WEBVTT - TR Vs. Death 0:00:00.440 --> 0:00:05.840 History Versus is a production of I Heart Radio and 0:00:06.160 --> 0:00:10.840 Mental Flaws. In nineteen fourteen, when Theodore Roosevelt trekked into 0:00:10.880 --> 0:00:14.280 the Brazilian jungle to explore a previously uncharted tributary of 0:00:14.320 --> 0:00:17.120 the Amazon River, it must have seemed like just another 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:20.400 adventure on a very long list of adventures, one that 0:00:20.440 --> 0:00:22.400 would briefly get him out of the public eye after 0:00:22.440 --> 0:00:26.520 his disappointing loss in the nine twelve election. The loss stung, 0:00:26.760 --> 0:00:29.440 and his reputation had taken a hit, but none of 0:00:29.440 --> 0:00:32.960 that would matter in the jungle. Of course, Roosevelt knew 0:00:32.960 --> 0:00:35.680 this adventure wouldn't be easy. If it were, it wouldn't 0:00:35.680 --> 0:00:38.760 be appealing, and he knew it would be dangerous, which 0:00:38.800 --> 0:00:41.080 only made it more enticing for the fifty year old 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:44.440 former president. If it is necessary for me to leave 0:00:44.479 --> 0:00:47.440 my remains in South America, he wrote to a friend, 0:00:47.800 --> 0:00:51.080 I am quite ready to do so. And now, a 0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:53.000 month and a half into his trek down the River 0:00:53.040 --> 0:00:55.639 of Doubt, it looked like he might do just that. 0:00:57.160 --> 0:01:01.160 From the outset, the journey had been besieged by calamity, Malaria, 0:01:01.280 --> 0:01:03.640 and dysentery had cut through many of the men on 0:01:03.680 --> 0:01:06.880 the expedition, not to mention the dwindling food supply and 0:01:06.920 --> 0:01:09.560 the lingering threat of South American tribes who didn't take 0:01:09.680 --> 0:01:14.160 kindly to arms strangers showing up uninvited. Roosevelt had lost 0:01:14.200 --> 0:01:17.119 fifty pounds. A few days ago he bashed his leg 0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:20.520 open on a rock and it became infected. Now, as 0:01:20.560 --> 0:01:23.800 thunderstorms raged, he was in the throes of a severe 0:01:23.880 --> 0:01:28.399 malaria fit. Convulsively shivering with one four degree fever. He 0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:33.560 recited the same poem over and over and over in 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:38.920 sandy Dude did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree 0:01:39.720 --> 0:01:46.000 where al the Sacred river ran through caverns measureless two men. 0:01:47.800 --> 0:01:50.320 Though no one expected him to live the night, he did. 0:01:51.040 --> 0:01:53.840 By morning, he had regained his senses and he had 0:01:53.840 --> 0:01:57.600 reached a decision. He gathered the team, his son Kermit, 0:01:57.760 --> 0:02:02.080 Co Captain Candido Rondon, and now turalist George Cherry among them, 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:06.240 and told them the expedition cannot stop. On the other hand, 0:02:06.280 --> 0:02:10.519 I cannot proceed. You go on and leave me. But 0:02:10.639 --> 0:02:14.880 tears journey wasn't over. Ultimately, the Amazon wouldn't claim Roosevelt. 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:18.200 In fact, after countless brushes with death. Over the five 0:02:18.320 --> 0:02:21.520 previous decades, it was starting to look like nothing could 0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:26.520 from mental flaws. And I heart radio. This is History Versus, 0:02:26.600 --> 0:02:29.480 a podcast about how your favorite historical figures faced off 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:32.800 against their greatest foes. I'm your host, Aaron McCarthy, and 0:02:32.800 --> 0:02:35.960 in this round, we're pitting Theodore Roosevelt against the greatest 0:02:36.000 --> 0:02:39.840 opponent of all death. It's a foe that Roosevelt fought 0:02:39.880 --> 0:02:43.520 his entire life in family tragedies, on the battlefield and 0:02:43.520 --> 0:02:46.080 on the hunting ground, and during run ins with assassins. 0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:50.000 But for tr death wasn't something to fear. It was 0:02:50.160 --> 0:02:53.920 just the opposite. The worst of all fears, he wrote 0:02:53.960 --> 0:02:57.760 in his autobiography, is the fear of living. So how 0:02:57.760 --> 0:02:59.880 did he take on the grim reaper time and time again? 