Who were the commanders of the Rough Riders?

Answer 1

Most people would say Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt had an absolute genius for self-promotion, and made sure the newspaper correspondents present with the army in Cuba spelled his name correctly, in the numerous stories covering his every move he made sure they had all the details of, to keep his heroic name before the public. Roosevelt rode this wave of self-generated publicity to the Vice Presidency two years later, and the year after that became President when an assassin killed McKinley.

But Roosevelt was the Lieutenant Colonel, second in command of the 1st US Volunteer Cavalry, better known as Teddy's "Rough Riders". The actual commander of the regiment was Colonel Leonard Wood. Wood lacked the capacity for blatant self-promotion, and so never got to be president, but there is a major army post in Missouri named for him.

Answer 2

Teddy Roosevelt

Answer 3

Leonard Wood