Editor’s note: page numbers @ BULLY!
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McKINLEY HONORS
WIKOFF’S HEROISM
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By order of the President the designation of the camp at Montauk Point will be Camp Wikoff…
Colonel Charles A. Wikoff of the Twenty-second United States Infantry was killed at the head of his brigade on July 1 at Santiago.
— New York Press / August 12, 1898 / page 46
— Rendering by George Bloem, 1997
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Camp Wikoff map dated September, 1898. Courtesy of the Montauk Historical Society.
———— Flashback ————
SITE OF SHAFTER’S CAMP
Map dated September, 1898. On July 30, 1898, the War Department accepted a 6,000 acre tract of land in Montauk, offered to the government by the Long Island Railroad.
— Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 31, 1898 / page 7
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Military Order of the Rough Riders
On the evening of August 31, 1898, a social order to be known as the “Roosevelt Rough Riders” was formally organized. A charter will be applied for….to admit the eldest son of each member on the death of the father.
Lieut. Col. Alexander Brodie, a West Pointer, was chosen President of the new society. Brig. Gen. Leonard Wood and Col. Roosevelt were elected Vice-Presidents….
Lieut. Col. Brodie…addressed Col. Roosevelt:
“The officers and men of the first United States Volunteer Cavalry, wishing to perpetuate the name under which they were popularly known, and to transmit to their sons the heritage of renown they won so distinctly before Santiago, propose to organize a military order that they sincerely believe will become as honored an inheritance as any title to nobility. We are proud to be known as member of Roosevelt’s Rough Riders….”
Col. Roosevelt was much affected. He said:
“Comrades, no happiness can ever equal that which this evidence of your love and respect brings to my heart. The most delightful weeks of my existence have been spent with you, associated in camp, in social life or in the activities of actual warfare. That I have retained your esteem is gratification enough for any man.
“I can say with you that to have been a Rough Rider is the pride of my life. I feel that I certainly was born to command this regiment, and you tell me by this graceful method of perpetuating the love each of us feels for it that I commanded it to your satisfaction and approval. I thank you and am greatly honored as well as made gloriously happy.”
— The World & The New York Times / pages 200 – 201
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Teddy’s Terrors
…. [At Camp Wikoff] The Rough Riders wear trousers of any kind, boots of all kinds, blue flannel or serge shirts, and their dearly prized slouch hats, inscribed with the name of the regiment and the owner’s troop; and a squad of them galloping across country, dashing up onto a ridge, swooping down into a hollow, and reappearing on the next mound, their horses stretching their muscles in the long, wavy, loping gallop to which they are trained, is a sight to stir the blood.
A German military officer who visited the camp recently wished most of all to see the Rough Riders, of whom he had heard so much, so he was turned over to Col. Roosevelt, who rode with him down to the camp. On the way they met a troop of the volunteer cavarlrymen riding their horses across country to the ocean. They were going slowly, some jogging, some walking, others at the single-foot pace much affected by these horses, and they preserved no formation. It was a surpise to the foreigner when Col. Roosevelt pointed them out as his men.
“Very interesting, very,” said the German, dubiously. “I haf not seen such soldiers in Europe.”
“Very likely not,” said their commander, quietly. “They aren’t very much to look at.”
Just then the troop closed up, the men learned forward in their saddles, the horses sprang forward, and the whole body surged rhythmically up the rising ground like a tremendous breaker and raced away over the level plain beyond. The German pulled in his horse and sat spellbound until the troop slackened pace in the sand of the beach. Then, he turned to Col. Roosevelt, his eyes shining:
“Oh, be-yutiful!” he said. “Oh, that is something to see. I haf not seen such riders in Europe,” and the tone was very different from that of his former comment….
— The Sun / September 1, 1898 / pages 209 – 210.
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Colonel Roosevelt Cheers Bronco Busting
“Whoop-ee! Hang on to him, Bud! All our dust’s on yer! Kick the breeze, yer blankety son of a mule! Yer can’t t’row him! Stick to him or we all go broke!”