0:03:00.360 --> 0:03:04.680 We're about to find out. To understand Roosevelt's life, you 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:08.240 have to understand how death colored his formative years. His 0:03:08.280 --> 0:03:12.480 first real encounter with death came on February nine, when 0:03:12.480 --> 0:03:15.480 his father, Theodore Roosevelt Sr. Passed away while tr was 0:03:15.520 --> 0:03:18.240 still a student at Harvard. It was a loss he 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:22.600 wrote about, often, detailing his devastation in his journals. He 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:25.440 threw himself into his school work, to cope. For the 0:03:25.440 --> 0:03:27.840 rest of the semester, he was grinding like a trojan, 0:03:27.880 --> 0:03:31.520 according to historian Edmund Morris, scoring high marks on exams, 0:03:31.560 --> 0:03:37.040 teaching Sunday school, and obsessively exercising. During this tornado of productivity, 0:03:37.040 --> 0:03:40.920 he continued to grieve privately in his diaries. Theodore doesn't 0:03:40.920 --> 0:03:43.440 know what he's thinking, what he's doing. He's kind of 0:03:43.440 --> 0:03:48.280 in a in his own Um you know, it seems 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:50.520 my impression of what I've read is that he kind 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:54.440 of just turns off to the world. Um, maybe internally 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:57.480 he's struggling. I don't know. I mean, I'm I'm thinking 0:03:57.520 --> 0:03:59.440 of the way that I would react if I lost 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:02.240 a very important person in my life. Um, you know, 0:04:02.400 --> 0:04:04.640 the type of person that you later call the best 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:06.320 man I ever knew and the only man I was 0:04:06.320 --> 0:04:09.600 ever afraid of. That's Alyssa Parker, guysman, lead ranger at 0:04:09.640 --> 0:04:13.240 Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site in New York City. 0:04:13.320 --> 0:04:16.880 So heavily impacted him, and I think, um, you know, 0:04:17.080 --> 0:04:20.240 it just follows with him. When he's president and he's 0:04:20.240 --> 0:04:23.159 facing a difficult decision, he usually asks himself, what would 0:04:23.240 --> 0:04:26.160 my father do in this case? Um? So it's ever 0:04:26.320 --> 0:04:30.280 kind of present um of the impact of losing his father. 0:04:31.279 --> 0:04:34.400 Roosevelt would go on to experience many tragedies in his life, 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:37.919 but the torrent of grief, the outpouring of emotion he 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:41.039 wrote in his diary after his father's death, never really 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:45.000 happened again. Six years later, when Roosevelt was a young 0:04:45.040 --> 0:04:48.360 assemblyman in New York, he lost his first wife, Alice, 0:04:48.440 --> 0:04:51.280 and his mother Mitty, on the same day. He was 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:54.720 back to work in Albany just four days later, where 0:04:54.839 --> 0:04:58.400 Marris writes his activities were so prodigious that one gropes 0:04:58.520 --> 0:05:01.680 for an inhuman simile, like a factory ship in the 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:05.400 whaling season. He combined the principles of maximum production and 0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:10.000 perpetual motion. Roosevelt strategy for beating his depression was to 0:05:10.160 --> 0:05:14.000 outwork it. Whenever he encountered tragedy, he followed the same pattern. 0:05:14.600 --> 0:05:17.640 Work to the point of exhaustion, exert yourself until you 0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:22.120 can no longer feel repeat as necessary. As he once wrote, 0:05:22.480 --> 0:05:26.680 black care rarely sits behind a rider whose space is 0:05:26.800 --> 0:05:30.520 fast enough. In this quest to avoid and dull his grief, 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:35.080 tr didn't just face death, he seemingly invited it. In 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:39.160 wilderness warrior. Historian Douglas Brinkley discusses Dr. K. Redfield Jamison's 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:42.560 book Exuberance, which features t R as a prime example 0:05:42.640 --> 0:05:46.640 of the emotion. Brinkley writes that his set of symptoms, 0:05:46.680 --> 0:05:50.240 propulsive behavior, deep grief, chronic insomnia, and an all around 0:05:50.279 --> 0:05:54.760 hyperactive disposition, demonstrate both the manic and the depressive phases 0:05:54.760 --> 0:05:58.880 of bipolar disorder. While some manic depressive patients, which is 0:05:59.000 --> 0:06:03.760 Jamieson's preferred term, withdrawal from life, Brinkley writes that those 0:06:03.800 --> 0:06:07.680 afflicted with exuberance go in the opposite direction, behaving as 0:06:07.720 --> 0:06:11.400 relentless human blow torches, unable to turn down their own flame. 