MEDAL
OF HONOR AWARDED TO
THEODORE
ROOSEVELT
Posthumous Honor Presented at White House
on January 16, 2001
The quest
to secure the Medal of Honor for Theodore Roosevelt ended after
103 years when President William J. Clinton presented the nation's
highest military award to Theodore Roosevelt posthumously. Tweed
Roosevelt received the Medal on behalf of the Roosevelt family,
in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Tuesday, January 16,
2001.
TR was awarded
the Medal of Honor for his bravery on July 1, 1898, during the
Spanish-American War, in the battle to capture San Juan Heights,
near Santiago, Cuba, when he led the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry
(Rough Riders) and other troops in two dramatic charges against
entrenched Spanish positions. Tweed Roosevelt, a great grandson
of TR, was chosen to receive the Medal for the family because
of his leadership in the efforts to bring about the award.
Back in 1898
Roosevelt, first Lieutenant Colonel, then Colonel of the Rough
Riders, as the colorful regiment of cowboys, Indians, and Ivy
League athletes was known, was recommended for the Congressional
Medal of Honor by the chain of command in Cuba, Brigadier General
Leonard Wood, who had won the Medal of Honor fighting the Apaches,
Major General Samuel S. Sumner, an eyewitness to the San Juan
Heights battle, Major General "Fighting Joe" Wheeler, and Major
General William R. Shafter, the commanding general in Cuba who
had himself won the Medal of Honor in the Civil War.
It was, to
say the least, highly unusual for an award recommended by the
entire chain of command to be rejected; and this was an award
for action in combat that had been witnessed by many and widely
reported in the press. But the recommendation was indeed rejected
by the War Department. Why? The probable reason is that TR had
sent a telegram and a letter to Secretary of War Russell A. Alger
strongly urging that American troops, ravaged by tropical diseases,
be immediately returned to the United States now that the fighting
was over. (TR himself contracted malaria, which remained with
him the rest of his life). General Shafter leaked these messages
to the press, thereby embarrassing and infuriating Secretary of
War Alger as well as President William McKinley.
Alger was
subsequently forced to resign from the cabinet after an investigating
commission exposed his incompetence at the War Department. TR,
of course, became President in 1901, and that ended the matter
of his Medal of Honor, or so it seemed. Then, in the "Fiscal Year
1996 National Defense Authorization Act," passed by Congress on
February 10, 1996, Congress repealed the statute of limitations
on military decorations. The legislation was passed primarily
because of the failure of the United States to award the Medal
of Honor to worthy African Americans during World War II and the
Korean War, but the 1996 Congressional measure potentially opened
the door for the consideration of any case from the past involving
military decorations.
It was then
that Congressman Paul McHale, Democrat from the 15th District
in Pennsylvania, a former officer in the Marines, took up the
cause of TR's Medal of Honor and began what might well be called
the "second battle of San Juan Heights"! Congressman McHale, who
retired from Congress in 1999, was present, along with other Congressional
champions of TR's cause, at the presentation of the Medal of Honor
in the White House on January 16, 2001.
The
Fight to Win the Medal of Honor for the Colonel
Congressman
Paul McHale introduced a bill to give the Medal of Honor to TR
in 1996, and then introduced a second bill on July 25, 1997, HR
2263, entitled "A bill to authorize and request the President
to award the Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously to Theodore
Roosevelt for his gallant and heroic actions in the attack on
San Juan Heights, Cuba, during the Spanish-American War." HR 2263
had over 160 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives, forming
an impressive and bipartisan coalition. Congressman Rick Lazio,
Republican from Brightwaters, Long Island, New York, filed the
formal application and supporting evidence with the U.S. Army
for the posthumous award. Congressman Steve Buyer, Republican
from Indiana, Chairman of the House Military Personnel Subcommittee,
greatly helped to rally support for the bill in the House of Representatives.
The bill to
grant TR the Medal of Honor was endorsed by the Board of Trustees
of the Theodore Roosevelt Association, and subsequently was backed
by the Navy League of the United States, of which TR was a founder,
and the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute as well as by
a broad spectrum of Americans, ranging from members of the Veterans
of Foreign Wars, an organization which TR joined in 1917, to the
students in Richard Siegelman's third-grade class at the Vernon
School in East Norwich, Long Island, near TR's Sagamore Hill home,
who sent out countless letters and messages in support of the
Rough Rider's cause.
