiersâHistoryâ19th century. I. Title.
E725.5.N3T83 2015
973.8'9âdc23
2015001414
Interior design: PerfecType, Nashville, TN
Printed in the United States of America
5 4 3 2 1
To my grandsons, Jasper, Hugo, and Anthony
The powerful purpose of this monument is to motivate us. To motivate us to keep struggling until all Americans have an equal seat at our national table, until all Americans enjoy every opportunity to excel, every chance to achieve their dream.
âGeneral Colin L. Powell, July 25, 1992, dedicating the Buffalo Soldier Monument at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas
Cast of Main Characters
Emilio Aguinaldo
, also known as Aquino, the fiery leader of the revolutionary forces in the Philippines.
Joseph B. Batchelor
, a captain who led contingents of Buffalo Soldiers and white troops in the Philippines.
Horace Bivins
, a sergeant with the all-black Tenth Cavalry in charge of their Hotchkiss guns.
Charles Boyd
, a captain reporting to Major Young in Mexico, where Boyd was killed in action.
Allyn Capron Sr.
, a captain and the father of the young Rough Rider killed at Las Guasimas.
Allyn Capron Jr.
, a captain with the Rough Riders who was killed in action in Cuba.
Venustiano Carranza
, a former ally of Pancho Villa during efforts to overthrow the Mexican government, before the two men turned on each other.
Herschel V. Cashin
, the only reporter covering the Buffalo Soldiers with Wheeler's and Young's forces in Cuba.
Pascual Cervera
, vice admiral of the Spanish fleet stationed in Cuba.
Adna Chaffee
, a general reporting to Lawton who came to the aid of the Rough Riders on several occasions.
Stephen Crane
, the well-known author of
The Red Badge of Courage
and a reporter for the
World
who helped carry fellow reporter Edward Marshall to safety after he was shot.
Benjamin O. Davis
, a black volunteer who would go on to become the first African American general in the US Army on October 25, 1940.
Richard Harding Davis
, a noted reporter of the period who covered the war in Cuba for the
New York Herald.
George Dewey
, a naval commodore and commander of the US Asiatic Fleet dispatched by Roosevelt to the Philippines during Secretary Long's absence from Washington, DC.
David Fagen
, a Buffalo Soldier who became a legend after he switched sides and joined the rebels in the Philippines.
Hamilton Fish
, the grandson of President Ulysses S. Grant's secretary of state of the same name, and a Rough Rider volunteer killed in battle in Cuba.
Henry Flipper
, the first black graduate of West Point.
Calixto GarcÃa
, the general in command of the Cuban rebel forces around Santiago de Cuba.
George A. Garretson
, the general who commanded American forces, including Buffalo Soldiers, heading north from Guánica to Yauco in Puerto Rico.
Benjamin Grierson
, the first commander of the Tenth Cavalry.
Edward Hatch
, the first commander of the Ninth Cavalry.
Hamilton Hawkins
, a general who came to the assistance of Lawton and some of his Buffalo Soldiers on San Juan Hill.
Jacob Kent
, a general in command of the all-black Twenty-Fourth Infantry in Cuba.
C. D. Kirby
, a first sergeant who wrote about the action he saw with the black Ninth Cavalry in Cuba.
Henry LaMotte
, the aging surgeon and medical officer who served as a major attached to the Rough Riders.
Henry Lawton
, a general in command of Buffalo Soldiers and white units in Cuba and, later, in the Philippines, where he was killed in action.
Arsenio Linares
, the commanding general of the Spanish forces defending Santiago de Cuba.
John D. Long
, secretary of the navy and Theodore Roosevelt's boss at the time the USS
Maine
was sunk in Havana Harbor.
William Ludlow
, a general who directed some of the key assaults on El Caney.
Edward Marshall
, a correspondent for the
New York Journal
who was seriously wounded while covering the war in Cuba.
Edward J. McClernand
, the lieutenant colonel who served as a top aide to General Shafter.
William McKinley
, president of the United States during the Spanish-American War.
Enrique Méndez López
, the lieutenant commanding a Puerto Rican militia unit in the coastal town of Guánica.
Evan Miles
, a colonel engaged in much of the action around El Caney.
Nelson A. Miles
, the commanding general of the US Army during the Spanish-American War.
Albert L. Mills
, a captain who delivered Shafter's message that Generals Wheeler and Young were being replaced in the field by Colonel Wood and General Samuel S. Sumner, the result of which was putting Roosevelt in sole command of the Rough Riders.
James A. Moss
, a lieutenant who had experimented with the use of bicycles in warfare and fought with the Buffalo Soldiers at El Caney.
William Owen “Buckey” O'Neill
, former mayor of Prescott, Arizona, and a captain with the Rough Riders who was killed in action in Cuba.
George S. Patton
, the future World War II general who was a lieutenant reporting to Captain Pershing during the Villa expedition.
John “Black Jack” Pershing
, the captain who led the Buffalo Soldiers of the Tenth Cavalry in Cuba before he became a legendary general during World War I.
Colin L. Powell
, the general who was the first black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and who later became secretary of state during the first Bush administration. Powell brought the Buffalo Soldiers into the national consciousness by dedicating the memorial in their honor at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1992.
Francisco Puig
, the lieutenant colonel in command of the Cazador Patria Battalion in Yauco, Puerto Rico, who committed suicide when the Americans overran his defenses.