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Did Pershing Really Ever Meet the Rough Riders?

posted 17 years ago by bryanac625
7 replies | jump to latest

I really enjoyed this movie... a real flag-waver and very patriotic. But one thing that's always bothered me: did any member of the 1st US Volunteer Cavalry ever have a conversation with Black Jack Pershing? I know this is not a seriously accurate film. I always figured Pershing was featured because of his eventual fame. But in the SAW he was just a junior officer. The movie makes it look like he is the commanding officer of the 10th Cavalry.

[–] mlevans 16 years ago

Pershing was there, as a 1st Lt. with a brevet (temporary) rank of Major of Volunteets, at both Kettle Hill & San Juan Hill (separate charges that both the movie and most history books lump into one action).

Later, when Roosevelt was president, he wanted to promote Pershing, but only had the presidential power to name generals...nothing lower. After trying several times to get the Army to promote him from Captain back to Major (His temporary war-time promotion having long-since ended) or Lt. Col., T.R. finally just named him a Brigaadeer General, skipping three ranks and nearly 900 men with more seniority. So it would seem that Pershing had shown Roosevelt what he could do.

[–] gapete 15 years ago

Several times in the movie they gloss over the fact that Pershing was not commanding the tenth. There was the line from Wheeler, "you tell your commander that I want the 10th on..."

As far as the movie is accurate. Well it could have been more accurate but, suprisingly, they did get a lot of small things correct. A lot of the screen play was written directly from diaries and dispatches, however, it was naturally condensced or some things changed to keep the story flowing. They certainly made any number of continuity errors just to keep their microcosm of "G Troop" flowing.

As far as TDR and Pershing meeting each other. Yes they did. Roosevelt was someone who got around and had an excellent memory. Pershing did distinguish himself in that campaign (and made a lot of political enemies at the same time). He was like Roosevelt in that he was a young upstart. He also had some marriage problems that contributed to his political ones as well. The tenth cavalry's location at the battle of Las Guasimas was essentially correct. They were on the right flank of the Rough Riders, and Pershing did command the wing closest to them.

One more interesting note. Fredrick Funston, also portrayed in the movie, would later become Pershing's rival for command of US troops in World War One. The command was offered to Funston but, he died at a train station in Texas before he could take it. Pershing then got the job.

[–] Hancock_the_Superb 15 years ago

I believe Wood was considered for Pershing's post too but got passed over for political reasons (he was an active Republican who would later run for President). Wood spent much of the war training troops in the US; he ultimately went to France as an "observer" but was wounded in a mortar accident and never saw combat.

"It's a joke. We'll laugh about it in the car."

[–] ResponsibleAdult 8 years ago

Actually, Frederick Funston, Commanding General of the Southern Department (Texas,Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona, aka the Mexican Border), Medal of Honor recipient for actions during the Philippine Insurrection, the man who captured the insurrectionist leader Emilio Aguinaldo, the man in temporary command of the Presidio of San Francisco during the 1906 earthquake, the commanding general of the expedition that occupied Veracruz, Mexico, in 1914, the first person to lie in state in the Alamo, was at his death in 1917, the most famous living military figure in America.

Funston did NOT die on a train to San Antonio. He died in the lobby of the St. Anthony Hotel, about 2 1/2 miles from his headquarters at Fort Sam Houston. After dining with friends at the hotel (his wife and family were visiting her home in San Francisco), he had a heart attack while listening to music in the hotel's lobby.

Funston was Pershing's boss. Pershing became Commanding General of the Southern Department when Funston died.

As long as Funston was alive, there wasn't much of a contest about who would lead the AEF to Europe.

Funston did not meet Roosevelt and Pershing in Cuba. He was captured by the Spanish and had been paroled back to the U.S. before the Maine blew up. Possibly because his parole would have required that he not fight in Cuba anymore, he became an officer in the Kansas Volunteers who went to the Philippines, where his experiences as a jungle guerilla served him in good stead and lead to that Medal of Honor, capturing Aguinaldo and a commission in the Regular Army as a brigadier general.

And after reading his autobiography, I really don't believe he worked for the State Department.

[–] roger-395 15 years ago

There are enough books written about TR and his involvement in the engagement at San Jan Heights tht his meeting with Pershing is very well documented in the record. TR also mentions Pershing in his volumn concerning the Rough Riders. As noited below, TR thought enough of Pershing to promnote him to general over 900 men his senior.

[–] jglapin 14 years ago

And a dang good thing he did if you read what his experiences were like in trying to work with our "allies" during WWI.

Pershing insisted the U.S. forces fight as an independent force. The Brits and the French wanted to absorb his battalions of Marines and Army into their own lines where they would likely have been wasted as so many of their own were. He had the brains and the guts to insist the U.S. forces remain independent. I wonder if any other of our Generals at that time would have had that courage.

[–] jglapin 14 years ago

Incidently his nickname was "N#**#r Jack" and not Blackjack. The name was given to him by classmates from West Point for his brief command assignment with the 10th in the Southwest. The press changed the name to "Blackjack" during WWI.
Source: "Until The Last Trumpet Sounds", Gene Smith, Page 192.