Hearings were
held on September 28, 1998 by the House Military Personnel Subcommittee;
and testimony was given by Dr. John A. Gable, Executive Director
of the Theodore Roosevelt Association (TRA); Tweed Roosevelt,
a great grandson of TR who is a member of the TRA Executive Committee;
Nathan Miller, a biographer of TR; Congressman Paul McHale, a
member of the House subcommittee; and Congressman Rick Lazio.
Jim Wiltraut, Congressman McHale's able assistant, energetic Ken
Trepeta from Congressman Lazio's office, and knowledgeable Mike
Higgins of the Military Personnel Subcommittee's staff were of
great help in advancing TR's case in the House and elsewhere.
Opposition
to the Colonel's Cause
The opposition
to awarding the Medal of Honor to TR came particularly from elements
within the U.S. Army. The Army has opposed in general the repeal
of the statute of limitations on military decorations and the
award of what might be called historical medals. Moreover, some
in the Army thought that Roosevelt simply did not deserve the
Medal of Honor. While no public statement was made on the case,
it is widely believed that some historians in the Army think that
TR was no more outstanding than many other brave officers in the
battle of July 1, 1898 in Cuba, who did not receive the Medal
of Honor either. In any event, while Congressman McHale's bill
was making its way through the House in 1998, TR's cause received
a major setback when the Senior Army Decorations Board recommended
that the Medal of Honor again be denied to TR. TR's supporters,
of course, took issue with this ruling.
On Thursday,
October 8, 1998, the House of Representatives passed HR 2263 unanimously
by a voice vote. The bill was then introduced in the U.S. Senate
by Senator Bob Smith, Republican of New Hampshire, with strong
support from Senator Kent Conrad, Democrat from North Dakota.
(Senator Conrad's state of North Dakota regards TR as an adopted
favorite son because of his days as a rancher in the Dakota Badlands).
Time was now short, because Congress was about to adjourn for
the year. Tweed Roosevelt had helped greatly in getting the bill
through the House, and he and Senator Conrad were the leaders
for the cause in the Senate and later in dealings with the White
House. In one day alone Tweed Roosevelt personally visited 14
senators in their offices. The bill passed the U.S. Senate unanimously
by voice vote without dissent on the afternoon of Wednesday, October
21, 1998, in the closing hours of the Congressional session. There
was much celebrating by TR's supporters at that time, but as it
turned out the war was far from over.
The
Fight For the Medal Goes On
On October
22, 1998, the day after the bill cleared the Senate, Bill Bleyer
reported in Newsday: "In a compromise to placate legislators who
did not want to offend the Army, a letter signed by five Senators
and Congressmen involved in the issue will accompany the bill
to the White House." The letter requested the President to "seek
the advice of the secretary of the Army" on the matter, and to
ask the Army to "prepare a full and formal record of Theodore
Roosevelt's valor." The bill was signed by President Clinton in
the Roosevelt Room of the White House on the afternoon of Thursday,
November 12, 1998. Among those present were Tweed Roosevelt, Congressman
Peter King, the New York Republican whose district includes Sagamore
Hill, and Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota. The President then
honored the request from those in Congress who did not want to
bypass the Army, and the matter was referred back to the Army
for review.
The Army
set up a special Medal of Honor panel to review the evidence and
then make a recommendation, and supporters of TR hoped that the
issue might be resolved by the end of 1999. Much new evidence
and comment was received by the Army panel.
Lawrence H.
