volunteers were accepted were far too long.
Behind Roosevelt, the men of the Unauthorized Regiment raised a cheer. Many of them, like their colonel, were delighted at finally becoming U.S. Volunteers. And others (and some of the same men, too, perhaps) were also delighted at the prospect of mustering close by a town, with all the pleasures attendant thereto. Out on Roosevelt 's ranch, they'd been living a life not far removed from the monastic.
'The Promised Land!' Roosevelt shouted once more, and his troopers cheered louder than ever. He nodded in enormous satisfaction and spoke again, this time more quietly: 'If you want something done, by jingo, you have to pitch right in and do it yourself.'
Soldiers up on the mud-brick wall of Fort Benton were staring at the oncoming cavalry regiment. Roosevelt could see their arms outstretched as they pointed to the cloud of dust in which the horsemen traveled. He was still too far away to make out the amazement on their faces or to hear their exclamations, but his active imagination had no trouble supplying the lack.
Not far from the fort was a stretch of level ground where the Seventh Infantry was in the habit of practicing its manoeuvres. Roosevelt led the Unauthorized Regiment toward it. 'Assemble by troops!' he shouted, and the trumpeters amplified the command.
He'd made sure the troopers practiced that evolution every day of the journey along the Missouri from the ranch outside of Helena to Fort Benton. They performed it flawlessly now. He grinned from ear to ear. Maybe the only uniform they had at the moment was a red bandanna on the sleeve, but he'd turned them into soldiers, not an armed mob.
'If at the age of twenty-two I can bring order to a cavalry regiment,' he murmured, suddenly thoughtful, 'what will I be able to do when I have Lieutenant Colonel Welton's years behind me?'
But those years, as yet, lay ahead of him. He rode toward Fort Benton, to bring the commander of the Regular Army garrison out to inspect the Unauthorized Regiment.
Henry Welton did him the courtesy of meeting him halfway. Now Roosevelt was wearing his colonel's uniform. Nevertheless, he saluted Welton first-and, as he did so, noticed the Regular officer had eagles on his shoulder straps, too, not the silver oak leaves he'd worn when they met before. 'Congratulations, Colonel Welton!' Roosevelt exclaimed.
'It's your fault, Colonel Roosevelt,' Welton answered with a smile, returning the salute. 'The War Department had to accept you as a colonel in the U.S. Volunteers, so they gave me the same brevet rank, and made me five minutes senior to you while they were about it.'
'As I told you when we first met, sir, that is as it should be,' Roosevelt said.
'I'd be lying if I told you I thought you were wrong,' Welton said. Roosevelt nodded; he had nothing but approval for a man who knew his own worth. Welton went on, 'Now, by thunder, let's have a look at the men who stirred up all this fuss.'
'With great pleasure, sir.' Side by side, the two colonels rode out toward the regiment Roosevelt had raised. They were drawing near when Roosevelt, unwontedly hesitant, said, 'Even after our formal incorporation into the U.S. Army, sir, might we continue to style ourselves the Unauthorized Regiment? I believe it would have a salutary effect on the men's morale.'
'I don't see why not,' Welton said. 'If you look at things from England 's point of view, we're an unauthorized country, wouldn't you say? Formally, what we have here is the First Montana Volunteer Cavalry. I can't do anything about that. Informally-well, since it is informal, no one will fuss at what you call yourselves. Plenty of regiments- even companies-in the War of Secession had nicknames by which they were better known than by their official titles.'
Roosevelt started to say something more, but checked himself, for Welton and he had come up to the troops, who, as one man, saluted them. Henry Welton rode gravely from troop to troop. He was not a cavalry officer, but his examination struck Roosevelt as being as thorough as the grilling to which he himself had been subjected. Welton had been assessing soldiers for as long as Roosevelt had been alive, and knew what he was doing.
