Muskogee County, Oklahoma - Chapter 18: Indian Territory Rough Riders, 1922

Chapter 18: Indian Territory Rough Riders

On April 27, 1898, Judge John R. Thomas of the Muskogee United States District Court received the following telegram from Gen. R. A. Alger, Secretary of War :

"We want 175 picked men, good shots and good riders, for Colonel Wood's mounted rifle regiment, arms, mounts and equipment to be furnished by the United States at the rendezvous of regiments. When can you have them ready for muster and where ? ' '

The number of Rough Riders called for was enlisted within two weeks. Lieutenant Capron was chosen captain, and after a dinner was given them on the evening of May 14, the 175 volunteers started for San Antonio, Texas.

As these volunteers were being enlisted for the Spanish war, First Lieut. John R. Thomas, a son of the judge and an officer in the Regular army, was ordered to Muskogee to assist in mustering in the company recruited here. Within two months after they enlisted, the Rough Riders from this community had landed in Cuba, east of Santiago, and were marching toward the interior, ready and anxious to meet the Spaniards on the battlefield.

Upon his return to the L^nited States after being severely wounded, Lieutenant Thomas gave the following account of the Rough Riders in battle :

"The Rough Riders were landed at Baiquri, east of Santiago, on the morning of June 22. We were among the first to get ashore, the Twenty-second Infantry preceding us. The men were wild for a fight, and this feeling was not wanting in the officers. I guess we have been given the best of it all along, for we surely were highly favored in being allowed to join the first army of invasion. The same good fortune followed us when we got to Cuba. We were given the first chance for a fight, this high compliment being paid us in allowing us to be the advance guard. My troop got even a greatei share of honor by being the advance of the regiment. About 3 o'clock the next day we were given the anxiously awaited command to march. We were to get to Siboney. Before dark that night we covered eleven miles over the roughest kind of mountain trail. The growth of wild pineapple and cactus reached almost over the men's heads. The malaria and yellow fever had not touched any of the men then, and they were in great spirits. That night we camped in a valley back of the hills along the coast. We rested and slept as much as possible under the circumstances, Tor drenching rain, land crabs, immense sand fiddlers and the heat, followed by the damp chilling air of the latter part of the night, were not conducive either to comfort or rest. Sleep was almost out of the question. The advance forces were composed of the Rough Riders, the First Regular Cavalry, and the Tenth Cavalry, under command of General Young. We were on the flank, several miles inland from the main column, to prevent a surprise. Our march was over a mesa, or rather in the foothills, while the other troops were further up the mountain sides. The rapid advance of our forces had taken the Spaniards by surprise and they were retreating toward Santiago when we came upon them. We got up early on the morning of June 24, the day of the fight. At 4 o'clock we ate our hastily prepared breakfast of hardtack, bacon and coffee. We knew that we were getting near the Spaniards. Several ( hihans had reported at headquarters that the enemy was not far away. As we went along the mountain trail we passed the Twenty-second Infantry, which had been doing outpost work during the night. We had to go up the trail single file. Our troop was the advance guard and we expected to meet the enemy every minute.

"All that talk about our being surprised and Troop L ambushed is without the slightest foundation. Capron had deployed his men and knew where the Spaniards were, and was after them. Being the advance, we were first to find them and naturally suffered severely. Captain Capron was out with five of the troopers s< unewhat in advance of the rest of the company. We had seen the Spaniards earlier in the morning about three-quarters of a mile distant. They had taken possession of the buildings of a single sugar plantation in the valley to the left. The trail we were advancing along was over a mesa. Thomas E. Isbell, one of the Cherokee Indian boys, was heading the little advancing party of five. They had just reached a turn in the trail when he suddenly spied the first Spanish picket some distance in advance of him. Quick as lightning his Krag-Jorgenson plugged the Spaniard, and he never moved after he fell in the trail. We were within sixty feet of the Spanish by this time when they opened up on us.

"The rest of the company was brought up to the advance guard on a dead run and deployed along the firing line. The Spanish front was in the shape of a crescent, and our troop had got into the concave side of it. In less time than it takes to tell it, the Spaniards who were behind breastworks, rifle pits, and the thick chapparal, poured a terrific fire of Mauser bullets and rapid fire shot into us. Hot? Well, I should say so. It was just as hot a hole as I ever hope to get into. We poured a good fire into the Spaniards to the right and left, and the other troops got into action in a hurry. They gave the Spaniards the benefit of some deadly cross fire, and we soon got them on the run. The First Cavalry, regulars, and the Tenth Cavalry, colored regulars, came up as our supports and did great fighting. We were in the fight fully half an hour before Captain Capron was hit. Perhaps ten minutes later, Hamilton Fish was killed. The fight was kept up at a terrific pace after that. We went in with sixty-four men, and after three days' fighting there were only twenty-nine men fit for duty. I was wounded some time after Captain Capron was killed. He was an ideal soldier, brave, chivalric, magnanimous and true. He was the idol not only of our troops but also of the entire regiment. Sergeant Fish upheld the traditional reputation of his family, and with a dash never excelled, died the ideal death of a true soldier. Second Lieut. Richard Cushing Day is a nephew of the gallant naval hero of the Civil war of Albemarle fame. He exhibited extraordinary coolness and courage during every minute of the battle of Guasimas, and at El Caney he did heroic work before he was wounded by a Mauser bullet through the arm and socket of the left shoulder.

