The Rough Rider Test

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SAM RUSSELL

The Old Army’s First Gauge of Physical Readiness.

The United States Army’s method for evaluating the physical fitness of its soldiers has gone through several evolutions since it was first introduced during World War II. That early version consisted of five events: squat jumps, sit ups, pull ups, pushups, and a 300-yard run.[1] The modern three-event Army Physical Readiness Test has been in place for more than three decades consisting of sit ups, pushups, and a two-mile run. 

But perhaps the Army’s earliest attempt at gauging the physical readiness of its aging officer corps goes back 110 years when President Theodore Roosevelt became exasperated with the old, portly field grade officers prevalent in the Nation’s capital. Writing from the White House on May 13, 1907, the president directed his Secretary of War to develop and administer a regular, recurring test to ensure that field grade officers maintained their physical capacity to endure the rigors of active Army service.

As I have personally observed some field officers who were physically unable to ride even a few miles at an increased gait, and as I deem it essential that the field officers of the line of the Army should be at all times physically fit and able to perform the duties pertaining to the positions, especially in field, and as I believe that such physical fitness can only be demonstrated by actual physical tests, I desire that you give the necessary directions to have the physical condition of all officers of the line who come up for promotion to the grade of field officer actually tested for skill and endurance in riding, this in addition to the physical examination now required by law. I further desire that an annual or biennial test of the physical condition and skill in horsemanship of all field officers of the line be made under the personal supervision of the several department commanders when making their annual inspections. The test should be thorough and should consist of a ride of not less than fifteen miles at varying gaits adapted to the terrain, not less than ten miles of which shall be at the trot and gallop--approximately five miles at each, with such other exercises in equitation as may be deemed advisable.[2]

Known for his physical prowess in the boxing ring, and famous for his charge up San Juan Hill leading the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, President Roosevelt’s test was quickly dubbed by the press as the Rough Rider Test. The Army issued two general orders specifying the details of what it called the Test Ride and directed that all field and general officers take the test prior to November 1 of that year. 

As November approached, commands across the country saw their most senior officers saddle up for the Test Ride. Newspapers across the country covered the spectacle with some dedicating whole pages. The Evening Star in Washington, D. C., found the event quite amusing and several reporters accompanied the officers from Fort Myer on their 15-mile excursion led by Brigadier General William P. Duvall. “Twenty-eight military ornaments, mostly colonels and lieutenant colonels, with a sprinkling of majors, made the test ride ordered by President Roosevelt, ‘round about Fort Myer yesterday afternoon. The party left the post promptly at 2 o’clock, and by a series of hasty walks, hard trots and mad gallops managed to land back at the starting post at 4:30, having made about fifteen miles in the record time of two hours and thirty minutes.”[3]

The Evening Star ran a full page article detailing the Test Ride at Fort Myer. 

The test ride even became the subject of Department Commanders’ annual reports that year. Brigadier General Charles Morton, commanding the Department of the Missouri, reported the following:On assuming command, October 9, 1907, the department commander found that the physical examinations and test rides of field officers of the department required by General Orders of the War Department… had been made for no officers but those serving at Fort Riley. The field officers were assembled in the most economical way, under the conditions, at different posts in the department, and given the physical examinations and tests. Of the 47 officers who took the riding test under my supervision, all but one did so perfectly satisfactorily, and that one demonstrated that he could have done so with a little practice. The same officer and one other did not pass a satisfactory physical examination immediately after the ride, and both were subsequently ordered to appear before a retiring board at Washington, D. C.[4]

Stated in that last sentence was the likely reason that President Roosevelt implemented the test ride, that is, to medically retire aged and corpulent officers who could no longer meet the physical demands of an active Army. The Army began assigning its surgeons to medical boards to examine the officers before and after the test. Before, to ensure the officers--most in their fifties and sixties--would survive the test, and after, to determine if they were physically fit following such a ride.[5]

Numerous officers, no doubt, dreaded the notion of a 15-mile ride on horseback, particularly if their duties had kept them out of the saddle for decades. Even the Army surgeons were not exempt. In the weeks and days leading up to the test Colonel Charles L. Heizmann, who had entered the Army four decades earlier, was undecided if he would submit to climbing back in the saddle. At the last moment, the colonel made his choice. “I am a medical man, not a horseman,” he explained. “Rather than travel 15 miles on the quarterdeck of one of these beasts I’ll retire from the army. Why I haven’t been on a horse in 39 years.”[6]

Heizmann was not the only officer to retire in the face of the President’s test ride, and several who attempted it, failed to meet the standard. The Fayetteville Weekly Observer noted, “The first fruits of the army test ride are becoming manifest in that twelve officers who are admittedly sound in head, but possibly not so in wind and limb, have been ordered before a retiring board.”[7]

Those unable or unwilling to complete the test ride were not just staff officers who hadn’t ridden in years. The Leavenworth Times reported, “Just now the army has begun to see the beginning of the weeding out process on the way in which the President is rather determined to get rid of many of the older officers now in the service.” The paper went on to report the names of two colonels, one lieutenant colonel and two majors ordered before a medical retirement board. The list included Colonel Francis W. Mansfield, commander of the 2d Infantry Regiment and West Point class of 1871, and Colonel Joseph F. Huston, who was the colonel of the 19th Infantry Regiment and West Point class of 1873.[8]

Captain Charles A. Varnum, 1897 shortly after he received his Medal of Honor. 

