Giants of History presents Theodore Roosevelt episode number five.

Welcome. Welcome to Giants of History and thank you for joining us. The most

often, often and in the loudest voice,

Theodore Roosevelt.

It was September 13, 1898. Roosevelt and his rough riders were back at Camp Wyckoff in New York,

waiting to be formally discharged from their duties as soldiers in the United States Army.

The regiment had only spent 133 days together as a formal unit, but they were bonded as

brothers after being in battle together.

Around 1 p.m. that afternoon, Roosevelt was riding in his tent when he heard the beautiful and now familiar sound of military bugles.

He then heard the rustling of men outside. At that very moment a few of his soldiers entered his tent and requested his presence nearby. Roosevelt stood and as soon as he emerged from his tent into the open air, he found his entire

regiment, some thousand men standing in formation.

All at once, each hand was raised and the soldiers saluted their colonel one last time.

Many of the soldiers had tears streaming down their faces as they made their final salute, and Roosevelt himself

fought back his own tears.

Then a soldier stepped forward out of the group, and choking up as he said it, stated that the first volunteer cavalry wished to present their commanding officer with, quote, a very slight token of admiration, love, and esteem.

End quote.

The blanket that was covering an object on a nearby table was then pulled off to reveal a bronze statue of a man riding a bucking bronco and his hand holding his hat in the air.

Roosevelt was so overcome with a motion. and his hand holding hat in the air.

Roosevelt was so overcome with the motion that all he could do was step forward,

put his hand on the statue, and look at his bend.

From there the regiment formed into one single file line, all 1,000 men, and each man came forward in

succession to shake the hand of their colonel one last time.

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