Roosevelt’s Rough Riders were venting their joy yesterday with yells that pierced the atmosphere of Camp Wikoff ….
The fun had proceeded for awhile when a contemptuous message came from Troop I to Troop H.
“You fellers can’t ride a saw-horse,” said the messenger, who is familiarly known as “The Nipper,” because he cut through three of the barbed-wire defenses in front of Santiago.
“We’ve got an old bronco over in our troop,” he continued, “and there ain’t a guy of yer can straddle him. He’s old and lame and as gentle as a lamb, but we’ve got tin that says not a guy of yer can throw his leg over him.” ….
Col. Roosevelt heard of what was going forward and rode over to see the fun, which he enjoyed more than any one else.
The bets were made, and Troop I’s bronco was led out as “peaceful as a lamb.” But the bronco wasn’t lame and he wasn’t blind ….
— The World / pages 216 – 217
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MONTAUK’S GREAT DAY
Saturday, September 3, 1898
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Montauk Station, September 3, 1898 …. It lacked ten minutes of 9 when a clanging locomotive bell gave the people about the station to understand that the President’s train was coming…
A thousand civilians and soldiers were packed behind the cavalry line, just waiting for the appearance of the President to turn loose their voices in cheers…..
“Welcome to Camp Wikoff,” said Gen. Wheeler, grasping the President’s hand.
“I am very glad to be here,” said the President, as he started up the platform….There was a tremendous burst of cheers from the crowd as President McKinley appeared.
He was bowing right and left to the crowd when all of a sudden his eyes lighted on a man on a horse about twenty yards away. The man wore one of those brown canvas uniforms with cavalry trimmings, heavy eyeglasses, and a happy sort of grin.
“Why, there’s Col. Roosevelt!” exclaimed the President to Secretary of War Alger….“Colonel!” called the President. “I’m glad to see you.”
Then the commander of the Rough Riders executed a remarkable maneuver. He forgot to make a formal dismount, but sort of fell off his animal in the way he does at the end of a race across the hills with a squad of his cowpunchers. At the same time the President did a remarkable thing for a President to do. He stood up in his carriage, pushed open the door, and, jumping out, started toward Col. Roosevelt, who was coming toward him as fast as he could. The President held out his hand; Col. Roosevelt struggled to pull off his right glove. He yanked at it desperately and finally inserted the ends of the fingers in his teeth and gave a mighty tug. Off came the glove and a beatific smile came over the Colonel’s face as he grasped the President’s hand. The crowd which had watched the performance tittered audibly. Nothing more cordial than the greeting between the President and Col. Roosevelt could be imagined. The President just grinned all over.
“Col. Roosevelt,” he said. “I’m glad to see you looking so well.”
“Thank you, Mr. President. There isn’t a healthier man in the camp than I am. I am delighted to see you down here, sir, and hope you will enjoy the trip. I do want you to see my boys while you’re here.”
“Oh, I will, Colonel, I will,” said the President as he got back into his carriage….
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Great Plain, Montauk, September 3, 1898 — President McKinley addressed 5,000 cheering soldiers on the Great Plain in Montauk, following visits to the Detention and General Hospitals.
“General Wheeler, Soldiers of Camp Wikoff, Soldiers of the Fifth Army Corps:
“I am glad to meet you. I am honored to meet the brave men who stand before me to-day. I bring you the gratitude of the nation, to whose history you have added by your valor a new and glorious page ….”
— The Sun pages 235-236
— Illustration, New York Herald / page 245
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Rough Rider Dilwyn Bell
…. “I have been searching for my own boy all day and every day this week. Perhaps he is suffering like this poor fellow. You are Illinois boys, and I was on my way to your camp. I am from Chicago.” In speaking she had been moving to the head of the motionless form. She saw the face and a shriek of anguish came from her lips.
“Dilwyn, my son, my son,” she said, and she began to caress with the delirium of a tortured mother’s love the hair, the lips, and the hands of her recovered boy….
