“Divided Between Pride & Anxiety”: The Roosevelt Family & The Great War

Tuesday, November 6th, 2018

Follow this link to watch Laura Cinturati’s presentation on YouTube.

For our last Speaker Nite of 2018, we commemorated the upcoming centennial of Armistice Day by featuring Laura Cinturati from Sagamore Hill National Historic Site. Her talk, “Divided Between Pride and Anxiety: The Roosevelt Family and the Great War” explored the Roosevelt family’s involvement in the war and the emotional toll it took on them. It also examined TR’s complicated views on war and military service as well as his own efforts to serve in the First World War.

Cinturati began by explaining that the title of her talk was actually a direct quote from a letter Theodore Roosevelt had written to his son, Archie, who was serving on the frontlines. The letter was written in response to the news that Archie had been injured, but was recovering from his wounds. In many respects, the quote epitomizes the complex view TR had of the Great War and of military service in general. However, in order to better understand TR’s conflicting views, Cinturati put his life and military service in context.

TR was a boy when the Civil War broke out, and the Roosevelt family was divided between North and South. His mother “Mittie” was from a family with deep southern ties, and though she had moved north, she feared if her husband enlisted in the Union army he might fight against her Confederate brothers on the battlefield. Instead, Theodore Sr. did what many wealthy New York men did and hired a substitute. Historians have suggested the young TR regretted that his father didn’t serve and that this event helped shape his ideas about military service. Instead, TR grew up listening the war stories of his Confederate uncles, learning the basics of military strategy and tactics from their exploits.

Despite his interest in the military and its history, TR did not attend military school or receive any formal training. He did, however, write his first book (The Naval War of 1812) while he was a student at Harvard and went on to become the Assistant Secretary of the Navy. He resigned from that position in 1898 to form the U.S. First Volunteers (aka, the Rough Riders) and fight in the Spanish-American War. TR was so quick to join the war that his friends and family believed he was behaving recklessly with little regard for his life or his family. However, to TR, service to one’s country and bringing honor to one’s family were paramount.

Not unlike his earlier eagerness, TR insisted that the U.S. should have joined the Great War after the Lusitania was sunk in 1915. He was outspoken against then-President Woodrow Wilson and his unwillingness to send U.S. troops to Europe. Instead, he focused his efforts on preparedness. He was a proponent of universal military training programs to prepare troops for the inevitable outbreak of war, which many military leaders at the time did not believe the army was ready for. He supported ROTC programs and formal training camps for young men to gain the experience they would need on the battlefield. For TR, his own four sons were no exception.

When one such camp opened in Plattsburgh, New York, in 1915, three of his sons -- Theodore Jr., Archie, and Quentin -- attended the first session in the summer of 1915 and would return to complete a second session in 1916. TR’s second son, Kermit, was working in South America at the time and was unable to attend. He did however, join his brothers after he returned home in 1917 . At the camp, TR’s sons learned about modern warfare and gained valuable leadership experience that allowed them to advance in rank.  

Almost immediately after the U.S. declared war in April of 1917, Roosevelt traveled to D.C. to petition President Wilson to allow him to raise a band of volunteers similar to his division in 1898. However, warfare had changed significantly; Wilson and his advisors rejected  Roosevelt’s request. Instead, TR channeled his efforts into securing good commissions for his sons. He wrote to General Pershing to ask if Ted Jr. and Archie could enlist under him as privates, though he mentioned that while attending the camp in Plattsburgh they had obtained the ranks of Major and Captain respectively. Pershing accepted them and issued orders for their deployment overseas as Major and Captain. Kermit, who had missed out on a considerable amount of the training in Plattsburgh, wished to get to the front as quickly as possible and believed that if he joined the British forces, he could get there faster. TR wrote to his friends in Great Britain and secured him a commission as an honorary captain in the British Army. Quentin, the youngest of TR’s sons, took leave from his studies at Harvard to enlist. TR used his influence to get Quentin into flight training for the U.S. Air Service in Mineola, which was only about 20 minutes from Sagamore Hill.  