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:15.720 Only by exhausting oneself in physical activity could an exuberant 0:06:15.760 --> 0:06:19.520 maniac like Roosevelt turn himself off. This kind of energy 0:06:19.560 --> 0:06:23.279 allowed Roosevelt to achieve incredible things, but as Jamison notes, 0:06:23.680 --> 0:06:27.640 exuberance has its downsides. Working so hard and sleeping so 0:06:27.720 --> 0:06:31.080 little was detrimental to his health. But if doctors had 0:06:31.080 --> 0:06:32.960 tried to get him to take better care of himself 0:06:33.040 --> 0:06:35.880 or slow down a little, he probably would have responded 0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:37.719 as he did when a Harvard doctor told him that 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:40.000 his bad heart meant he needed to live a sedentary 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:45.320 life by disregarding their advice entirely. Tr also faced death 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:48.080 as a big game hunter. In pursuit of a target, 0:06:48.120 --> 0:06:52.320 he could be relentless. Take for example, his first bison hunt. 0:06:53.080 --> 0:06:56.080 Roosevelt insisted on pursuing his goal even when the weather 0:06:56.120 --> 0:06:59.800 conditions became horrendous, even when his guy, Joe Ferris, wanted 0:06:59.800 --> 0:07:03.200 to of up. As a friend recalled, he nearly killed 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:07.880 poor Joe. He would not stop for anything. Roosevelt pushed 0:07:07.920 --> 0:07:11.360 himself hard and sometimes took risks to bag a quarry, 0:07:11.400 --> 0:07:14.000 whether it was a bison, a lion, or a hippopotamus. 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:16.760 His closest called during a hunt came during a trip 0:07:16.800 --> 0:07:21.720 out west tr Then a civil service commissioner, had just 0:07:21.840 --> 0:07:24.240 come out on the losing end of a political clash 0:07:24.360 --> 0:07:28.200 over a postmaster in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and decided a hunting 0:07:28.240 --> 0:07:30.640 trip was just the thing he needed to clear his head. 0:07:31.200 --> 0:07:34.320 On this particular trip, he was, he said, especially hot 0:07:34.360 --> 0:07:38.520 for bear. He found one in Montana at twilight. The 0:07:38.560 --> 0:07:43.040 grizzly was in the valley sixty yards away. Tiar fired around, 0:07:43.120 --> 0:07:46.600 but the bear did not fall. Instead, the wounded animal 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:50.440 uttered a loud, moaning grunt. In Roosevelt's words, and took off. 0:07:51.360 --> 0:07:54.200 He followed the wounded animal, which Roosevelt would later say 0:07:54.200 --> 0:07:57.680 was making a peculiar savage kind of wine, And in 0:07:57.760 --> 0:08:00.360 the confusion of the trees and thicket that who were 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:04.360 suddenly upon each other, he turned his head stiffly towards me. 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:08.120 Scarlet strings of froth hung from his lips, his eyes 0:08:08.160 --> 0:08:11.760 burned like embers in the gloom, Roosevelt wrote. He fired 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:15.239 another round, again, hitting the bear, and again it wouldn't 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:19.000 go down Instantly. The great bear turned with a harsh 0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:22.640 roar of fury and challenge, blowing the bloody foam from 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:24.960 his mouth so that I saw the gleam of his 0:08:25.000 --> 0:08:28.800 white fangs. And then he charged straight at me, crashing 0:08:28.840 --> 0:08:31.320 and bounding through the laurel bushes so that it was 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:35.360 hard to aim. The animal charged at Roosevelt, and as 0:08:35.360 --> 0:08:38.360 he would later recall, he fired again and then once more, 0:08:38.800 --> 0:08:40.800 and leapt out of the way of the approaching animal. 