— Chicago Tribune / September 4, 1898
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CAMP SCENE ON A SUNDAY MORNING
Sunday in Camp Wikoff does not differ materially from othe days. In the foreground is shown the mess tent of Troop I, Third Cavalry, U.S. Regulars, with the men going through the usual morning routine after reveille — one chopping wood, another gathering up splints to make a fire under the camp kettle, and a third drying a shirt. The Seventh, Twelfth, and Thirteenth Infantry are encamped on the hillside, and, on the crest of the hill, to the right, is the general hospital. Alongside the winding road in the centre of the picture is the headquarters of Colonel Roosevelt’s Rough Riders.
— New York Herald / page 260
— Illustrator, W.H. Shindler
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Roosevelt’s Sermon
First Bully Pulpit
Montauk, Sept. 5 — There was “church” in the camp of the Rough Riders yesterday. When Chaplain Brown looked at the increasing rings of men who sat on the grass in front of his tent he became a little alarmed. He loves those rough, good-hearted fellows….but he cannot help realizing that church is not altogether their idea of a good thing….
….News had gone around that Teddy, the idolized colonel, was going to preach the sermon of the day….
Roosevelt was the same old Roosevelt, in spite of his picturesque brown fatigues, campaign suit. He made the same old grimaces when he spoke and showed his teeth just as conspicuously as before and when he told of a man who said things that were not catalogued in the prayer books, he repeated those things, with emphasis, too. It was not irreverent. It was merely graphic. He talked more religion right into the souls of those men than they had had for many a day.
“…Our trials, our hardships, our victories, we have all shared together, officers and men. There has been no distinction; we have worked for and accomplished the glory of the regiment.
“What we have done only calls us to renewed exertion in the future. I know you are not likely to simply rest on your laurels. Life is a constant struggle, and no man can afford to remain idle….Every man has felt in the past that the honor of the regiment was in his keeping, and he would reflect honor or dishonor on all by his individual acts….
“The world will be kind to you for about ten days; after that you will be judged by a stricter code….”
— Brooklyn Daily Eagle / The Sun / New York Herald / The World / September 5, 1898 / pages 262 – 265
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A Family Visit
Dearest Emily,
Our visit to Montauk was a great success. Ted & Kermit slept in Theodore’s tent, one on his cot, the other on his air mattress; while poor Theodore occupied the table…. Alice, Ethel and I shared a room at 3rd House…
Edith Roosevelt’s Letter to her sister, Emily Carow.
— September 11th / Oyster Bay
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ROOSEVELT’S FAREWELL
September 13, 1898
Private Murphy said, “A few moments since I was informed that I had been selected to present to you as a very slight token of the admiration, love and esteem in which you are held by the officers and men of your regiment, a bronco buster in bronze, which has been prepared to especially typify the idea which must have been in your mind when you felt called upon to raise a regiment of your own men to assist your country in the recent struggle so gloriously ended…”
As Private Murphy finished he uncovered the statuette of the bronco buster, which had been purchased with a fund collected in the regiment. Col. Roosevelt was visibly affected, and his speech of acceptance was delivered with frequent pauses, as he was overcome momentarily by emotion.
Col. Roosevelt said:
“Officer and men, I really do not know what to say to you. Nothing could possibly happen that would touch and please me as this has touched and pleased me….
“I am proud of this regiment beyond measure. The foundation of the regiment was the cowpuncher, and we have got him here in bronze.
“No gift could have been so appropriate as this bronze of Frederic Remington. The men of the West and Southwest, horsemen, riflemen and herders of cattle, have been the backbone of this regiment, which demonstrates that Uncle Sam has another reserve of fighting men to call upon if the necessity arises….
“You are men of widely different pursuits, yet you stand here side-by-side, you fought shoulder-to-shoulder. No man asked quarter for himself, and each one went in to show that he was as good as his neighbor. That is the American spirit. You cannot imagine how proud I am of your friendship and regard…..”