Also ordered before a medical retirement board, was Lieutenant Colonel Charles A. Varnum. No stranger to horses, Varnum entered the Army from West Point in 1872 as a second lieutenant in the 7th Cavalry. He rode into battle in 1876 with Major Marcus Reno where he was wounded along the Little Big Horn River. In 1890, he rode out with the 7th Cavalry to Wounded Knee Creek where he led his company in that fight, and the following day rode out to White Clay Creek where his unit was again engaged. He later was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions that day. After more than three decades in the 7th Cavalry, Varnum was serving as the lieutenant colonel of the 4th Cavalry and had recently returned from the Philippine Islands. At his retirement board, the physicians found “this officer is a very corpulent man of fifty-eight years of age…” and that he had a defective heart. They went on to conclude that “it is evident that while Colonel Varnum could do ordinary garrison duty for years to come, he is not in good condition for active service in the field.”[9]

Colonel Leverett H. Walker, photograph from West Point Association of Graduates. 

The test ride also proved fatal in at least one case. Lieutenant Colonel Leverett H. Walker of the coastal defense artillery died at the end of October just days after completing the test ride. He was West Point class of 1871. His physician explained, “Col. Walker had been suffering from heart trouble for six years. The medical board knew this and they should have forbidden him to take the ride. It undoubtedly hastened his death.” The article went on to say, “Col. Walker was a heavy man, weighing 225 pounds. The record of death… shows heart failure as the cause of death.”[10]

Some newspapers opined that certainly the President didn’t intend to apply the standard to staff officers responsible for administrative duties only. The Ottawa Daily Republic pointed to the most senior officers of the Army, some of whom carried a wide girth. 

Portrait of Major General J. Franklin Bell, Chief of Staff. General Bell died on active duty in 1919 while commanding the Department of the East. A medical exam had earlier found him unfit to deploy with his division to Europe during the War. 

It is freely declared that only a very small proportion of high ranking officers--line and staff--could pass the mildest kind of a physical examination. Among the officers of high rank in poor health holding responsible positions with credit are Major General [J. Franklin] Bell, chief of staff; Major General [Fred C.] Ainsworth, adjutant general, and Major General [John F.] Weston, who is to succeed Gen. Wood in command of the troops in the Philippines. They are generally recognized as among the ablest and most efficient officers in the army, but it is questionable if any one of the three could withstand the hardships of a real campaign.[11]

On December 2, 1907, President Roosevelt addressed that very issue in an executive order when he wrote, “It is just as much the duty of all officers of the army to adopt such measures and pursue such habits as will maintain a physical condition fit for active services, as to cultivate their minds in fitting them for the intellectual duties of their profession.”[12]

The President also went on to indicate that the 15-mile test ride was not stringent enough, either to assure the physical readiness of his officers or for culling those no longer fit for active service. In the same executive order, “The president now requires every field officer to make a daily practice march of not less than thirty miles for three days in succession each year. All officers are also required to accompany their commands on the monthly practice marches.” The dreaded 15-mile test ride was extended to 90 miles. The President did, however, recognize that at least one branch did not require such arduous physical activity. “Tests suitable to the character of service required of them should also be prescribed for field officers of Seacoast Artillery.” Perhaps Colonel Walker’s death swayed the President toward a less stringent standard for that arm of the military.[13]

The new test was codified in general orders and by 1911 was written into the Guide for the Use of Officers of the Inspector General’s Department.[14] The 90-mile test ride was still in effect in 1918 as the Army mobilized for the Great War. The annual requirement for the ride was detailed in Article V of Compilation of General Orders, Circulars and Bulletins of the War Department that year and included President Roosevelt’s December 1907 Executive Order. “All officers on the active list… above the grade of captain will take riding tests of 30 miles each day for three consecutive days…. One of the rides will be concluded within 6 hours and 30 minutes and two within 7 hours and 30 minutes each.” The Coast Artillery Corps was still exempt from the 90-mile ride. Instead those officers were required to complete a 50-mile march over the course of three days. The 1918 instructions also detailed that, “Field officers of the permanent staff corps who are 60 years of age and over will be excused from the annual physical test,” but still subject to an annual physical exam.[15]

President Roosevelt’s Rough Rider Test was an effective method of identifying those officers who were not able to stand the rigors of active Army service. It was used to cull the herd of the elderly, corpulent, and infirm. Moreover, it drove field grade officers to better maintain an active lifestyle to ensure successful completion of the annual requirement. Today’s Army Physical Readiness Test with its pushups, sit ups, and two-mile run, bears little resemblance to the Test Ride of the old Army. But more than a century ago, that first test to gauge the physical stamina of its officer corps began the annual requirement to ensure all our Soldiers are fit to fight.

Ogden's U. S. Army Uniforms, 1902 - 1907 Lieutenant General, Officers of the Staff and Line and trumpeter. From Xenophon Group International (http://www.xenophon-mil.org/milhist/usarmy/ogden/p2010020s.htm)