0:08:41.480 --> 0:08:43.600 Through the smoke, he could see its huge paws. It 0:08:43.640 --> 0:08:47.080 took a swipe at him and finally dropped to the ground. 0:08:48.160 --> 0:08:50.080 It would be the closest he'd come to death at 0:08:50.080 --> 0:08:52.480 the hands of a big game animal, and the bear's 0:08:52.480 --> 0:08:56.520 pelt quickly became one of his favorite trophies. The danger 0:08:56.600 --> 0:08:59.760 Roosevelt threw himself into didn't just involve wild hunting trips 0:09:00.280 --> 0:09:02.680 in the Dakotas he clashed with the Marquis de Morat, 0:09:02.800 --> 0:09:05.880 a French aristocrat with eyes on establishing a cattle empire 0:09:05.920 --> 0:09:08.800 in the area. He founded the town of Medora, which 0:09:08.840 --> 0:09:13.080 was named after his wife. The marquis domineering personality made 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:15.400 him an obvious foil for someone with a presence as 0:09:15.400 --> 0:09:18.880 strong as Roosevelt's, and the two soon found themselves at odds. 0:09:20.520 --> 0:09:26.160 And somehow the Marquis decided that Theodore Roosevelt wanted to 0:09:26.280 --> 0:09:31.960 kill him, which wasn't the case. That's Eileen Andy's the 0:09:32.000 --> 0:09:35.199 chief of interpretation in public affairs at Theodore Roosevelt National 0:09:35.240 --> 0:09:41.240 Park in Madora, North Dakota. So not only had strong personalities, 0:09:41.280 --> 0:09:45.640 but they were both ristocrats that we're probably all both 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:51.600 um used to being Lt Mail. It's the big boss man. 0:09:52.360 --> 0:09:56.160 And then there's the story about Um. When Theodore Roosevelt 0:09:57.080 --> 0:10:01.560 was in Weibo. Weibo is a little town, let's see, 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:04.160 six miles on the other side of the Montana border, 0:10:04.280 --> 0:10:08.559 and it's really small, and he was there in a 0:10:08.600 --> 0:10:14.680 saloon and some guy challenged him to a fight, because 0:10:15.000 --> 0:10:19.480 you know, men who were glasses were weak. The man 0:10:19.600 --> 0:10:23.400 called him four eyes, which he would quickly come to regret. Roosevelt, 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:25.480 in his own words, stood up and struck quick and 0:10:25.600 --> 0:10:27.559 hard with my right just to one side of the 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:35.720 point of his jaw. Roosevelt could him. Yeah, And I 0:10:35.760 --> 0:10:38.800 think tr was the kind of person who never would 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:43.920 back down. He um in his life there were very 0:10:43.960 --> 0:10:47.840 few things that he ever regretted, and he didn't believe 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:52.160 in backing down. Take for example, and encounter Roosevelt had 0:10:52.200 --> 0:10:54.720 with a man named E. G. Paddock, who was working 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:57.199 closely with the Marquis de Moray on his cattle business. 0:10:57.920 --> 0:11:00.079 Paddock had spread word around the area that elk And 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:03.480 Ranch was his property, not Roosevelt's, and that if tr 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:05.319 wished to have it, he'd have to pay for it 0:11:05.400 --> 0:11:09.000 in dollars or in blood. Once Roosevelt got wind of 0:11:09.040 --> 0:11:11.760 the threat, he immediately sought out Paddick at his home. 0:11:12.440 --> 0:11:15.160 Here's Clay Jenkinson, founder of the Theodore Roosevelt Center at 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:19.160 Dickinson State University in North Dakota, gets on his horse 0:11:19.760 --> 0:11:22.320 and goes thirty five miles into Medora, unknocks at the 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:24.200 guy's door and says, hey, I hear you want to 0:11:24.200 --> 0:11:26.240 shoot me. When do you want to start? And the 0:11:26.240 --> 0:11:29.120 guy he starts to hubbahblahbe and I didn't mean it. 