York. During this term of service he introduced the first civil service
bill in the legislature in 1883, and its passage was almost simultaneous
with the passage of the Civil Service Bill through Congress. In 1884
he was the Chairman of the delegation from New York to the National
Republican Convention. He received the nomination for mayor of the city
of New York in 1886 as an Independent, but was defeated. He was made
Civil Service Commissioner by President Harrison in 1889 and served as
president of the board until May, 1895. He resigned to become President
of the New York Board of Police Commissioners in May, 1895. This
position, in which the arduous duties were discharged with remarkable
vigor and fearlessness, he resigned in 1897 to become Assistant
Secretary of the Navy. On the breaking out of the Spanish-American War
in 1898, he resigned on May 6, and, entering the army, organized the
First United States Volunteer ("Rough Rider") Regiment of Cavalry,
recommending Col. L.G. Wood to the command, and taking for himself the
second-in-command as lieutenant-colonel. He had gained his military
experience as a member of the Eighth Regiment of N.Y.N.G. from
1884-1888, during which time he rose to the rank of captain. The Rough
Riders were embarked at Tampa, Fla., with the advance of Shafter's
invading army, and sailed for Cuba on June 15, 1898. They participated
in every engagement preceding the fall of Santiago. Theodore Roosevelt
led the desperate charge of the Ninth Cavalry and the Rough Riders at
the Battle of San Juan Hill on July 1. He was made a colonel on July 11.
He received the nomination on September 27, 1898, for Governor of the
State of New York, obtaining 753 votes, against 218 for Gov. Frank S.
Black. At the election Theodore Roosevelt was supported by a majority
of the Independent Republicans and many Democrats, and defeated the
Democratic candidate, Judge Augustus Van Wyck, by a plurality of 18,079.
At the Republican Convention, held at Philadelphia in June, 1900, he was
nominated for Vice-President, upon which he resigned the governorship