Lessons in Manliness: Theodore Roosevelt and the Spanish-American War
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Theodore Roosevelt, who arguably accomplished more than any other American man, called his experience in the Spanish-American War, “the great day of my life.” It was during his charge up Kettle Hill that Theodore Roosevelt’s leadership and confidence finally crystallized. He passed the test and emerged as a leader capable of ascending to the presidency. His actions during the war impart crucial lessons on manly leadership:
1. Walk the Walk. Theodore Roosevelt was a sickly child who grew up reading of ancient battles and warriors and longing to be one. He built up his body and as he got older started writing his own books about military feats. Yet he still longed to see action firsthand, and when the opportunity finally arrived, he wasted no time in seizing it. As soon as the Spanish-American War broke out, Teddy pestered the Secretary of the Navy for a commission in the army. He then sold his cattle ranch and some of his possessions, and took out life insurance in preparation of receiving it. He was fully prepared to put his money where his mouth (and pen) was.
2. Know your limitations. Teddy was never short on confidence, but he didn’t let cocksureness slip into arrogance. When Roosevelt got his wish for an army commission and was offered command of the First United States Volunteer Calvary as Colonel, he turned it down citing his lack of tactical experience. He instead accepted a position as Lieutenant Colonel and recommend Leonard Wood to be Colonel. (TR would later become Colonel when Wood was promoted to brigadier general.)
3. Pick the best men for your team. If you wish to surround yourself with the best men, you must be the kind of leader men fall over each to serve under. 23,000 men applied to be part of the First Calvary; most of them addressed their letters to Roosevelt even though Wood was technically in charge. Of the 23,000 only 560 were chosen. Some of the rejected cried, so heartbroken were they on not being able to be part of Roosevelt’s Rough Riders. Composed of the West’s best frontiersmen, marksmen, and horsemen and the East’s great athletes and prominent sons, the Rough Riders were a unique and unstoppable group.
4. Be one of the men. The ship which transported the troops to Cuba did not have room for many horses; Roosevelt was one of the few men in the regiment able to take his. When the Rough Riders arrived in Cuba, they began their march to Las Guasimas. The temperature was simmering, and the men trudged through the heat in thick uniforms and heavy bedrolls. Still, Roosevelt walked alongside the men, refusing to ride while they were marching.
5. Lead by example. Don’t ask others to do anything you are afraid of doing yourself. When it came time to take the San Juan Heights, TR’s regiment ran into heavy fire from the Spanish. As bodies piled up all around him, TR stayed on his horse as an example of courage. However, there was a delay before they could start scaling the hills, and the men, including TR, were forced to lay low and take cover. When the order finally came to take Kettle Hill, the men were reluctant to rise to their feet. TR mounted his horse and shouted, “Are you afraid to stand up, when I am on horseback?” He promptly took off, galloping across an open area and under a hail of bullets.
6. See it through. After securing Kettle Hill, TR noticed that the attacks on the neighboring San Juan Hill were faltering. He shouted for his men to charge, leaped over a barbed wire fence, and ran down the hill. When he glanced back, he saw that only 5 of his men had followed. 3 of these 5 were shot and TR was practically leading the charge single-handedly. He ran back under heavy fire, formed the remaining men (who claimed to have not heard the initial order) into a formidable assault line, and began the charge again.
Roosevelt’s personal bravery and leadership were critical elements in the success of the Battle of Las Guasimas. In 2001, Roosevelt was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions.
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Great tips, Brett. Especially in the light of my new promotion. I’m going to be leading a sales team at work, and I’m a little bit intimidated, but very excited. I especially like the part about knowing your limitations and finding the best men for your team. Thanks for all of your posts!
Nicely written article, and applicable to so many “disciplines”.
Courageous, strong, compassionate, strict, driven…the list could go on and on when describing our 26th president. We’ve been fortunate in this country to have had men like Theodore Roosevelt to emulate. One of my colleagues was just promoted to a new leadership position. I just sent him a link to this post. Well written! Well done! You’ve proven once again that if we want to learn how to live in the future, sometimes that best thing to do is look to the past.