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:31.960 I've been miss boat. And then maybe they worked it out. 0:11:32.360 --> 0:11:36.480 But Roosevelt always confronted the problem. He never docked or 0:11:36.559 --> 0:11:39.480 tried to elude it. He always went straight for it 0:11:39.559 --> 0:11:42.839 and said here I am, it's been here. I think 0:11:42.880 --> 0:11:47.040 that's one of his greatest qualities. Perhaps the most legendary 0:11:47.080 --> 0:11:49.360 story of TRS days in the Dakota's occurred when his 0:11:49.400 --> 0:11:53.679 boat was stolen from Elkhorn Ranch in March. From the start, 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:55.720 Roosevelt knew the crime was likely the work of a 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:59.320 man named Mike Finnegan and his gang, who Roosevelt would write, 0:11:59.559 --> 0:12:02.720 had previously been implicated in cattle killing and horse stealing 0:12:02.720 --> 0:12:06.160 in the area. Instead of learning the authorities or just 0:12:06.440 --> 0:12:10.040 letting the three armed and potentially dangerous men go, he 0:12:10.200 --> 0:12:12.520 had his ranch hands Bill Sewell and will Matt Dao 0:12:12.720 --> 0:12:15.680 build a new boat so they could go after the thieves. 0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:19.040 Tire grabbed a camera and a couple of books, including 0:12:19.080 --> 0:12:22.080 Anna Karrennina, and the trio headed down the icy Little 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:26.560 Missouri River as temperatures dropped to zero degrees. Despite the 0:12:26.559 --> 0:12:28.800 fact that the thieves had a head start of several days, 0:12:29.240 --> 0:12:32.720 Roosevelt had an advantage. The thieves had stolen what Tier 0:12:32.800 --> 0:12:35.400 said was the only craft there was on the river 0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:39.400 and would never suspected chase was even possible. On the 0:12:39.480 --> 0:12:42.120 third day of the pursuit, Roosevelt spotted the stolen boat 0:12:42.120 --> 0:12:46.280 and ambushed one of the thieves, who surrendered immediately. Soon after, 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:48.679 the other two returned, and Roosevelt and his party aimed 0:12:48.679 --> 0:12:51.360 their rifles at them and ordered their surrender, which they 0:12:51.360 --> 0:12:54.400 did without a drop of blood being shed. It was 0:12:54.480 --> 0:12:56.400 then up to Tier to hike the thieves back to 0:12:56.440 --> 0:13:00.520 face justice in Dickinson. Today, by car, the trip from 0:13:00.520 --> 0:13:03.040 Elkhorn Ranch to Dickinson is more than eighty miles and 0:13:03.080 --> 0:13:06.679 would take around two hours. Roosevelt and company were north 0:13:06.800 --> 0:13:09.160 of the Elkhorn and it wasn't just distance that made 0:13:09.160 --> 0:13:14.760 the trip challenging. Here's Andy's. It was hiking through bad 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:19.440 lands and then over the prairie, So it was it 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:22.640 was not only distance, it was really rugged country, and 0:13:23.679 --> 0:13:27.520 the boat thieves no doubt, we're not happy about the situation. Like, 0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:29.520 obviously he needed the boat to get across the river 0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:33.200 to check on his cattle. But if it's easy enough 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:37.440 for your farm hands to build you another boat, why 0:13:37.520 --> 0:13:41.359 go after your first boat? I think, what what is it? 0:13:41.400 --> 0:13:45.479 Is it just the principle of the thing? I think so. Yeah, 0:13:45.840 --> 0:13:49.000 Theodore Roosevelt, I think had a very acute sense of 0:13:49.120 --> 0:13:53.480 right and wrong, and he felt that he had been 0:13:53.480 --> 0:13:56.360 wrong and the boat didn't belong to them, It belonged 0:13:56.400 --> 0:13:59.560 to him, and he wanted it back. Roosevelt wanted things 0:13:59.559 --> 0:14:04.079 to be on the right way, in the honorable way, 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:10.560 and that's part that's part of his character. I'm I'm 0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:13.440 sure that people thought he was kind of a pain, 0:14:16.640 --> 0:14:22.360 but that's part of his charm. I'm not sure that 0:14:22.720 --> 0:14:28.040 Roosevelt I thought about going after both thieves as being dangerous. 