, but
consented to be the second in command only if Wood were made its
commander. The fact that Roosevelt was not only known in the East but
in the Northwest, and that Wood was quite as well known in the
Southwest and the South meant that men of the Rough Riders type all
over the country knew something of one or the other of the regiment's
organizers.

It detracts nothing from Wood's amazing activity in organization and
capacity for getting {79} things done, to say that had it not been for
Roosevelt's wonderful popularity amongst those of the youthful spirit
of the land the regiment would never have had its unique character or
its unique name.

This is not the place to tell the story of that famous band of men.
But its organization is so important a part of Wood's life that it
comes in for mention necessarily.

In the Indian campaign with the regulars he had known the great
importance of being properly outfitted and ready for those grilling
journeys over the desert. In the Spanish War he learned, as only
personal experience can teach, the amazing importance of preparation
for volunteers and inexperienced men. The whole story of the getting
ready to go to Cuba was burned into his brain so deeply that it formed
a second witness in the case against trusting to luck and the occasion
which has never been eradicated from his mind. Yet this episode
brought strongly before him also the fact that prepared though he
might be there was no success ahead for such an organization without
the sense of subordination to the {80} state and the nation which not
only brought the volunteers in, but carried them over the rough places
through disease and suffering and death to the end.

Eight days after the telegram calling upon the Governors of New
Mexico, Arizona, Oklahoma and Indian Territory for men to form the
regiment, the recruits gathered at San Antonio where Wood was waiting
to meet them. The most important thing about them for the moment was
that they knew nothing of military life. Wood believed with Old
Light-Horse Harry Lee "That Government is a murderer of its citizens
which sends them to the field uninformed and untaught, where they are
meeting men of the same age and strength mechanized by education and
disciplined for battle."

Furthermore during the years that he had been in Washington Wood had
used some of his spare time in studying parts of American history that
are not included in school books. He knew that the volu