The first definitive account of this legendary fighting force and its extraordinary leader, Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Lee Gardner’s Rough Riders is narrative nonfiction at its most invigorating and compulsively readable. Its dramatic unfolding of a familiar, yet not-fully-known story will remind readers of James Swanson’s Manhunt.
Two months after the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor in February 1898, Congress authorized President McKinley to recruit a volunteer army to drive the Spaniards from Cuba. From this army emerged the legendary “Rough Riders,” a mounted regiment drawn from America’s western territories and led by the indomitable Theodore Roosevelt. Its ranks included not only cowboys and other westerners, but several Ivy Leaguers and clubmen, many of them friends of “TR.” Roosevelt and his men quickly came to symbolize American ruggedness, daring, and individualism. He led them to victory in the famed Battle at San Juan Hill, which made TR a national hero and cemented the Rough Riders’ place in history.
Now, Mark Lee Gardner synthesizes previously unknown primary accounts as well as period newspaper articles, letters, and diaries from public and private archives in Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Boston, and Washington, DC, to produce this authoritative chronicle. He breathes fresh life into the Rough Riders and pays tribute to their daring feats and indomitable leader. Gardner also explores lesser-known aspects of the story, including their relationship with the African-American “Buffalo Soldiers, with whom they fought side by side at San Juan Hill.
Rich with action, violence, camaraderie, and courage, Rough Riders sheds new light on the Theodore Roosevelt saga—and on one of the most thrilling chapters in American history.
The author of the critically acclaimed To Hell on a Fast Horse and Shot All to Hell tells the rousing, action-packed story of the Rough Riders and their extraordinary leader, Theodore Roosevelt
The explosion of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor in February 1898 stunned the world and triggered a war between the United States and Spain. Congress authorized President McKinley to recruit a volunteer force to help drive the Spaniards out of Cuba, and from these men emerged the legendary Rough Riders, a mounted regiment drawn from America’s western territories and led by the irrepressible Theodore Roosevelt. Its ranks included not only cowboys and other Westerners, but also several Ivy Leaguers and clubmen, many of them friends of “TR.” Roosevelt and his men quickly came to symbolize American ruggedness, daring, and individualism. He led them to victory in the famed Battle of San Juan Hill, which made TR a national hero and cemented the Rough Riders’ place in history.
Now Mark Lee Gardner synthesizes previously unknown primary accounts—private letters, diaries, and period newspaper reports from public and private archives in Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Massachusetts, New York, and Washington, D.C.—to breathe fresh life into the Rough Riders and pays tribute to their daring feats and indomitable leader. Gardner also explores lesser-known aspects of the story, including the Rough Riders’ relationship with the African American Buffalo Soldiers, with whom they fought side by side at San Juan Hill.
Rich with action, violence, camaraderie, and courage, Rough Riders sheds new light on the Theodore Roosevelt saga—and on one of the most thrilling chapters in American history.
Praise for Rough Riders
“Few episodes from our past have done more to capture, and shape, central themes of the American character (real and imagined) than Teddy Roosevelt’s exploits with the Rough Riders. In Mark Gardner’s expert hands, a great American foundation story has been brought to vivid life. In his deft reappraisal, we can see anew how these almost mythic events continue to flow, like deep wellsprings, through our national life.”—Hampton Sides, New York Times bestselling author of In the Kingdom of Ice and Blood and Thunder
“Rough Riders is excellent! It’s not just first-rate history, it’s also a ripping yarn that shines new light on Theodore Roosevelt’s extraordinary life.”—Ron Hansen, author of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
“As Hollywood’s resident expert on Theodore Roosevelt, I found Mark Lee Gardner’s Rough Riders to be a finely honed and fresh look at this country’s only ‘cowboy’ regiment to ever see combat. A true tribute to those ‘Children of the Dragon’s Blood’ who charged with Roosevelt up Kettle and San Juan Hills that fateful day in 1898.”—John Milius, co-screenwriter of Apocalypse Now and director of The Wind and the Lion and Rough Riders (1997 TV film), both about Roosevelt
“Gardner brings it all to life with clear, vivid prose and keen insights. You can almost smell the saddle leather and gunsmoke, hear the guidons snapping in the wind, and the bugles calling to a glorious adventure second to none. Gardner leads this literary charge—and it’s indeed a grand one.”—Paul Andrew Hutton, author of The Apache Wars
"Gardner is one of this nation's premier historians of the American West."
