and from that moment he began systematically his preparation for
transfer. As a part of this policy he took every opportunity to do
line duty. The result was that when the Spanish War came he had strong
letters from Lawton, General Miles, General Graham, Colonel Wagner,
General Forsythe, and others, recommending him for line command. These
recommendations varied from {69} a battalion to a regiment. Both
Roosevelt and Wood had discussed the possibility of organizing
regiments, Roosevelt in New York and Wood in Massachusetts, but as
turmoil and confusion enveloped the War Office they realized that this
plan was not feasible.

The efforts of Roosevelt's superiors to keep him in his official
capacity as Assistant Secretary of the Navy and away from active
service were fruitless. Finally, when it became evident that he would
go into the service and see active fighting, Secretary of War Alger
offered him the colonelcy of a regiment of cavalry. Roosevelt, because
of his lack of experience in military affairs, refused the offer but
agreed to accept the position of lieutenant colonel of such a regiment
if his friend, Leonard Wood, would accept the colonelcy. Secretary
Alger and Leonard Wood agreed, and work was commenced at once
organizing a regiment that was later to become known as the Rough
Riders. The official name of the regiment was the 1st Volunteer
Cavalry. The name Rough Riders "just grew." The organization became
known under that name among the friends {70} of its leaders, later
among the newspaper correspondents and consequently the public, and
finally when it appeared in official documents it was accepted as
official.

Preparedness was all too unknown in those days, but Wood, who became
its nation-wide champion in the days to come, was well schooled even
in those days in its laws. He only learned more as time went on. The
chaos and tangle of red tape, inefficiency, unpreparedness in all
branches of the service blocked every effort that a few efficient and
able men were making. Seeing the hopelessness of trying to accomplish
anything under such conditions Wood introduced a novel method of
organization into the War Department.

Instead of pestering the hopeless and dismayed functionaries of the
various Government departments with requests for things they did not
have and would not have been able to find if they did have them, Wood
merely requested _carte blanche_ to go ahead and get all necessary
papers ready so t