The Rough Riders (Annotated)

• Complete text of the first edition of 1899, collated with three copies
• All forty-four illustrations of 1899, digitally repaired
• The complete Muster-out Roll of the regiment with 1,349 entries
• Publisher’s Foreword, About the Author and Historical Afterword
• Publisher’s Notes and Glossary

In 1898 Theodore Roosevelt occupied one of the most influential civilian posts in Washington. As Assistant Secretary of the Navy he had argued for readiness, modern ships and a larger conception of American power. When war with Spain came, he abandoned the security of office and sought a commission in the field.

With Leonard Wood he helped raise the First United States Volunteer Cavalry. The regiment drew heavily upon the Western territories, where horses, rifles, long distances and physical hardship still belonged to ordinary life. Cowboys, ranchmen, hunters, prospectors and law officers entered alongside athletes and men from the great universities and clubs of the East. Within weeks, men who had little in common beyond ability, confidence and willingness to serve had to be made into soldiers.

The campaign stripped the romance away quickly. At Tampa the American mobilization system bent under the sudden concentration of men, animals, railways, stores and shipping. Four troops and almost all the horses of the Rough Riders remained in Florida. The regiment entered Cuba largely dismounted and fought through tropical vegetation against Spanish troops armed with modern Mauser rifles and protected by difficult ground.

Roosevelt carries the reader from San Antonio to Tampa, from the confused embarkation to Las Guasimas, and from the first casualties to the advance of July 1 against Kettle Hill and the wider San Juan position. He writes with the authority of command, the eye of a historian and the unmistakable temperament of a man who believed that courage, usefulness and responsibility revealed themselves only when put under pressure.

The Rough Riders is therefore more than the memoir of one famous charge. It is the history of a volunteer regiment, a primary account of the Santiago campaign and one of the defining books of Theodore Roosevelt’s life. Its pages show the frontier horseman, the Regular soldier, the Eastern athlete and the future President standing within the same brief military drama.

The AETERNUS edition restores the full structure of the 1899 first edition, including the original dedication and motto, four appendices, all forty-four illustrations and the complete Muster Roll of 1,349 entries.

About the illustrations

All forty-four historical illustrations are included. Forty-three were digitally reconstructed for clarity; fine details were rebuilt and may differ from the originals. The Charles Dana Gibson portrait follows the original drawing in the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.

352 book pages · Complete English text of the 1899 first edition · Four appendices and the Muster-out Roll with 1,349 entries · Paperback, hardcover and e-book forthcoming

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