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W. Britain
In April 1898, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Theodore Roosevelt, resigned his post. There was a war on with Spain in Cuba and always a man of action, he saw little of it from behind his desk in Washington. He then helped form the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, the Rough Riders, who were composed of sophisticates, roustabouts, athletes, cowboys, and generally anyone who could shoot. They fought a short, minor skirmish known as the Battle of Las Guasimas and a larger, more famous one up Kettle Hill. As part of the San Juan Heights it became erroneously known as the Charge up San Juan Hill and earned T.R. the Medal of Honor, posthumously. He reveled in the fury of it claiming it “the great day of my life” and “my crowded hour.”