0:14:28.920 --> 0:14:32.240 It was just something he did because he felt he 0:14:32.320 --> 0:14:39.040 should and he had to. Um he was impulsive. We 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:42.840 know that a sense of bravado also seemed to be 0:14:42.880 --> 0:14:44.720 a play when it came to tr and the Spanish 0:14:44.760 --> 0:14:48.240 American War. He had been loudly and publicly beating the 0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:51.640 war drum. As the assistant Secretary of the Navy. He 0:14:51.720 --> 0:14:54.080 believed that it was the country's duty to intervene in 0:14:54.120 --> 0:14:57.000 the war for Cuban independence, which sometimes made him act 0:14:57.000 --> 0:15:00.400 against the wishes of his superiors. Once the u became 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:03.760 part of the war in Roosevelt resigned from his post, 0:15:03.920 --> 0:15:07.280 forming the first U. S Volunteer Cavalry, the Rough Riders, 0:15:07.680 --> 0:15:10.240 and heading to Cuba to get in on the action himself. 0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:16.840 We'll be right back. Tier's fearlessness in the face of 0:15:16.880 --> 0:15:20.920 physical danger would become the stuff of legend in June, 0:15:21.160 --> 0:15:23.360 when Roosevelt and the Rough Riders took part in the 0:15:23.400 --> 0:15:27.040 Battle of Las Guasimas. There, in the sweltering jungle, a 0:15:27.080 --> 0:15:30.920 newly discovered Spanish stronghold blocked a military advancement. It was 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:33.560 here that Roosevelt faced live fire for the first time. 0:15:34.160 --> 0:15:36.640 Hailes of bullets peppered his position, and the Rough Riders 0:15:36.640 --> 0:15:40.360 suffered their first casualties of the campaign. Roosevelt himself was 0:15:40.360 --> 0:15:42.280 said to be so excited by the action that he 0:15:42.360 --> 0:15:46.080 made no effort to take cover. Instead, he frantically moved 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:49.280 about as he awaited orders. Once a bullet missed him 0:15:49.320 --> 0:15:52.280 by mirror inches, piercing a tree right next to him 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:55.840 and sprang his face full of bark. Days later came 0:15:55.840 --> 0:15:58.200 the famous Charge of Kettle Hill during what's now known 0:15:58.240 --> 0:16:01.160 as the Battle of San Juan Heights. The rough Riders 0:16:01.160 --> 0:16:03.280 were tasked with helping to capture Kettle Hill as part 0:16:03.320 --> 0:16:05.880 of a larger campaign by the US to take Santiago 0:16:05.920 --> 0:16:09.160 to Cuba. On this day, time was not a luxury. 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:12.720 The Americans were firing artillery by six thirty in the morning. 0:16:13.520 --> 0:16:16.400 Soon after, the Spanish responded with explosions that rocked the 0:16:16.440 --> 0:16:20.040 rough rider camp, leaving four dead and Roosevelt himself with 0:16:20.040 --> 0:16:23.320 a shrapnel wound on his wrist. Orders to charge the 0:16:23.400 --> 0:16:26.400 hill were slow to come from General Sumner, and Roosevelt, 0:16:26.520 --> 0:16:28.840 growing impatient to see action, was on the verge of 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:31.240 unilaterally sending his men up the hill on his own. 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:33.920 Just before he was given official word to make his move, 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:39.800 I sprang on my horse, and then my crowded hour began. 0:16:40.800 --> 0:16:43.880 Roosevelt gleefully powered throw on horseback, with his men running 0:16:43.880 --> 0:16:47.880 behind him, bullets flying at them from all sides. Tr 0:16:47.960 --> 0:16:50.640 himself would take down a Spanish soldier using a pistol. 0:16:51.240 --> 0:16:54.040 He doubled up neatly as a jack rabbit, Roosevelt would 0:16:54.040 --> 0:16:57.760 proudly proclaim the Rough Riders suffered the most casualties of 0:16:57.800 --> 0:17:01.200 any regiment in the Cavalry Division on that day. Roosevelt 0:17:01.240 --> 0:17:05.200 himself dodged death on numerous occasions. Bullets always seemed to 0:17:05.240 --> 0:17:08.720 be just missing him, sometimes whizzing by in the scenery, 0:17:08.960 --> 0:17:12.639 sometimes hitting fellow rough Riders just feet away. During one 0:17:12.680 --> 0:17:16.080 early morning bombardment by the Spanish, Roosevelt found cover under 0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:19.760 a tree as a shell exploded overhead. Five men directly 0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:24.120 behind him were killed or wounded. Roosevelt came away unscathed. 