Budner, President of the TRA, sent in copies of two original letters
in the noted Budner Theodore Roosevelt Collection. The letters
were written in 1898 by a Rough Rider to his parents in Texas,
describing TR's heroic leadership in the Cuban campaign. Two recent
attacks on Roosevelt's war record were often cited by opponents
of the posthumous award: a book, Teddy Roosevelt at San Juan (1997)
by Harold and Peggy Samuels; and an article by Mitchell Yockelson,
" 'I Am Entitled to the Medal of Honor and I Want It,' Theodore
Roosevelt and His Quest for the Medal of Honor," Prologue, Spring
1998, Vol. 30, no. 1. Dr. Gable of the TRA, in a letter to the
Army panel, said that Yockelson and Mr. & Mrs. Samuels cited unreliable
sources in making their case while ignoring eyewitness testimony
favorable to TR. "Both publications are clearly biased against
Roosevelt, deficient in scholarship, and full of holes," wrote
Dr. Gable.
Others in
favor of TR's case noted that over 20 other American soldiers
had been awarded the Medal of Honor - then the nation's only major
combat decoration - for bravery in the heavy fighting near Santiago
on July 1, 1898, and asked if TR's record that day was any less
noteworthy. Who else led two charges that day? Who else was exposed
to enemy fire on horseback in that battle?
On March 31,
1999, a group of 14 historians and experts, joined by former Senator
Claiborne deB. Pell (whose father, Herbert C. Pell, was an ardent
Bull Mooser), sent a letter to the President, Secretary of the
Army, and Secretary of Defense urging that TR be awarded the Medal
of Honor. The letter was sent in time to meet the Army's May 31,
1999 deadline for the receipt of evidence and comment. The letter
read:
"We the
undersigned urge the President to grant Theodore Roosevelt an
award he has deserved for more than a century: the Medal of
Honor for his heroism as leader of the Rough Riders in the Spanish-American
War. Colonel Theodore Roosevelt displayed extraordinary valor
at the Battle of San Juan. The image of Roosevelt leading his
Rough Riders first up Kettle Hill and then on the famous charge
up the San Juan Heights on 1 July, 1898 is etched forever in
the American mind. Roosevelt was denied the Medal for political
reasons in 1898. Time now to right a century-old wrong."
The letter
was signed by, in addition to former Senator Pell, Stephen E.
Ambrose, Douglas Brinkley, John A. Gable, Nathan Miller, Edmund
and Sylvia Morris, William N. Tilchin, Edward J. Renehan, Jr.,
Geoffrey C. Ward, David Grubin, Colonel Herbert M. Hart, John
B. Hattendorf, Colonel Paul L. Miles, Jr., and Edward M. Strauss,
III.
The letter
was the idea of Edward J. Renehan, Jr. of North Kingston, Rhode
Island, biographer of John Burroughs and author of The Lion's
Pride: Theodore Roosevelt and His Family in Peace and War. It
was thought at the time by many that the Army would look foolish
if it turned down Roosevelt in the face of such a distinguished
group of petitioners. Earlier, on October 4, 1997, one of the
signers of the Renehan appeal, Edmund Morris, who won the Pulitzer
Prize for his biography of Theodore Roosevelt, had written to
Congressman Lazio:
"I hereby
endorse without reservation your effort to win the former Colonel
Roosevelt a posthumous Congressional Medal of Honor, in recognition
of his extraordinary bravery at the Battle of San Juan Heights
on July 1, 1898. He led a charge against almost insuperable
tactical odds (foot soldiers storming a high redoubt) and not
only succeeded in dislodging the enemy, but inspired a whole
generation of American youth with his example."
A long wait
followed the May 31, 1999 deadline for submission of material
to the Army panel. No public statement was ever made by the Army
panel about its findings or conclusions, but the panel did recommend
the Medal for TR in the end. Some say it was by a close vote.
In any case, the recommendation then slowly made its way through
the military hierarchy, including the offices of the Secretary
of the Army and Secretary of Defense.
A positive
recommendation finally reached the White House, it was reported,
in the summer of 2000. During the summer of 2000, Congressman
Rick Lazio twice attacked President Clinton for not acting immediately
and awarding the Medal of Honor to TR. At that time, Congressman
Lazio was a candidate in New York State for the Senate against
Mrs. Clinton, and most observers thought that it was unlikely,
in view of the circumstances, that the Medal would be awarded
until after the election.