It’s hard to believe that there were actually men like this. In this day, it’s really hard to find a leader that people overwhelmingly want to follow.
Is it that our challenges are different now? Or are the challenges the same, but they are approached and handled differently? Political affiliation aside, when was the last time we had a hero for a president. Someone that led and inspired by example. Someone that charged the hill single handedly. I’d even settle for a metaphorical “hill”. Seriously, what happened?
Another great article. (I feel like I am starting to repeat myself with these words in regards to your site…) LOL.
Thanks!!
Sadly, we need leaders like T.R. again.
Even my liberal history teacher back in high school admired TR. He was one of the few great men to make it to the presidency.
Nice tips on how great TR was. Wish more of our current leaders would lead by example rather hide behind control centers.
I viewed your site because I am a single parent, raising a 7 year old boy and I thought you might have good tips for me. I read about your site on a catholic blog. I am disappointed however to see the advertisement for Gay Military Dating in the middle of your page. How is this consistent with your theme of Maniliness?
@Simone-Thanks for coming by the site. I don’t have control over which ads show up on the blog. The ads come from Google, who randomly change them every day and every hour. If I find an ad offensive, I can block it, but only after it shows up on the site.
I am a big proponent of manhood, and manliness, and think feminism has been a disaster in so many ways, not the least of which is feminising men. I like the idea of your site, but I have to agree with Simone that the ads are offensive, and contradict your message. If that is how Google wants to advertise, I think you need to do the manly thing, and find another way to get your site hosted. I would rather pay for a site I could read with my son, than have a free site where he gets to see ads for pornography. (Note, the ad I saw was different from what Simone described, but equally offensive.) Thanks for listening.
Can you not be gay and manly? You know, responsible, respectful, consistent, dress well. What’s this sites views on manly homosexuality?
Great article, Brett, but I have to quibble on one particular angle. I have enormous respect for TR but I have always been annoyed for his behavior in choosing to attend this conflict. At the time, he had a wife and child at home to support, and running off to join in a war so he could have a bit of adventure seems, to me, not just irresponsible but gravely disrespectful to the people at home who were counting on him.
TR was a badass to be sure, and politically admirable, but he was itching to go to war the way a Boy Scout itches to get to camp (”I should welcome almost any war, for I think this country needs one.”) I for one don’t appreciate or revere that attitude, especially when it could leave a child fatherless.
Just my opinion! Keep up the great content!
Great post Brett! Speaking of bad advertisement, I’ve been using Firefox as my web-browsing tool and they have a advertisement blocking add-on, called Adblock-plus, so I never see any bad ads . Very useful for safe surfing on the web.
1. Excellent post on TR. And I cannot read enough about the incredible life that he led. Not every man needs to be a TR, but his influence and leadership are so incredible that they still inspire men to improve themselves even 100 years after his demise.
2. I feel compelled to respond to the comments above about banning gay dating sites from the blog. In fact, if I held my peace, it would be dishonest, disrespectful, and disingenuous, and therefore decidedly unmanly. Therefore, I would like to point out that I see no conflict between being gay and being a man. In fact, it takes a man to be gay. And more often than not, it takes a man of great courage to be gay, and to pursue his own course to happiness, even in the face of constant hate, ostracism and humiliation. Too often, facing ones homosexuality has meant making the ultimate sacrifice for one’s conviction. My fellow men, I ask you: is there anything more manly?
Kleinzeit correctly points out that even gay men can be honest, faithful, reliable, punctual, resourceful, neat, courageous and frugal. No where on this blog, or any where else for that matter, have I come across any worthwhile and universal literature that states that a robust sexual appetite after women is a prereq to manliness.
If your son cannot read this site because of indecency present in the ads, so be it. But if homosexuality is the issue, keep reading and learning and hopefully you will arrive at the heart of the matter.