0:17:24.920 --> 0:17:28.199 I really firmly believe now they can't kill him. Family 0:17:28.200 --> 0:17:30.720 friend and fellow soldier Bob Ferguson wrote in a letter 0:17:30.760 --> 0:17:33.960 to Tear's wife, Edith, but tr himself saw it all 0:17:34.000 --> 0:17:37.640 through a boy's eyes. The charge itself was great fun, 0:17:38.040 --> 0:17:42.240 he said, Oh, but we had a bully fight. The 0:17:42.320 --> 0:17:45.000 Rough Riders helped secure a victory for the US that day, 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:47.400 and the image of Roosevelt charging up the hill on horseback, 0:17:47.520 --> 0:17:50.640 sneering at death would become a part of American folklore 0:17:50.680 --> 0:17:52.600 and helped turn him into one of the most popular 0:17:52.640 --> 0:17:54.720 men in the country. Upon his return to the States 0:17:54.960 --> 0:18:00.960 in August. This is what propels his career. He becomes famous, 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:04.679 nationally famous, becomes a household name after the rough Rider's. 0:18:05.240 --> 0:18:07.520 You know when the Battle of sam Wan Heights and 0:18:08.200 --> 0:18:11.840 you become so popular that the New York political machine 0:18:11.880 --> 0:18:14.760 or Republican Party wants to run for governor, they running 0:18:14.760 --> 0:18:19.119 for government, he's successful. That's Tyler Caliberta, education technician at 0:18:19.119 --> 0:18:23.080 Sagamore Hill National Historic Site, who explains that Republican machine 0:18:23.119 --> 0:18:26.600 boss Thomas Platt, who had clashed with Roosevelt before and 0:18:26.720 --> 0:18:28.840 probably should have known that he would not fall in 0:18:28.880 --> 0:18:31.840 line as governor, was fed up with Tiers reform policies, 0:18:32.520 --> 0:18:35.159 so they kicked him upstairs, according to Caliberta, to be 0:18:35.280 --> 0:18:39.440 McKinley's running mate. Not everyone was pleased with that development. 0:18:40.119 --> 0:18:42.960 When Tier was chosen as McKinley's running mate, Mark Hanna, 0:18:43.040 --> 0:18:46.520 McKinley's right hand man, said, don't any of you realize 0:18:46.560 --> 0:18:49.520 that there is only one life between that manman and 0:18:49.560 --> 0:18:53.240 the presidency. Roosevelt was hiking at the New York Vermont 0:18:53.240 --> 0:18:56.760 border when McKinley was hit by an assassin's bullet. At first, 0:18:56.800 --> 0:18:58.760 he went to Buffalo to be by the president's side, 0:18:58.760 --> 0:19:01.400 but when it looked like McKinley would recover. Tier went 0:19:01.440 --> 0:19:04.199 back to the mountains. He was on Mount Marcy, the 0:19:04.280 --> 0:19:07.119 highest point in New York State, when word reached him 0:19:07.160 --> 0:19:09.679 that McKinley had taken a turn for the worse and 0:19:09.840 --> 0:19:14.600 was dying. Roosevelt took off, flying down the mountain. Here's 0:19:14.600 --> 0:19:20.000 Clay Jenkinson. Roso made this heroic journey and reckless. Um 0:19:20.200 --> 0:19:24.440 could have himself been killed, urging the stage rider faster, faster, 0:19:24.560 --> 0:19:27.479 don't hold back. And they were going on these really 0:19:27.760 --> 0:19:31.760 dangerous paths and in the darkness, and she wanted to 0:19:31.760 --> 0:19:34.000 get to a train that was waiting for him. And 0:19:34.080 --> 0:19:35.880 so he gets to the train and goes to Buffalo, 0:19:35.960 --> 0:19:39.720 and then when he arrives, he already knows that the 0:19:39.760 --> 0:19:43.040 president is dead. And now he's in this really strange 0:19:43.080 --> 0:19:47.480 position because he's wanted to be president, He's intended to 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:49.840 be president, but he certainly didn't think it would come 0:19:49.880 --> 0:19:54.040 this soon. You have to tread very very carefully in 0:19:54.080 --> 0:19:58.280 the wake of an assassination. You can't be gleeful, but 0:19:58.440 --> 0:20:01.320 you have to assume control. You have to make sure 0:20:01.400 --> 0:20:06.040 that the people who were McKinley's aids and insiders will 0:20:06.080 --> 0:20:09.119 accept you and not flee. And yet you have to 0:20:09.240 --> 0:20:14.800 establish your own administrative mastery and control of the levers 0:20:14.840 --> 0:20:19.280 of power pretty quickly, and he did it beautifully. Still, 0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:24.320 Theodore Roosevelt was Theodore Roosevelt tr who came into office 0:20:24.320 --> 0:20:27.119 thanks to an assassin's bullet. Was the first president to 0:20:27.160 --> 0:20:30.160 have formal protection by the Secret Service, but he wouldn't 0:20:30.160 --> 0:20:33.719 make it easy on them. According to historian Kathleen Dalton, 0:20:34.160 --> 0:20:37.720 he resisted Secret Service protection at first, preferring to carry 0:20:37.760 --> 0:20:41.879 his own gun. Tier did eventually accept their protection, but 0:20:42.000 --> 0:20:46.320 as Dalton rights, only begrudgingly. And when Roosevelt wished to 0:20:46.320 --> 0:20:49.240 observe the capabilities of one of the Navy's earliest submarines, 0:20:49.440 --> 0:20:52.520 the USS Plunger, he didn't do so from the safety 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:55.879 of the Presidential yacht. Instead, he joined the crew of 0:20:55.920 --> 0:20:59.840 the vessel as a dove underwater for hours. This despite 0:20:59.840 --> 0:21:02.719 the fact that submarine technology was still in its infancy. 