Charge of the Rough Riders



A voluntary cavalry regiment made history on this date

When they charged up a hill in eighteen ninety-eight

Led by Theodore Rooosevelt, who'd become the VP

To President William McKinley, and then, eventually



President, after that man's rather abrupt termination

Becoming the third assassinated leader of the nation

Whereupon, the man who had led the Rough Riders 

Took over the office as the youngest ever to guide us



Thus, as the hero, of the Spanish-American War ...

During which America came to the aid, and for

Cuba's independence from mother country Spain

A move seen as the way to have certain gains ...



Which it did, for at the end of the six-month skirmish

The Spanish Empire was broken up, and amidst ...

Agreements for peace arranged by the Treaty of Paris

Cuba was freed, with the United States unembarrassed



For, along with a mandate to be Cuba's guiding hand

America was also given some of Spain's other lands

Including Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines ...

This last, for a fee of twenty million dollars, and seen



As steps making the United States an international power

All because Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders had their hour

When they charged at the Battle of San Juan Hill

On this very date, and remembered forever, still ...



- Tristram



© Christopher W. Thomas

written 8:08am Friday 7/2/99

for the date - July Ist, 1999