WI: An Even Earlier Possible Reconstitution of the "Rough Riders"

[Ariosto]

Just something I came across while doing research for Wikipedia, and while it has been discussed in some capacity elsewhere, I'm not sure if it has ever been discussed as early as this, particularly as this would be during the late Winter, early Spring of 1911. Can't give my thoughts just now though other then, arguably, it benefits Taft in the short-term. Source here: (link)​

​

​

WANTED TO FIGHT MEXICO​

Roosevelt Said To Have Offered His Services To Taft.​

​

​

Washington, Feb. 26. - The announcement of Col. Roosevelt's willingness to accept the Presidential nomination, and his consequent open break with President Taft, was declared here tonight to have removed a picturesque possibility in connection with the threatened trouble in Mexico.​

​

Senators who pretend to be conversant with the facts stated that when the Madero revolution was at its height and the possibility of American intervention was being discussed, Col. Roosevelt wrote a letter to President Taft volunteering to head a regiment of cavalry which was to be in the forefront of the invading force.​

​

Col. Roosevelt, it is said, stipulated that his subordinate officers were to be of his own choosing, and went so far as to name some of the men he would select. These included Col. Cecil A. Lyon, Republican National Committeeman of Texas; "Jack" Abernathy, the wolf-strangling ex-Marshal of Oklahoma; Sloan Simpson of Texas, a "rough rider"; Secret Service Agent James Sloan, Jr., now with President Taft, and several members of the old Rough Rider regiment of Cuban war fame.​

​

Col. Roosevelt at that time, it is said, stated it as his highest ambition to be again in the saddle in time of war.​

​

The Colonel's letter to President Taft was addressed "Dear Will," according to those who say they saw it, and President Taft's reply was addressed "Dear Theodore." It stated, according to reports, that the Colonel's proposal "was very interesting, indeed," but that the possibility of American intervention was too remote a contingency to be considered at the time in any way.​

​

 

[Ariosto]

So again, the concept of Theodore Roosevelt leading a volunteer unit of Rough Riders into Mexico is not exactly a new idea, it has been done on the board a number of times under differing circumstances; in each of these cases however it has been in reference to the Villa Expedition during the Wilson Administration, and never before have I see it pop up as a possibility (a recorded one at least) during the Taft Administration. The problem in executing this idea is that the Taft Administration was not particularly interested in actively intervening in Mexico so long as they were confident that the Maderistas could win with their supply of American armaments, which means a scenario needs to be engineered where the Maderistas are actually losing the Revolution. Thankfully I'd argue this is rather simple to pull off despite the lack of popular support Diaz's Administration had, as Madero himself was (supposedly) nearly shot by Pascual Orozco and maybe even Pancho Villa at one point, and either case would have left the Revolutionaries without a unifying figure under whom they could (temporarily) rally around. Given the inevitable ensuing chaos that would come from the resulting power struggles between the different Generals and their forces, it may well have given Diaz and the Federal Army the respite necessary to turn the tide and crush the rebels piecemeal, a conclusion to the war that Washington would have refused to allow.​

​

Unfortunately from here I'm not certain on the finer details, at least enough to make a comfortable guesstimate. The Taft Administration would immediately work to try and rally as many of the Revolutionaries as they could under a new face, possibly Jose Mario Pino Suarez but someone more knowledgeable on Mexican history would better know, but I'd argue it would have been inevitable that a decent portion of the Revolutionaries would fight against the American intervention and see Suarez or whomever as a puppet. However with the Mexican Revolutionaries providing the bulk of the bodies in the fight, the Americans in more of an advisory or support role, I don't believe the actual conflict would have lasted more than a couple of months at most. ​

​

Theodore Roosevelt... well he could be a war hero, crippled, dead and so on, but I have serious doubts he'd allow himself to only be a footnote in the conflict. Assuming he comes out of the action no worse for wear the Republican nomination is his for the taking, especially when considering how close he came with the deck thoroughly stacked against him behind the scenes. ​

​

​