0:21:03.640 --> 0:21:06.040 Never in my life have I had such a dive 0:21:06.119 --> 0:21:09.160 hurting day, nor can I ever recall having so much 0:21:09.240 --> 0:21:13.760 enjoyment in so few hours as today, he said. Danger 0:21:13.760 --> 0:21:16.120 seemed to find Roosevelt even when he wasn't looking for it. 0:21:16.680 --> 0:21:20.320 On September three, the President was heading to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 0:21:20.320 --> 0:21:24.000 and a horse drawn carriage with him were Winthrop Crane, 0:21:24.400 --> 0:21:28.000 Governor of Massachusetts, future Secretary of the Treasury George Bruce 0:21:28.040 --> 0:21:32.000 could tell you. And Secret Service agent William Craig. As 0:21:32.000 --> 0:21:34.320 the carriage crossed some trolley tracks on the way into town, 0:21:34.400 --> 0:21:37.760 it was hit by an electric trolley. The carriage flew 0:21:37.800 --> 0:21:41.480 forty feet. Roosevelt was thrown, landing on his face and 0:21:41.480 --> 0:21:45.080 bruising his leg. Crane and Cortel You were okay, but 0:21:45.600 --> 0:21:49.240 Craig had been run over by the trolley. He was dead, 0:21:49.880 --> 0:21:53.399 the first Secret Service agent to die on presidential duty. 0:21:54.720 --> 0:21:59.000 Roosevelt had barely escaped. John Hey, Roosevelt, Secretary of State, 0:21:59.119 --> 0:22:02.359 later said that had the trolley car struck the rear hub, 0:22:02.840 --> 0:22:05.159 Crane and the President would have been tossed to the 0:22:05.240 --> 0:22:07.800 left and under the wheels, just as poor Craig was. 0:22:09.080 --> 0:22:12.159 How close a call was it, according to Morris, a 0:22:12.240 --> 0:22:16.639 mere two inches in true tr form. He soldiered on 0:22:16.760 --> 0:22:19.720 campaigning in the Midwest, at least until the trip was 0:22:19.760 --> 0:22:21.840 cut short when the bruise on his shin developed into 0:22:21.880 --> 0:22:27.320 an abscess that required emergency surgery. One of Caliberta's favorite 0:22:27.320 --> 0:22:30.480 tr stories is an anecdote of Edith's casual reaction to 0:22:30.520 --> 0:22:33.080 seeing her bloodied husband come inside one day at Sagamore 0:22:33.160 --> 0:22:35.840 Hill after colliding with the blades of the windmill that 0:22:35.960 --> 0:22:41.719 still stands on the property. Apparently, Edith tells him very calmly, thedore, 0:22:41.760 --> 0:22:44.920 I wish you'd do your bleeding in the bathroom, which 0:22:45.080 --> 0:22:46.520 for me gives me a sense that she was used 0:22:46.560 --> 0:22:49.240 to this, that this was something she was She experienced 0:22:49.280 --> 0:22:52.960 him hurting himself, and she knew that he would be 0:22:53.000 --> 0:22:55.400 fine and everything would be okay, and she's worried about 0:22:55.440 --> 0:23:00.159 and just don't bleed. Don't bleed here. Just because she 0:23:00.200 --> 0:23:03.159 was accustomed to it doesn't mean she didn't worry. And 0:23:03.240 --> 0:23:06.040 even after he was out of office, Edith still couldn't 0:23:06.040 --> 0:23:09.280 shake the fear that McKinley's fate would also befall her husband, 0:23:09.840 --> 0:23:13.880 and it almost did on October four during a campaign 0:23:13.920 --> 0:23:16.919 stop in Milwaukee, when tire was running for president for 0:23:16.920 --> 0:23:19.800 a potential third term, not as a Republican but as 0:23:19.800 --> 0:23:23.000 the candidate for the Progressive Party. It's one of the 0:23:23.000 --> 0:23:26.720 most famous pieces of the Roosevelt mythology. He was shot 0:23:26.720 --> 0:23:30.520 by John Flaming shrank, deranged would be assassin who claimed 0:23:30.520 --> 0:23:32.720 the ghost of McKinley was guiding him to gun down 0:23:32.800 --> 0:23:35.120 Roosevelt right before he was set to deliver a speech, 0:23:36.240 --> 0:23:38.760 With a bullet lodged in his chest and death closer 0:23:38.800 --> 0:23:41.720 to his front door than ever. Tire handled the situation 0:23:41.760 --> 0:23:45.760 in trademark Bull Moose fashion, powering through a roughly ninety 0:23:45.800 --> 0:23:49.680 minute speech as blood continued to escape the wound. Only 0:23:49.720 --> 0:23:51.960