The Menger Hotel

In 1898 then United States citizen Theodore Roosevelt sat in this very room - The Menger Bar in downtown San Antonio - and recruited a force of cowboys, seasoned ranch hands, Pawnee scouts, Ivy Leaguers, policemen, and others from society to serve as volunteers for the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry Regiment.

Roosevelt and his group of men drilled just outside of downtown and prepared to fight in the Spanish-American War.

Then, on July 1, 1898, Roosevelt and his band of Rough Riders made a charge up San Juan Hill in Cuba to win one of the most decisive battles in the war despite suffering a 76% casualty rate.