Theodore Roosevelt: the Rough Rider who became president

Theodore Roosevelt packed several lives into one. A sickly boy who remade himself into a cowboy, soldier and statesman, he charged up a Cuban hill at the head of the Rough Riders, and two years later was president of the United States. He became the very image of American energy at the dawn of the twentieth century.

The making of a fighter

Born to a wealthy New York family in 1858, Roosevelt overcame childhood asthma through relentless physical effort¹, and threw himself into politics, ranching and writing. When war with Spain came in 1898, he resigned as Assistant Secretary of the Navy² to raise a volunteer cavalry regiment, the Rough Riders, a mix of cowboys, athletes and adventurers.

San Juan Hill

In Cuba, Roosevelt led a famous charge up the San Juan Heights, usually associated with nearby Kettle Hill, in the face of Spanish fire². Much of the hardest fighting was done by the regular army³, including the African-American Buffalo Soldiers⁴, but it was Roosevelt the newspapers celebrated, and he returned a national hero. He was decorated for the action with the Medal of Honor, awarded long afterward in 2001.⁵

The president and after

Fame carried Roosevelt to the governorship of New York, the vice presidency, and then, on the assassination of President McKinley in 1901, the White House⁶. As president he broke up great monopolies, launched the building of the Panama Canal, expanded the navy, and mediated an end to the Russo-Japanese War, for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize⁷. He left office in 1909 and died in 1919, remembered as one of the most forceful figures in American history.