As the Colonel finished someone suggested, “Three Cheers for Colonel Roosevelt,” which was given in true cowboy style with an extra “tiger.”
— The Sun / pages 323 – 326
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Editor’s note: The bronze ‘Bronco Buster’ of Remington is now at Sagamore Hill. “It became the most popular small American bronze sculpture of the 19th century.” — White House Historical Association.
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Commemorative Medals
The medal will bear a cross section of a bastion, which is the insignium of the Fifth Army Corps….
The design is by Lieut. Frederick Wingte of Campany I, who is an amateur artist of merit….
— The Sun / page 338
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A Man Is Sometimes Judged By The Company He Keeps
—- New York Journal / page 350
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Teddy, The Golden Eagle
Teddy, an eagle was taken up to the Central Park Zoo yesterday and turned over ot the city. Rough Rider Kennedy handed a note to Superintendent Smith:
“This is the golden eagle (the Indians call it ‘War Eagle’) which the Rough Riders had as their mascot. Just at this moment they have no place to keep him. Will you keep him for me? Will arrange terms later.”
— Theodore Roosevelt
Supt. Smith called Keeper Snyder, and told him to put the bird in the eagle house….the keeper led the way to the cage, Kennedy still carrying his pet. The big man looked troubled; as he walked along, he petted and praised the bird, and the bird seemed to understand.
Snyder opened the door to the cage, and Kennedy handed over the eagle. Just as Snyder was about to let it go, Kennedy ran forward. He picked it up again and hugged it.
“Good-by, old fellow,” he cried, the tears breaking from his eyes. “Good-by!” ….
“I just natcherly couldn’t help it,” he said, half apologetically.
It was an affecting sight, to be sure, to see the brave fellow bidding adieu to the broad-winged monarch of the air.
— The World / Illustrator Carter / page 352
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“TEDDY’S TERRORS” VISIT NEW YORK
“Teddy’s Terrors,” mildest of men, despite their awe-inspiring non de guerre, have seen New York, and are ready to go home….
“I ain’t got no use for a place like this, where everybody is touchin’ elbows, and the air is full of smoke,” said a great blue-eyed six foot-four cowpuncher, as he leaned against an onyx and brass bar yesterday and drank — what? Milk, in order to be sociable.
“Give me the range, with the grass waving in the wind, the great white mountains over yonder, and nothin’ in sight but a bunch of cattle here and there. That suits me.” ….
— Winfield M. Thompson, Boston Globe / pages 365 – 367
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Our Rough Rider Visitors
…. Every quarter echoes with the hum of ranch and range, of gold gulch and the trail. Men from the Staked Plains and the Mojave Desert stand up with the stoop-shouldered clerk from Wall Street. The patter of Broadway mingles with the slang of the Kootenai or the Pan Handle. The frontier stands elbow to elbow with the Rialto, for we have met the Rough Riders and we are theirs ….
New York has found the Rough Riders soft-tongued, mild-mannered boys, civil to the last word and with a sturdy courtesy as winning as it is unhewed.
— The World / Artist Williams / page 366
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A Blue Bandana With Polka Dots
“I’d give a $50 bill myself for that handkerchief of the Colonel’s” said a trooper in the Rough Riders the other day. “It certainly was the most conspicuous thing about the Colonel all through the campaign, and to my mind it’s the very greatest relic of the war.”
— The World/ September 18, 1898 / pages 370 – 372
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Bill Woods: “Bronco Buster”
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“Say, partner, nobody ain’t got any use for a horse that can unseat Bill Woods,” said cowpuncher Alvin C. Ash.
— Boston Globe / page 375
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Perry Tiffany bought at auction his brother William’s sorrel for $ 45.
