Theodore Roosevelt, the United States’ 26th president, left behind a strong legacy of military accomplishments as a leader of the iconic “Rough Riders.”
“Teddy Roosevelt was a man of action and preferred to lead from the front,” says Military.com. “He stunned the country when he resigned his powerful and comfortable position as assistant secretary of the Navy to establish and lead the Rough Riders in the Spanish American War. He achieved lasting fame by leading his regiment in a bold charge up Kettle Hill in the Battle of Santiago.”
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The Spanish American War was fought for just 10 weeks in the late spring and summer of 1898. The brief conflict began after a U.S. ship docked in Havana, Cuba, blew up and killed more than 260 U.S. Navy sailors. The U.S. and Roosevelt were convinced the Spanish were to blame, although that has never been proven.
While in Cuba, Roosevelt created the all-volunteer regiment of the “rag-tag” Rough Riders who were “polo players, hunters, cowboys, Native Americans and athletic college buddies,”
according to a National Park Service description of the group.
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Even though the Spanish American War lasted just more than two months, the "splendid little war" devastated the Spanish Empire and launched Roosevelt’s political career.
After serving as the governor of New York, he later became the youngest person to be elected president of the United States at the age of 42.
Among Roosevelt’s other military accomplishments is his part in ending the Russo-Japanese war that was fought from 1904 to 1905. His involvement with negotiating the Treaty of Portsmouth that ended the conflict later earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906, making him the first American to win a Nobel Prize.
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