Just before
Christmas, Tweed Roosevelt and Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota
decided to make a final effort to secure the Medal before the
close of the Clinton administration. To have waited to the next
administration would have been to lose ground, because although
the enabling legislation would have remained on the books, the
award of the Medal would have had to be approved by a new Secretary
of the Army and new Secretary of Defense. Tweed Roosevelt wrote
a letter to the President, which was hand-delivered to the President
by Senator Conrad at a bill-signing ceremony in the White House.
President Clinton opened the letter, read it, and said that he
would indeed award the Medal before he left office.
The
Ceremony in the Roosevelt Room at the White House
On January
16, 2001, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, TR's Medal
of Honor was given to the Roosevelt family, and at the same time
the descendants of Andrew Jackson Smith, a slave who escaped and
fought in the Union Army during the Civil War, also received the
Medal of Honor for the bravery deeds of their ancestor.
The Associated
Press (AP) reported: "A former President best known for his charge
up San Juan Hill during the Spanish-American War and a former
slave whose courage during the Civil War was ignored by the Army
got posthumous Medals of Honor from President Clinton."
Andrew Jackson
Smith, who was about 19 when he ran away from slavery and joined
the Union Army, served with the 55th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry,
an African American regiment. The 55th was a sister regiment to
the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, celebrated in the 1989
movie "Glory." Smith was honored for his bravery in the Battle
of Honey Hill, in South Carolina, on November 30, 1864. Corporal
Andy Smith caught the 55th's regimental colors when the color-sergeant
was killed, and carried them for the rest of the battle, constantly
exposed to enemy fire. Andy Smith, who lived to the age of 89,
was first nominated for the Medal of Honor in 1916, but rejected
at that time, though some 80 soldiers had been given the Medal
of Honor for saving colors during the Civil War. "Sometimes it
takes this country a while, but we nearly always get it right
in the end, President Clinton said to the Smith family at the
presentation on January 16. "I am proud that we finally got the
facts and that for you and your brave forebearer, we are finally
making things right."
Attending
the Medal presentation was Corporal Andrew Jackson Smith's daughter,
Caruth Smith Washington, 93. Her father was 60 when she was born,
and she is one of the last surviving children of any Civil War
veteran. Corporal Smith's Medal of Honor was accepted for the
Smith family by Andrew Bowman, a grandson of the Civil War hero.
Among the
members of the Roosevelt family present on January 16 was Nancy
Roosevelt Jackson, granddaughter of Theodore Roosevelt. When she
was a little girl, her grandmother, former First Lady Edith Kermit
Carow Roosevelt, told her that her grandfather had always wanted
the Medal of Honor and that not receiving it was one of the great
disappointments of his life. For whatever reasons, Edith Roosevelt
wanted it known and remembered by at least one of her descendants
that TR regretted to his dying day that he had not been awarded
the Medal of Honor.
TR was honored
on January 16, President Clinton said, to "correct a significant
historical error." Caruth Smith Washington and Nancy Roosevelt
Jackson, a daughter and a granddaughter, thus lived to see old
debts paid to their families. Looked at from this perspective,
the Spanish-American War and even the Civil War do not seem so
remote or so entirely dead and gone. "May we continue to live
up to the ideals for which both Andrew Jackson Smith and Theodore
Roosevelt risked their lives," said President Clinton at the Medal
presentation.
In presenting
TR's Medal of Honor, President Clinton declared: "TR was a larger-than-life
figure who gave our nation a larger-than-life vision of our place
in the world. Part of that vision was formed on San Juan Hill."
The presentation was made in front of the mantel in the Roosevelt
Room. Over the mantel hangs an equestrian portrait of TR as a
Rough Rider by the Polish painter Tade Styka; and on the mantel
in a special case is Theodore Roosevelt's Nobel Peace Prize Medal,
which was presented to the White House by the Theodore Roosevelt
Association in 1982. In accepting the Medal of Honor on behalf
of the Roosevelt family, Tweed Roosevelt said that the family
intends to give the Medal to the White House.
"We think
it will serve as a wonderful icon for future Presidents, when
they take foreign dignitaries or other people into the Roosevelt
Room for private luncheons, to be able to turn and point to
the mantelpiece and say, 'This is what we as a country stand
for: the Medal of Honor and the Nobel Peace Prize.' Peace and
Honor," Tweed Roosevelt said.
