Your TR Source
President Roosevelt thanks Colonel Mazel for the courtesy he has shown to American officers who have been at the Saumur School. He has heard from officers studying there that they have profited immensely from the instruction in horsemanship. Captain Fitzhugh Lee, Roosevelt’s cavalry aide, will come to study at the school in the summer.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-03-23
President Roosevelt sends Secretary of the Navy Metcalf the names of those he wants to appoint to the Naval Academy’s Board of Visitors.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-01-17
In an update to his cancelled letter of January 9, President Roosevelt believes that there is too much emphasis on mathematics education at West Point, and on book learning at the Fort Riley school. The aim of such institutions is to produce soldiers, not students. He believes that at West Point there should be more focus on languages.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-01-11
President Roosevelt sends Secretary of War Taft a list of the names of principals and alternates he wishes to nominate for attendance at West Point in 1909.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-01-10
William Loeb encloses for Secretary of War Taft the names of two students President Roosevelt wishes to be appointed to attend West Point in 1909 if there are any further openings.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-01-10
President Roosevelt believes that there is too much emphasis on mathematics education at West Point, and on book learning at the Fort Riley school. The aim of such institutions is to produce soldiers, not students.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-01-09
President Roosevelt tells Secretary of War Taft the names of the men he is appointing to the West Point Board of Visitors.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-01-03
President Roosevelt cannot appoint General Bates to the West Point Board of Visitors because he has already promised General Young an appointment to that board. He would guarantee Bates a position next year if he could, but he will not be in the position to make that decision.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-01-03
President Roosevelt asks West Point Superintendent Scott if there is anything that can be done within the bounds of propriety and fairness to make sure Stonewall Jackson’s grandson Thomas Jonathan Jackson Christian graduates with his class at West Point.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-12-31
President Roosevelt expresses his pleasure to appoint Lieutenant Colonel Dodd’s son, Charles G. Dodd, to attend the United State Military Academy.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-04-15
President Roosevelt sends Secretary of the Navy Metcalf a list of appointees to the United States Naval Academy.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-02-18
President Roosevelt is not able to promise anything, as he receives so many applicants, but tells Judge Gray that he will put Meigs down provisionally, and will hope that when he compares Meigs’s application with others he will be able to move him up to a principal or alternate applicant.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-30
President Roosevelt praises General Hamilton’s “Staff Officer’s Scrapbook” about the Russo-Japanese War. He agrees with Hamilton’s assessment about the moral and physical fighting qualities of average individual soldiers. In Roosevelt’s own war experience, he finds that soldiers from rural backgrounds were often superior fighters to those from cities. He reflects on the tension between modern materialists, who only think of money, and idealists, who often “construct an ideal which is not only fantastic but excessively undesirable,” which causes the atrophy of “military or warlike virtues.” Roosevelt praises the Japanese army’s conduct.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-01-24
President Roosevelt will speak to Secretary of War Taft about putting Arthur Harrison Wilson in the cavalry. Roosevelt agrees with Bluford Wilson about the scholastic work at West Point.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-08-26
President Roosevelt encloses letters that show Duncan Douglas has sworn falsely and should not be admitted to the United States Naval Academy. Roosevelt would like to appoint “young Stuart” and requests a report about him.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-08-15
President Roosevelt is pleased that Dr. Mitchell’s son was admitted the military academy.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-07-27
President Roosevelt asks Commander Cowles for his opinion on what to do about William Sowden Sims’s letter. Roosevelt calls Sims “a good man, but a preposterous alarmist,” and remarks that Sims once believed Spanish ships to be better than American ships.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1901-12-12
President Roosevelt agrees with Herman Speck von Sternburg’s positions on mounted infantry. He believes cavalry forces should constitute a larger portion of standing armies and that modern cavalry troops must posses far greater skill than “the old-style cavalryman.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1901-11-09
General Barry has not seen the papers regarding Captain Brainard, but assures Theodore Roosevelt that no negative action will be taken in his case, although Barry will “cuss him out a little & let it go at that.’ Barry hopes Roosevelt can visit West Point soon and reports on the progress of the new recruits.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-07-13
Harriet Halstead asks Theodore Roosevelt if he might consider endorsing her son, Franklin D. Halstead, for his upcoming application to the Naval Academy. Halstead reminds Roosevelt that Franklin is the grandson of his late friend, Murat Halstead.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-05-19