"Chicago may well be proud of Walter Sharpe and Dallwyn Bell. Sharpe was one of the flankers thrown out to the right of the advance guard of our troop. He was about 100 yards away from the trail to the north as we were proceeding westward. The way he went right to the front and poked his nose into the thicket looking for Spaniards was great stuff. Even the old campaigners from the Territory take their hats off to him now for his coolness. They had to follow the boy from down East, whom they had regarded up to that time with just a little condescension. He did great work all through that fight, and at San Juan and El Caney he displayed even more exceptional bravery. He hasn't been scratched up to date, though he had a pipe shot to pieces in his pocket and had several holes cut through his uniform. Bell did his share to convince the Westerners that the 'kids' as they called them, were there to fight. At El Caney, Bell was wounded by a piece of shell. His spine was badly hurt, but he went back to the trenches and pumped lead into the Spaniards three times after he had been ordered to the rear. It takes the Westerners to appreciate that sort of grit, and they rose up in the trenches and cheered him. Yes, Bell was ordered to the rear three times but he finished the day in the firing line. Isbell, who opened, the fight, was the gamest man I ever saw. He was filled full of holes, being wounded seven times before he retired, and then walked four miles to a field hospital. He had a thumb shattered, two bullets through his scalp at the base of the brain, two in his body, and a bullet through his arm. There were so many gritty things done that day that it would be hard to pick them out. Sergt. Joe Kline was badly wounded and sent to the rear. He ran across a Spaniard sharpshooter in a tree firing at the wounded. Kline dropped his man the first shot and got a silver mounted revolver, which dropped from the Spaniard's pocket-belt as he tumbled from the tree, as a trophy. Kline is a Cherokee Indian and so is Private Ed Culver, another brave hero of Troop L. Then there is Thomas Francis Meagher, Jr., a grandson of Gen. Thomas Francis Meagher, George Seaver, Sergt. Tillman Dawson and - I might go on through the whole list trying to pick them out - every man of them showed himself a hero.

"It is a hard matter to give a connected story of the fight at Guasimas. Things happened so quickly and there was so much to do, that it was impossible to even have time to consider the great danger. We didn't have time to feel squeamish; we were pushed forward so rapidly that most of the men were so eager for the fight that it was infectious. It kept the officers pretty busy getting the men into place, and I didn't have any time to think much. I have been asked a hundred times how it feels to get shot. Why, it doesn't hurt much at first. You hardly notice it after you get up from being knocked over by the impact of the bullet. The Mausers shoot hard, and the force stops most men. When I was hit it knocked me over, but I was able to get up quickly. The bullet drilled a clean hole right through my shin bone, tearing a good-sized wound as it came out through the flesh. One of the men helped me put a tourniquet on my leg, made of a strap from his canteen, and when I reached the field hospital I was in pretty good shape. I was reported dead several times, but managed to pull through without much trouble. All that I have left of my old uniform is the hat and coat. The trousers are somewhere near Guasimas, where they cut them off me to get at the wound."

The Indian Territory Rough Riders gained an enviable record in the war with Spain and after the war was over they were frequently complimented by Colonel Roosevelt for their bravery and excellent marksmanship.

His love for "my boys," as he designated the Rough Riders, prompted Roosevelt to stop at Muskogee, on his Presidential trip, April 5, 1905, which was termed :

Roosevelt Day In Muskogee

It was an eventful occasion in Muskogee, as upon that day President Roosevelt passed through Muskogee and stopped at the Katy Depot long enough for 15,000 people to see him and hear him deliver a short address. A platform was erected in the center of Broadway at the railroad crossing, upon which he climbed from the rear end of his train. Dr. Bennett was marshal of the day and was assisted by Troop A, Indian Territory Volunteer Cavalry under Captain Farley. The reception committee, consisting of Mayor Rutherford, Judge John R. Thomas, C. 1ST. Haskell, Gen. Pleasant Porter, Isaac N". Ury and Col. Clarence Douglas met the president on the platform and Judge Thomas introduced him to the enthusiastic audience. President Roosevelt began his brief address with a sympathetic reference to his acquaintance with Judge Thomas' son who was wounded in Cuba during the war with

Spain. He then told the audience that he looked forward hopefully to the day when they would have statehood and gave them some wholesome advice concerning the duties of the citizen of a state.