generals in 1865 and then for thirty-three years without military
experience in an age of great development in the methods of
warfare. The other commanding officers were as old and were
mostly chosen by seniority in a service retiring at sixty-four.
The unwonted strain of active service naturally proved too great.
At the most critical moment of the campaign in Cuba, the
commanding general, William R. Shafter, had eaten nothing for
four days, and his plucky second in command, the wiry Georgian
cavalry leader of 1864 and 1865, General "Joe" Wheeler, was not
physically fit to succeed him. There is not the least doubt that
the fighting spirit of the men was strong and did not fail, but
the defect in those branches of knowledge which are required to
keep an army fit to fight is equally certain. The primary cause
for the melting of the American army by disease must be
acknowledged to be the insufficient training of the officers.

This hit or miss method, however, had its compensations, for it
brought about some appointments of unusual merit. Conspicuous
were those of Colonel Leonard Wood and Lieutenant Colonel
Theodore Roosevelt. The latter had resigned as Assistant
Secretary of the Navy, a position in which he had contributed a
great deal to the efficiency of that Department, in order to take
a more tangible part in the war. After raising among his friends
and the cowboys of the West a regiment of "Rough Riders," he
declined its command on plea of military inexperience. Roosevelt
made one of those happy choices which are a mark of his
administrative ability in selecting as colonel Leonard Wood, an
army surgeon whose quality he knew through common experiences in
the West.