Among those
attending the ceremony were Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen,
General Henry Shelton, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
Congressman Steve Buyer, Congressman Peter King, former Congressman
Rick Lazio, former Congressman Paul McHale, and Dr. John A. Gable,
Executive Director of the Theodore Roosevelt Association, as well
as members of the Smith and Roosevelt families. From the Roosevelt
family there were representatives of the descendants of TR's five
children who had children: Joanna Sturm and her daughter Alice
Roosevelt Sturm; Mr. & Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, IV and their son
Theodore Roosevelt, V; Susan Roosevelt Weld; Mr. & Mrs. Kermit
Roosevelt; Mark Ames; Tweed Roosevelt and his friend Leslie Dangel;
former Ambassador Selwa Roosevelt; and Nancy Roosevelt Jackson
and her daughter Melinda Jackson. Quentin Roosevelt, the youngest
of TR's children, who was killed in World War I, had no children.
Joanna Sturm is the granddaughter of Alice Roosevelt Longworth.
Theodore Roosevelt, IV is the grandson of Theodore Roosevelt,
Jr. Susan Roosevelt Weld is a granddaughter of Theodore Roosevelt,
Jr. Mark Ames is a grandson of Ethel Roosevelt Derby. Kermit Roosevelt
is a grandson of TR's son Kermit Roosevelt. Tweed Roosevelt is
a grandson of Archibald B. Roosevelt. Selwa Roosevelt is the widow
of Archibald B. Roosevelt, Jr. Nancy Roosevelt Jackson is the
daughter of Archibald B. Roosevelt. Tweed Roosevelt, Mark Ames,
Susan Roosevelt Weld, and Theodore Roosevelt, IV are Trustees
of the TRA. Selwa Roosevelt is a former TRA Trustee, and Nancy
Roosevelt Jackson is the widow of a TRA Trustee, William E. Jackson.
The Roosevelt
Room of the White House is located near the Oval Office in the
West Wing, the office wing added when TR was President, and is
named for TR and Franklin D. Roosevelt. The room is decorated
with items related to the two Roosevelt Chief Executives, and
recently a bust of Eleanor Roosevelt has been added. Under the
Carter administration, the TRA gave set number one of the Memorial
Edition of the Works of Theodore Roosevelt for display in
the Roosevelt Room. The Nobel Peace Prize Medal was given by the
TRA to the White House during the Reagan administration.
Though TR's
Medal of Honor will eventually be given to the White House, before
that it will be taken on a national tour in response to public
demand and interest. People in Oyster Bay, NY, Tampa, Florida,
New Orleans, Portland, Oregon, and elsewhere have asked to see
the Medal. In addition, there will be a further ceremony at the
Pentagon in Washington sometime in the spring in connection with
the award of the Medal of Honor to Roosevelt. Theodore Roosevelt
is the first President of the United States to receive the Medal
of Honor, just as he was the first President and first American
to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He was, however, not the
first Roosevelt to receive the Medal of Honor. George Washington
Roosevelt (1844-1907), a distant cousin of President Theodore
Roosevelt, was awarded the Medal of Honor for bravery in the Civil
War. Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. was posthumously
awarded the Medal of Honor for his role in the Normandy invasion
during World War II on D-Day, June 6, 1944. He died of a heart
attack on July 12, 1944 on active duty. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.,
who served in both world wars, received every combat medal given
by the United States as well as several foreign decorations. The
only other father and son to receive the Medal of Honor were General
of the Army Douglas MacArthur, awarded the Medal during World
War II, and his father, General Arthur MacArthur, who won the
Medal in the Civil War.
After the
ceremony on January 16, Corporal Andy Jackson's grandson, Andrew
Bowman, who received the Medal of Honor on behalf of the Smith
family, told the press: "Only in America can the sons of a slave
and the daughters of a slave receive the same honor at the time
that a President's sons and daughters receive theirs. We stood
on that same stage and received that same Medal. It's just amazing!"
There are
many amazing things about Theodore Roosevelt's Medal of Honor.
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