On June 14, they finally moved out for good, setting steam for Cuba and a place in history. The rapidly developing situation in Cuba prompted leaders to delay the flotilla, and the ships sat for a week in Tampa Bay, amid overcrowding, brutal heat and bad food.

On June 8, ships carrying a staggering 15,000 soldiers pulled away from port. When war broke with Spain in April of that. At the port, Roosevelt bluffed his way into commandeering a troop ship meant for a different unit. The charge up an obscure Cuban hill on July, 1 1898 was a pivotal point in Theodore Roosevelts political career. Mark Lee Gardner, Rough Riders: Theodore Roosevelt, His Cowboy Regiment, and the Immortal Charge Up San Juan Hill. The train to take them to the port never arrived, and they commandeered one. On the night of June 7, the Rough Riders were told to be ready to leave at daybreak. They also drank during stops, which often did not end well. The undisciplined group ran out of food on the way and resorted to stealing pigs and chickens. The Rough Riders is an unchanged, high-quality reprint of the original edition of 1899.

Publication date 1904 Topics Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919, United States. Book Condition: Collectible - Very Good Publisher: Charles Scribners Sons.

The Rough Riders had assembled in San Antonio for a four-day trip by train - horses and all. The Rough Riders by Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919. They were men mostly from the West who became the crack regiment for the undertaking. Roosevelt, who had owned and operated a North Dakota ranch, resigned his post as Assistant Secretary of the Navy to lead the group.

The Rough Riders by Theodore Roosevelt