Gardner - Rough Riders : Theodore Roosevelt, his cowboy regiment, and the immortal charge up San Juan Hill

Wednesday, January 10, 1906

The White House

President Theodore Roosevelt is all smiles as he moves about and briskly shakes hands with the several guests gathered in his private office and the adjoining cabinet room. The presidents favorite and overused exclamations punctuate the conversation: Bully! By George! and the drawn-out Deeelighted!

Among those present today are Secretary of War William Howard Taft, U.S. Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Adna R. Chaffee, and Surgeon General Presley Marion Rixey. Also in the small crowd are several army and navy officersall in full dress uniformmembers of the legislative council of the American Medical Association, and a collection of newspaper correspondents.

This is a very special day because the president has gathered these men to witness the presentation of a Medal of Honor. This is the first time a Medal of Honor ceremony has taken place in the White House, the first time since the nations highest military honor was created during the Civil War that a president of the United States has personally presented. In all previous years, Medals of Honor simply came in the mail.

Roosevelt believed that medal recipients deserved more. As commander in chief, he issued an order on September 20, 1905, requiring that medals be conferred in person by the president with formal and impressive ceremonies. Roosevelts wish, according to a newspaper report, was to increase the value of the Medal of Honor as much as possible, and to make it as rare and as precious as the Victoria Cross.

In an interesting but fitting coincidence, the man being honored this day, Captain James Robb Church, performed his acts of valor while serving as assistant surgeon under Roosevelt in the First United States Volunteer Cavalry, widely known as the Rough Riders. At the Battle of Las Gusimas, Cuba, on June 24, 1898, Church had risked his life time and again treating wounded troopers on the firing line. No less than five times, he had lifted a Rough Rider on his back and carried him to the rear, all the while being exposed to the enemys highly accurate Mauser rifles.

On three previous occasions, Captain Church had been formally recommended for this recognition, the first coming less than a year after his gallantry in Cuba, but for some reason, the recommendations languished at the War Department. Roosevelt was even under the impression that Church had received the medal seven years ago, until his close friend and former commander of the Rough Riders, Major General Leonard Wood, told him otherwise. The president wants todays precedent-setting ceremony to make up for that long delay.

To begin, the portly Secretary Taft presents Captain Church to the president, and the room is completely silent as Taft reads from the recommendations that describe Churchs heroics. Roosevelt proudly looks on; in his hand is a morocco case that holds the medal. Once Taft finishes, Roosevelt turns to Church and speaks directly to him, but for all to hear:

There is no distinction which confers greater honor upon any American in military or civil life than thisthe one honor coveted above all others, by every man in the military service of the United States. It was my good fortune as colonel of the regiment in which you served to be an eyewitness to your gallantry and to bear testimony to it by letter to the proper authorities, stating the reasons why I deemed that you were entitled to the Medal of Honor. I wish to state, Mr. Secretary, that the letters I wrote were written before I was president. Since I was president, I have held no communication whatsoever with the military authorities on the subject.

Roosevelt, with another big smile, presents the morocco case to the captain.

Captain Church, he says warmly, there could be no greater pleasure than that I now experience in handing to my old comrade and friend this Medal of Honor.

The president firmly shakes Churchs hand and pulls him close, and in a softer voice but still loud enough for all to hear, says, There is no greater comradeship than that which comes from having lived in the trenches together.

Church, overtaken by emotion, is speechless. He bows respectfully to Roosevelt, and it is both eloquent and touching. The president wanted to make the Medal of Honor presentation impressive and memorable, and he has succeeded beyond all expectations.

Although there were many American heroes in Cuba during the summer of 1898and many who did not survive that short warCaptain Church is the only Rough Rider to receive the medal. Yet another former Rough Rider is in this room, and he too should be wearing it. This man had been recommended for it by all his commanding officers, and several eyewitnesses testified to his actions above and beyond the call of duty. But because of pettiness, resentment, and, undoubtedly, some jealousy, the War Department had denied giving it to him.

This man is none other than the president. And having never received the medal he earned under a hot Cuban sun is among his greatest disappointments.

But Roosevelt is somewhat vindicated as he presents the coveted decoration to Captain Church. Both men know it. They share the truth of an experience that only those who were there can truly know. As part of a ragtag regiment of southwestern cowpunchers, Oklahoma Indians, Ivy League football stars, and champion polo players, they had faced death boldly and defeated the enemy.

They had been Rough Riders.