I wrote this recently for use at our upcoming first new PLC meeting. I got the idea from the History Channel show "TR: An American Lion," and I backed up the facts with on line sources. What do you think? Any improvement ideas?
In 1898 Theodore Roosevelt was the Assistant Secretary to the Navy. He had worked hard to build a strong navy for the country and he has succeeded. When the Spanish American War broke out that year, he resigned his comfortable office job to lead a volunteer force of cavalry. These men, who were an unlikely mix of Western cowboys, frontiersmen, Eastern athletes and sons of prominent families, were not trained as regular Army personnel; they became known as the Rough Riders.
For several weeks they fought their way across Cuba, which was at the time a territory of Spain. They battled, not only Spanish soldiers, but also a variety of diseases like malaria and yellow fever, and many a man died of either disease or wounds from battles. Toward the end of the campaign, the Spanish fleet was trapped in Santiago Harbor, and a push was made to secure the high ground surrounding the bay. One particular objective was the heavily entrenched San Juan Hill.
There was a strong push to take this area, and the division with which the Rough Riders was assigned, were directed to take the nearby Kettle Hill. After taking the hill and still under a dangerous barrage of fire from the well fortified, adjacent San Juan Hill, Roosevelt, without orders, directed his men to charge that hill and rode off. After a few hundred yards, he saw that he was accompanied by only 5 other men. In the noise and confusion of battle, the rest of his men had not heard him. While being fired upon by the enemy, he turned around and rallied his men for the charge with the new command: Follow me!
Needless to say the Rough Riders took San Juan Hill. Two years later he was William McKinleys vice presidential running mate, and upon McKinleys death in 1901, Roosevelt became one of the most famous presidents of the United States.
You are leaders of this troop. How well do the boys listen to what you say? Do you think they would better respond to the command Charge or the invitation to Follow me?
In 1898 Theodore Roosevelt was the Assistant Secretary to the Navy. He had worked hard to build a strong navy for the country and he has succeeded. When the Spanish American War broke out that year, he resigned his comfortable office job to lead a volunteer force of cavalry. These men, who were an unlikely mix of Western cowboys, frontiersmen, Eastern athletes and sons of prominent families, were not trained as regular Army personnel; they became known as the Rough Riders.
For several weeks they fought their way across Cuba, which was at the time a territory of Spain. They battled, not only Spanish soldiers, but also a variety of diseases like malaria and yellow fever, and many a man died of either disease or wounds from battles. Toward the end of the campaign, the Spanish fleet was trapped in Santiago Harbor, and a push was made to secure the high ground surrounding the bay. One particular objective was the heavily entrenched San Juan Hill.
There was a strong push to take this area, and the division with which the Rough Riders was assigned, were directed to take the nearby Kettle Hill. After taking the hill and still under a dangerous barrage of fire from the well fortified, adjacent San Juan Hill, Roosevelt, without orders, directed his men to charge that hill and rode off. After a few hundred yards, he saw that he was accompanied by only 5 other men. In the noise and confusion of battle, the rest of his men had not heard him. While being fired upon by the enemy, he turned around and rallied his men for the charge with the new command: Follow me!
Needless to say the Rough Riders took San Juan Hill. Two years later he was William McKinleys vice presidential running mate, and upon McKinleys death in 1901, Roosevelt became one of the most famous presidents of the United States.
You are leaders of this troop. How well do the boys listen to what you say? Do you think they would better respond to the command Charge or the invitation to Follow me?
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