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It is believed he intended to take this revolver to Cuba in the Spanish American War.”; page 140 of “The Illustrated History of Firearms from the NRA Museums Second Edition” by Supica, Wicklund, and Schreier; and “The Colonel Roosevelt Smith & Wesson New Model Number Three Serial Number 32661” by Jim Supica in “The Texas Gun Collector” Spring 1998 issue. It was also featured for the month of September on Smith & Wesson’s 1995 calendar, the First Freedom NRA membership magazine centerfold in Feb. 2009 and on television on Ozarks Watch and CSPAN coverage of presidential firearms.
Provenance:
Also included are affidavits from Albert Brichaux and Jeffrey Allen Faintich stating that the revolver was sold by them to
Jim Supica and guaranteeing that the revolver was originally shipped to Theodore Roosevelt. The statement by Faintich also states that Mike Berkshire of Palm Beach, Florida, “reported buying the revolver from the descendants of the bodyguard or valet of President Theodore Roosevelt, who had represented to Mr. Berkshire that the revolver had been a present from Pres. Roosevelt to their ancestor.” The revolver was then subsequently confirmed via a factory letter as having been shipped to Colonel Roosevelt. Berkshire sold the revolver in 1990. It was then briefly owned by Brichaux before being returned to Faintich to be sold to Supica.
History:
Exactly where the revolver went after being shipped to Roosevelt is not clear aside from the fact that it later turned up in the possession of the family of a bodyguard/valet of Roosevelt who indicates Roosevelt had given the revolver to their ancestor.
As explained in the provenance section above, this attribution was subsequently solidified when factory records confirmed
the revolver was shipped to “Colonel Roosevelt.” What we do know is that in May of 1898, Roosevelt was in Texas preparing
the Rough Riders to go to war. He was an early proponent of
U.S. intervention in Cuba and of driving the Spanish Empire out of the Western Hemisphere considering U.S. involvement to be both advantageous to the country and also the honorable and just course of action. At the time, he was serving as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, but he desired to have direct involvement in the war and resigned to serve as an lieutenant colonel in the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, the soon to be famous “Rough Riders.”
The unit was formed of men from many walks of life from both the East and West, but the recruits from the Southwest and Indian Territory gained a lot of attention and made up the bulk of the unit. There were also New York policemen who had previously served under Roosevelt when he was the New York City Police commissioner and men from high society in the East. Some had fought in foreign wars in the service of other countries. American newspapers widely reported the affairs of “Teddy” Roosevelt and his “Rough Riders,” including Roosevelt’s planned arrival in San Antonio, Texas, around May 10th prior the revolver being shipped and then subsequent confirmation that he left on May 12th.
His diary entry for the 12th reads, “Made for San Antonio,” and
the entry for the 15th reads, “Reach camp at San Antonio.” While he never liked the “Teddy” nickname, he embraced the “Rough Riders” tag for his diverse troopers. He arrived in San Antonio on the 15th. After training in Texas, they departed to Tampa, Florida, at the end of May. Four of the companies stayed behind due to inadequate transports and some of the men died of malaria and yellow fever, but the rest arrived in Cuba on June 23, 1898. Many of their horses and mules had also been left behind, so the Rough Riders were forced to fight as infantry rather than cavalry.
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