Horses Dear To The Rough Riders
Pass Under the Auction Hammer
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Private Hughes bid on his horse for $13. There was little competition….for it was a roan, about fifteen hands high, and appeared to be a good deal the worse for hard usage and scanty food. Nevertheless, Hughes was delighted when his old mount was knocked down to him, and he put his arm affectionately about the animal’s neck as he led him away. He threw an old Mexican saddle with a high pommel across his back, buckled the girths, swung himself into the saddle and sat nonchalantly rolling and smoking cigarettes — rolled them with one hand, by the way….
— The World / Illustrator Carter / page 380
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Decline of the Cavalry
….The disappearance of the horse, or rather, of the man and horse taken together from the fields of war, will tend to remove from the profession of arms the little of romance that still surrounds it. War without “le beau sabreur,” the “bold dragoon,”the gay hussar” and cavaliers generally will be but a prosaic affair. The labors and consequently the honors of war will go to the plodding infantryman who marches through the mud on his own proper feet to the designated line of formation, where he pumps death out of his magazine gun, or the artilleryman who calmly turns a crank and disseminates destruction….
— Kansas City Star / page 381
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CROWDED HOUR
PEACE JUBILEE
Addressing the people of Oyster Bay at a Peace Jubilee, Col. Roosevelt, age 39, said:
“….Then began he crowded and glorious hour of my life, that hour for which I would not trade my whole existence…..”
— New York Times, Boston Globe, New York Herald / September 22, 1898 / pages 383 – 391
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Notification Ceremonies at Oyster Bay
Dr. Chauncey Depew Notifying Colonel Roosevelt of His Nomination
Dr. Depew said, “The Republican Convention of the State of New York gives to us the very pleasant duty of notifying you of your selection as the candidate of the Republican Party for Governor of the Empire State….”
Col. Roosevelt’s reply was delivered with great earnestness….
“….If elected, I shall strive so to administer the duties of this high office that the interests o the people as a whole shall be conserved, knowing full well that by doing so I serve my party. I shall feel that I owe my position to the people, and to the people I shall hold myself accountable…”
— New York Times / October 5, 1898 / pages 425 – 426
— Illustration, New York Herald / page 425
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ROOSEVELT FIRES FIRST CAMPAIGN GUN
Carnegie Hall, October 5, 1898
“….The man of leisure and the man to whom life had always been one of toil sprang together at the call of their country and stood side by side to share the same labor and to face the same death. They did whatever they were called upon to do. They served in the ranks and they bore commissions as fate and their own efforts willed it, but wherever they served they were American soldiers, no more and no less.
“Living, each one strove incessantly to do even more than his duty, scorning to do less, and ashamed to falter or ask for aid, yet always glad to help a brother who, however willing, was weaker. Dying, each faced with equal courage the fate which, in an instant of time, blots out all the differences that we rear with such infinite labor on this earth.
“Living an dying, they gave us a lesson in American citizenship, and this lesson which they taught in the war, let us profit by as we live in peace.”
— New York Times, The Sun, The World, Commercial Advertiser, New York Press / October 6, 1898 / pages 427 – 441
Top illustration: The World, Illustrator Carter
Bottom illustration: New York Press, Illustrator W.H. Shindler
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— The World / Illustrator Bush / page 450
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Governor-Elect Theodore Roosevelt
— Boston Globe, November 9, 1898 / page 455
Editorial — Roosevelt won, as his Rough Riders won at San Juan Hill, not without hard work and fierce fighting all the way up the hill….
Theodore Roosevelt carries with him into the Executive Office the character which he has borne ever since his fellow citizens began to know him, and that is a character of absolute independence, absolute fearlessness, and honesty as bright as the sunshine. He has been elected as Governor; he will be the Governor; and unless there is some magic which can work an entire transformation in the moral and intellectual texture of a perfectly matured personality, he will make a Governor for the people of this State to be proud of….
— New York Tribune, November 9, 1898 / page 454
To be continued….
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Visit: BULLY! Col. Roosevelt, The Rough Riders & Camp Wikoff, Montauk — 1898
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Visit: Camp Wikoff, National Military Park Proposal / 2008
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For more information on the BULLY!book please click this link.
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