15. Roosevelt used his short campaign in Cuba to launch his national political career
When the Rough Riders landed at Montauk they found the four companies which had been left behind in Tampa waiting for them. Their charge was already famous in the United States, as was their commander. Gifts and salutations were received by the regiment, and by Roosevelt, who in speeches and interviews stressed the superb horsemanship of his men, while not directly claiming that they had ridden while in Cuba. “I doubt if there was any regiment in the world which contained so large a number of men able to ride the wildest and most dangerous horses”, he wrote in The Rough Riders, which was published in 1899 and became a best seller.
In mid-September, the regiment was disbanded. It had existed as a military unit for just six months. Roosevelt commanded it for less than three, but after returning to civilian life he preferred to be addressed as Colonel Roosevelt, or simply Colonel. Then known nationally thanks to the effusive coverage of the press regarding his actions in Cuba, he was affectionately known as Teddy, much to his annoyance. He later recalled the day at Kettle Hill as the “great day of my life”. On that day Roosevelt too arrived at the top of the hill on foot, after his horse was unable to negotiate a tangle of barbed wire.