He puzzled the commander of the Unauthorized Regiment for a moment when, instead of keeping on the open path between troops, he rode through one, pausing every now and then to examine one man's Winchester, another's saddle, the cartridge belt of a third. And then enlightenment struck Roosevelt almost as abruptly as it had struck Paul on the road to Damascus. 'Colonel Welton, had you asked, I would have told you that I did not place the best men on the outer edges of the troops, as a dishonest grocer will place a few pieces of good fruit on top of a great many bad ones.'
'Had I asked, Colonel Roosevelt, I'm sure you would have told me that, whether it was so or not.' Welton softened the words with a disarming grin. 'I'd sooner see for myself. If you possibly can, you should always see for yourself. If you don't make a habit of that, you will be disappointed, generally when you can least afford it.'
'Thank you, sir. I'll remember that.' Doing as much as he could by and for himself was always one of Roosevelt 's guiding principles. Having the veteran espouse it only strengthened it in his mind.
Not satisfied with riding through one troop, Henry Welton rode through another. That done, he gave his verdict: 'These men are not up to the standards of the Regular Army, Colonel, but they are some of the finest volunteer troops I have ever set eyes on, especially for volunteers who have yet to see the elephant. If and when they do, I believe they'll manage as well as anyone could hope.'
'Thank you again, sir,' Roosevelt said. 'You make me feel my efforts on our beloved country's behalf have proved worthwhile.'
'And so they have.' Welton rode out before the assembled troopers. 'Men of Roosevelt 's Unauthorized Regiment,' he began, and then had to stop while the cavalrymen yelled themselves hoarse and several of the officers made their mounts caracole. 'Men of the Unauthorized Regiment, will you take the oath that makes you into U.S. Volunteers?'
'Yes!' the men cried: one great roar of sound. Roosevelt shouted as loud as he could, but even in his own ears his voice was small and lost amid the others.
Colonel Welton administered the oath to them, one ringing phrase at a time. Behind his spectacles, Roosevelt felt his eyes fill with tears as he spoke the words that took him into the service of the United States. Reaching this point had proved a greater struggle than it ever should have, but, unlike Moses, he, having overcome every obstacle, was allowed to enter the land of milk and honey-or, the U.S. Army being what it was, at least the land of hardtack, salt pork, and beans.
The oath completed, he gave Henry Welton another crisp salute. 'What are your orders, sir?'
'For now, Colonel, my orders arc going to be very simple, very unexciting, and, I fear, very unwelcome,' Welton answered. 'Your men are to bivouac by troops here on this plain until such time as my regimental clerks have completed the boring but necessary business of taking down their names and other particulars. This will, among other things, put them on the government's payroll and get them off of yours, and will assure pension benefits to their next of kin in the event of their becoming casualties of war.'
Roosevelt sighed. 'I do see the necessity, sir, but must it be done on the instant? You have no conception of how I long to strike the British a smart blow, nor of how hard it has been to sit by Helena knowing I had the men at hand for the task but also knowing I was not legally entitled to use them.'
'Patience, Colonel.' Welton chuckled. 'I do feel like I'm talking to my son. I say again, patience. The British have made no moves against us as yet in this quarter, nor, even if they do in the next two days-which is not likely- can they sweep down on Fort Benton and catch us unawares in that space of time. You shall have your chance, I assure you. Not quite yet, though.'
'Yes, sir.' Suddenly and painfully, Roosevelt realized that coming under the authority of the United States not only meant he could lead his troops against the English and the Canucks, it also meant he was required to obey orders he did not like. Then he brightened. 'Sir, I shall place at your disposal all my regimental records, which should help your clerks do their jobs more quickly.'
'Thank you. I'm sure that will help a great deal.' Colonel Welton cocked his head to one side. 'I shouldn't be a bit surprised if what you've got is a good deal more complete than anything I'm required to keep. There are some forms, though, on which we'll have to get your men's signatures or witnessed marks. Everyone talks about the exploits of the Army in the field. No one mentions the paperwork that makes those exploits-and the survival of the Army between them- possible, but it's part of the life, too.'
'I discovered something of this myself, on commencing to recruit the Unauthorized Regiment.' Roosevelt bared his teeth in what was not quite a smile. 'I should be lying if I said it was the most welcome discovery I ever
