Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt was born in New York City on 27 October 1858. A sickly, asthmatic boy, he built himself up by hard exercise and went on to Harvard. While serving in the New York State Assembly he took a commission in the New York National Guard, Company B, 8th Infantry, in 1882, and left it a captain in 1886.

When war with Spain came in 1898 he resigned as Assistant Secretary of the Navy and, with Colonel Leonard Wood, raised the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry, the Rough Riders. He took command of the regiment in its first fight at Las Guasimas, and on 1 July 1898, the only man on horseback, he rode along the front of the advance up Kettle Hill and on to the San Juan Heights. His commanders recommended him for the Medal of Honor; it was refused then. In 2001 President Bill Clinton awarded it to him. He is the only President of the United States to hold it.

He went on to be Governor of New York, Vice President, and in 1901 the twenty-sixth President. His youngest son, Quentin, a pilot, was shot down over France in July 1918, a loss he never recovered from. He died in his sleep at Sagamore Hill on 6 January 1919 and rests in Youngs Memorial Cemetery above Oyster Bay.