Timeline of T.R.’s Memorial Days
Follow Theodore Roosevelt through more than two decades of Decoration Days, from Sagamore Hill and a Rough Rider troop train to Arlington, Gettysburg and wartime Detroit. Read the full story at Memorial Day with Theodore Roosevelt.
A DAY AT SAGAMORE HILL
While serving as a New York City Police Commissioner, T.R. spent Decoration Day in the country with his family at Sagamore Hill, he wrote to his sister Anna a few days later.
ON THE TROOP TRAIN
The Rough Riders had marched out of their San Antonio camp the day before, bound for Tampa. On Decoration Day, T.R. and his regiment were rolling east across Texas toward New Orleans. "The journey by rail from San Antonio to Tampa took just four days," he wrote in The Rough Riders.
PARADE, GRANT’S TOMB AND THE OPERA HOUSE
Governor Roosevelt reviewed the Brooklyn parade from a stand near the Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Arch, spoke at Grant's Tomb in the afternoon, and that evening presided at the Grand Army of the Republic meeting in the Metropolitan Opera House.
REVIEWING THE BIG PARADE
The Governor reviewed New York's Memorial Day parade at Madison Square with Mayor Van Wyck. His escort was the "Old Guard" under Major Briggs.
A LETTER FROM OYSTER BAY
As Vice President, T.R. wrote to President McKinley from Oyster Bay that day, hoping Mrs. McKinley was better.
ARLINGTON
In his only Memorial Day address at Arlington as President, T.R. spoke to the Grand Army of the Republic. With a Senate committee hearing testimony about torture by American troops in the Philippines, he defended the Army, acknowledged "acts of cruelty" and pledged to punish the guilty, then condemned lynching at home as worse. "You left us a reunited country," he told the veterans.
IN THE SADDLE TO CHEYENNE
After speaking to veterans in Laramie, Wyo., T.R. rode more than 60 miles on horseback to Cheyenne, by way of Van Tassel's ranch, where his party stopped for lunch. There he gave a Decoration Day speech under the auspices of the veterans.
GETTYSBURG
T.R. gave the Memorial Day address on the battlefield at Gettysburg. "As long as this Republic endures or its history is known," he said, "so long shall the memory of the Battle of Gettysburg likewise endure and be known."
GENERAL SLOCUM’S STATUE
In Brooklyn, T.R. breakfasted at the Union League Club, attended the parade, spoke at the unveiling of the equestrian statue of Gen. Henry W. Slocum, and later addressed the Naval Branch of the Y.M.C.A.
THE MAN BEHIND THE BALLOT
At the Navy Yard in Portsmouth, Va., T.R. said "it is the man behind the ballot who counts most in civil life, just as it is the man behind the gun who counts most in military life."
A MONUMENT TO GENERAL LAWTON
In Indianapolis, T.R. spoke at the unveiling of a monument to Gen. Henry W. Lawton, killed in the Philippines in 1899. "There is no other class of our citizens to whom we owe so much as to the veterans of the great war," he said.
THE LAST PRESIDENTIAL MEMORIAL DAY
T.R. made no Memorial Day speech. He drove to Arlington and laid wreaths at the tomb of the Civil War unknown dead, at Gen. Philip Sheridan's monument and at the Spanish-American War monument.
GRANT’S TOMB AND A LINCOLN STATUE
T.R. gave a Memorial Day address at Grant's Tomb, beside Gen. Daniel E. Sickles. The same day he spoke in Newark, N.J., at the unveiling of Gutzon Borglum's seated Lincoln.
BACK AT GETTYSBURG
In the middle of his race against President Taft for the Republican nomination, T.R. spoke in the National Cemetery at Gettysburg at the invitation of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. Taft spoke at Arlington the same day.
SAILING FOR SPAIN
T.R. sailed from New York on the Olympic, bound for Madrid, where his son Kermit married Belle Willard in a civil ceremony on June 10 and a church ceremony on June 11.
A KNIFE IN KANSAS CITY
Before Union and Confederate veterans in Kansas City, T.R. called for universal training based on universal service. During the parade, an open pocketknife thrown at his car struck the back of the automobile. He was not hurt.
A WARTIME CROWD AT MINEOLA
With the nation at war since April, T.R. addressed his Long Island neighbors at the Mineola Fair Grounds before a crowd wire reports put at about 20,000, and urged them to buy Liberty Bonds.
DETROIT, IN WARTIME
T.R.'s last Memorial Day address, in Detroit, was given on behalf of the Navy. His son Quentin, a pilot, was in France. He was killed in aerial combat there on July 14.
From the Archives
Speeches, letters and photographs about Memorial Day from the Theodore Roosevelt Center’s digital library.