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.
