THE ROUGH RIDERS: There is a certain bond that develops among people that face death together that many will never understand. Why does one soldier fall in battle while another faces the same risks or greater risk and cheats death. Many great leaders fall in battle and some survive. TR the author had written about war extensively in “Hero’s Tales”, The War of 1812, and the Winning of the West. He had read countless books of battles through the ages in world history. He had also learned how to avoid battles that did not need to be fought. He would never ask of any person something that he himself would not do. That was one of his creeds. So he resigned a safe desk job as assistant secretary of the Navy, against the advice of friends and colleagues, and by using all his wit made it into the deadliest battles of the Spanish American War. And cheated death in the same manner that George Washington had done numerous times. An account in another book from Spanish Soldiers  has been reported that TR's actions did not make sense because he was leading charges in a hale of bullets and cannon fire when he should have been retreating. The fact is, that people told TR all through his life, that he could not or should not do what he intended to do because he would be destroyed. They were so wrong, far from being destroyed he is still talking to us from the pages of  history. This book is about the bond of fellow soldiers and going to war when duty calls.