The Boys of '98

by Dale L. Walker

1998 marks the centennial year of the Spanish-American War and its most memorable fighting force, the volunteer cavalry regiment called the Rough Riders, led by the redoubtable Colonel Theodore Roosevelt. The Boys of '98 is the complete, colorful story of this memorable regiment: the recruitment of its members - a peculiar mixture of western frontiersmen and idealistic young easterners; their slapdash training in Texas and Florida; and their battles at Las Guasimas, Kettle Hill, and San Juan Hill. Theodore Roosevelt led his Rough Riders from San Antonio to San Juan Hill and kept riding, some say, directly into the White House. Dale Walker's spirited story of the regiment includes an account of why America went to war over Cuba, and how victory in the Santiago Campaign was achieved against the odds. The author's interviews with the last three surviving Rough Riders (the last of whom died in 1975) are a unique research source for this book.