May 15, 1898: Theodore Roosevelt resigns as Ass. Sec. of the Navy

On May 15,1898, Theodore Roosevelt resigned his post as Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Roosevelt, who had once said, "I should welcome almost any war, for I think this country needs one", left Washington and joined Colonel Leonard Wood's First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, also known as the Rough Riders. Serving with one of the few cavalry units that saw combat, Rough Rider Theodore Roosevelt fought troops at the battle of Las Guasimas, San Juan Heights, El Caney, and led the cavalry charge up Kettle Hill.

On his return from Cuba, Theodore Roosevelt ran successfully for governor of New York in the election of 1898, and two years later was tapped at the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia to be McKinley's vice presidential running mate. When President McKinley died from an assassin's gunshot wounds on September 14, 1898, Vice-President Roosevelt became President Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States of America.

Bibliography:

Dyal, Donald H.. Historical Dictionary of the Spanish American War. Greenwood Press: Westport, CT, 1996.

Jeffers, Paul H. Colonel Roosevelt. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York: 1996.

O'Toole, G.J.A., The Spanish War: An American Epic-1898. W.W. Norton & Company: New York, 1984.