Title: ROOSEVELT'S ROUGH RIDERS

Periodical: Dallas Morning News

Date: May 15, 1898

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ROOSEVELT'S ROUGH RIDERS

Statement Written By Order of Col. A. O. Brodie Describing these Fine Cavalrymen.

ALL ARE PICKED MEN OF THE PLAINS

Not Roystering Bullies, but Quiet, Determined, Quick-Shooting Athletes and Horsemen

Roosevelt's rough riders will be a combination of fighters that the Spaniards will learn to fear. There is an alternative belligerency about the very title that bristles with suggestiveness of hard knocks for any enemy that confronts the rough riders. Of all the regiments forming to attack the dons none has aroused greater enthusiasm than this cowboy band. While various items have appeared in print descriptive of the work in recruiting the band, nothing has been said of the quality of the recruits. It will be gratifying to newspaper readers, therefore, to know that the following article has been prepared by James H. McClintock, at the especial order of Col. A. O. Brodie, who has command of one of the squadrons of the new troop:

The first regiment of Arizona cavalry has dwindled to two troops in the flying cavalry, officered by Dr. Wood, colonel, and the Hon. Theodore Roosevelt, lieutenant colonel. The Arizona companies are being recruited today, 170 strong, from the enrollment of about 1000 names listed in the expectation of securing a full Arizona regiment.

The companies therefore will comprise the pick of the rough riders of Arizona, the cream of the many good men who have already enlisted. The greater number will be men familiar with every phase of frontier life, at home in the saddle, skilled in the use of arms, men who have met danger in the past and are fearless of it in the future.

There will be no fear of a stampede by these when they face hostile weapons in Spanish hands. The unaccountable panic that sometimes seizes the best of raw troops will have no place in the war work of the Roosevelt rough riders. They have faced death too often to be afraid of him in any shape.

Accustomed to life in the saddle, trained to shoot quickly and accurately, hardy, athletic and fitted to endure hardships that would speedily prostrate a city bred man, these rough riders will make ideal cavalrymen for service in Cuba.

The greater number of the Arizona recruits have a conversational knowledge of Spanish. The people of the east believe the Arizona cowboy to be a combination of horse and alligator, fond of the ardent and utterly lawless. As far as the Arizona recruits of the flying cavalry are concerned this will be found incorrect. The greater number of the men are quiet, sober fellows, who will be found at all times keeping strictly along the line of their duties.

The men are being picked up in all parts of the territory. The largest squads thirty-eight and thirty respectively, will come from Phoenix and Prescott. The two troops will rendezvous at Fort Whipple, near Prescott, where they will select their company officers and will be mustered in by a regular army officer detailed for the purpose.

Col. A. O. Brodie, upon the recommendation of Gov. M. H. McCord, has been named as major of one of the squadrons, and has accepted the appointment. He was to have been colonel of the Arizona regiment originally projected. He is a graduate of West Point of the class of 1872, and was adjutant of the first cavalry when he resigned from the service. Since that time he has been a civil and mining engineer in north central Arizona, where he is now manager and part owner of the rich Crown Point mine.