Both Theodore and Edith were fiercely proud of their sons’ service. Edith and her daughter Ethel wore 5 star pins for the four Roosevelt boys they sent to the front and a fifth for Ethel’s husband, Dr. Richard Derby. In a letter to Quentin, TR wrote, “It is dreadful to have you all go, and it would have been far worse to have you not go. My veins thrill with pride when I think of you.” Though he had been a proponent of the war, and instrumental in getting his sons to the front lines, TR was still a worried parent. He relished in their triumphs, but also worried for their safety and with good reason. Three of his sons succeeded in getting to the front lines quickly. Ted Jr. was assigned to the 1st division 26th infantry in France and suffered at least 2 major injuries during the war. Kermit first served as a Captain with the British Royal Engineers in Mesopotamia and received a British War Cross for his actions; by May 1918, he was transferred to the American Expeditionary Forces as a Captain. Archie was first assigned to the 1st division 16th infantry in France, but later transferred to the 26th division with his brother Ted. In March 1918, Archie was seriously wounded in battle. He took shrapnel to the kneecap and broke his left arm. After it was confirmed that he would live, the family rejoiced at Sagamore Hill and it was in response to this incident that TR said, he was “divided between pride and anxiety.”

The youngest Roosevelt son, Quentin, began flight training in April 1917 at the Hempstead Plains Aerodrome which had recently been renamed Hazelhurst Field. It was close enough to Sagamore Hill that he could occasionally fly over the home of his fiancée, Flora Payne Whitney. Quentin spent three months learning to fly in Mineola before he was transferred to the new American flight school in France. However, the amount of time it took to get to the front lines distressed Quentin, who feared being called an embusqué, or a someone who shirked from their duties. Upon hearing this, TR wrote to him saying he was exceedingly indignant at the thought and that was more satisfied and proud of him than he could express. By June 8th, 1918, Quentin would get his chance to move to the front. The family had further reason to celebrate on July 10th when news reached them that Quentin had downed a German plane. In letters to other members of the family TR said, “Whatever now befalls Quentin, he has now had his crowded hour and his day of honor and triumph.”

However, their joy would be short-lived. On July 14th, Quentin was shot down behind enemy lines. Since his plane fell on the German side, there was no confirmation of what happened to him. News slowly reached Sagamore Hill and when a reporter arrived carrying the unofficial news that his plane had been shot down, TR made a public statement saying, “Quentin’s mother and I are very glad that he got to the front and had a chance to render some service to his country and show the stuff that was in him before his fate befell.” When the allied troops reclaimed the land, they discovered Quentin’s grave. The German troops, realizing who he was and that he was the son of a former President, constructed a small grave for him.

Though the family had prepared for death during the war, Quentin’s death deeply shook the family. Their grief was echoed by the nation, people from across the country sent condolences to the family. In many ways, Quentin’s death transformed him from the Roosevelts’ son, to the nation’s son. In tribute to Quentin, Hazelhurst Field where he learned to fly was renamed Roosevelt Field. Despite the outpouring of support and remembrance, Quentin’s death took its toll on TR. He was deeply saddened and his health began to decline rapidly. He was hospitalized in November of 1918 and was released just in time to spend one last Christmas at Sagamore Hill. On January 6th, 1919, Theodore Roosevelt passed away.

Cinturati’s talk brought home the emotional toll of the First World War and the paradox that it created for TR, and perhaps many others. TR was immensely proud of his sons’ service and it would have been a great disappointment to him had they not taken the opportunity to prove themselves in battle.  Yet, as an ardent proponent of the war, the emotional burden of knowing that his sons were facing great danger -- combined, ultimately, his youngest son’s death -- weighed heavily on TR and the rest of the Roosevelt family.

- Lindsey Evans, Public Programming Assistant

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Speaker Nite is part of the TR Site’s regular Tuesday evening programming, which is made possible with generous support from M&T Bank, as well as the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

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