Also, many of the heroes of our sex throughout history have been exclusively gay or attracted to men. If the ancient Greeks had been so closed minded, we would not know who Socrates, Plato or Aristotle were. Our whole tradition of Western Philosophy and literature would be lost. We never could have defeated the Nazis without the genius of a certain British scientist and codebreaker who was also a homosexual. Incredible achievements in the modern visual and performing arts would never have come to be. So much of Academia that has enriched our lives and enabled us to rise so far above the apes has sprung from the brilliant minds of gay thinkers.
And if femininity is the issue, then that is an entirely different issue from homosexuality. Many heteros, as well as homos, are equally effeminate. Although the two are often found together, it would be a grave and disastrous error for us to confuse correlation with causation. The two are not by any means mutually exclusive.
With honor and so many virtues fading this is a real encouragement. Oh that God would raise up real men to lead us again!
forever HIS tom
I agree with your stated precepts. I am also a great admirer of Theodore Roosevelt for the most part. Some time back I read a book that Roosevelt himself wrote about the Spanish American War. For the most part, I don’t recall any of the details that you state in your article above in Roosevelt’s book. I know about not being able to take horses to Cuba, about the Battle of Kettle Hill and San Juan Hill but the accounts I have read, including Roosevelt’s own, indicate that Roosevelt’s part in those conflicts was somewhat passive. Maybe you could email me your source for those statements. Thanks for your time and assistance.
Teddy was a pretty good man. If you look at the rest of his life, he stood for justice, virtue, and compassion. He was not a guy who said “I got mine” and ignored the rest of country. He even left the Robber Barron Republican party and formed his own Bull Moose party.
On behalf of Dandyism.net, I declare this post to by Bully!
Coincidentally I just watched the 1975 movie “The Wind and the Lion” starring Sean Connery and with Brian Keith as Teddy Roosevelt. The movie is based on a true story and TR is compelling in the movie with his flaws and virtues (illustrated by real-life events and words from his writings). It’s a good film if you’re interested in Roosevelt and, as a bonus, if you’d like a little deeper insight into why the Middle East is the way it is today (which is as its always been).
I would like to vote for this on Digg but I can’t figure out how.
@Ken-I will be getting real ads soon. In the meantime, I will keep the google ads because I spend around 20 hours a week on the blog, and so getting a few dollars a day makes me feel better. I hope you understand.
@Charlie-Interesting point. I think part of TR just wanted an adventure. But I think part of him sought the opportunity to fight for his country in what he believed to be a worthy cause. True, he ran the risk of leaving his family fatherless, but everyone who joins the armed services, now and then, take that chance. Making that ultimate sacrifice is the height of manliness. If he was just looking for a fun adventure though, then yeah, I question that move.
@Jerry-Some of it I got from Edmund Morris biography of TR “The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt.” And some of it came from TR’s own account of his actions in the war. It’s clear from his account, that he was front and center in the whole thing. You can find it online at: http://www.spanamwar.com/Sanjuantr.htm
@Night Writer-I haven’t seen that film, but I should check it out. I think Martin Scorsese is making another TR film with Leonardo DiCaprio as TR. It’s hard to imagine someone as pretty as Leo being TR, but he’s a great actor, so perhaps he can pull it off.
@Ben-Don’t worry about it digging it. It was dugg when it was posted and then promptly buried by digg. We seem to be on digg’s autobury list (everything that gets dugg from here is buried by the site) and thus AoM and so we won’t be using digg in the foreseeable future.
No Peanutz-
I think gay men can be manly. And I’ve seen gay men who seem manly. But most of the gay men I’ve met and see in the media act like weird women. Real men don’t talk with a lisp, obsess about fashion, love Barbara Streisand and musicals, ect. I’ve never understood why being gay would necessitate those things and they seem like they’re more part of a learned culture than being innate. If gay men want to be more accepted by society maybe they should start acting like men, instead of sissies.
I need to know what he feared in his life. i know he was kind of fearful but their must be something right.
thats nice to know
thank you this just helped me with my essay
The entire notion of ‘manliness’ is outdated, sexist bullshit. The whole ‘ban gay dating sites’ thing only reinforces the notion that ‘manliness’ as well as ‘femaleness’ are based on old gender constructs that have about nothing to do with the biological nature of sex and gender.