Theodore Roosevelt´s WW1 volunteers.

Roosevelt had been raising volunteers and selected officiers ( like former Deadwood lawman Seth Bullock), but after first approval, he had been turned down and an intervention with president Wilson, he was turned down. What if the WW1 rough riders actually saw action on the Western Front ?
 
To quote a post of mine from some months back about Wilson's refusing TR's request:

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I wouldn't assume that this was necessarily done out of spite. There were military arguments for it, as pointed out in C. H. Cramer, *Newton D. Baker: A Biography*

"After war was declared in early April Roosevelt went to Washington to press his case personally. He saw Wilson at the White House; Baker went to see the ex-President at the home of his daughter, Alice Roosevelt Longworth. Both conversations were fruitless. On this issue both the President and Baker knew that they had additional support from our English allies; General Tom Bridges of the British Mission in Washington had told the President that the war in Europe was too serious for untrained amateurs. Bridges had warned the British Chief of Staff against any American volunteer force, and had averred his opinion that the Germans would ridicule, and the British and French would be depressed by, a hastily organized expedition of nonprofessional soldiers from the United States, Baker was also delighted to receive the support of a prominent Republican, ex-President William Howard Taft, who had broken with Roosevelt before the presidential election of 1912. Taft wrote the Secretary of War that it was hard for the public "to tear away from the traditions of volunteering handed down to us from the various wars regarded only in the light of ultimate success, and without the slightest analysis of the enormous waste and useless slaughter due to such an illogical and really absurd system." Baker sent the Taft letter to Wilson, who was pleased enough with the commentary of the 350-pound former President to observe: "Taft is certainly acting in a mighty big way."

When the epistolary combat was resumed Baker wrote Roosevelt, with some confidence, that the War College had recommended that no troops be sent until after an adequate period of training, that these divisions would be commanded by men who had devoted their lives exclusively to the study and pursuit of military matters, and that this purely military policy did not undertake to estimate "what, if any, sentimental value would attach to a representation of the United States in France by a former President of the United States," Roosevelt thanked Baker for his "frank and courteous letter" and then disagreed vehemently with every argument in it. He thought the policy outlined by Baker came from military men of the "red-tape and pipe-clay school, who are hide bound in the pedantry of ... wooden militarism. . . ." He thought Baker had forgotten that in Cuba he "commanded troops in action in the most important battle fought by the United States during the last half century.""

https://archive.org/stream/newtondbakerabio006308mbp#page/n113/mode/2up/

Yes, TR did have military experience in Cuba. But the art of war had not stood still in the two decades after the Spanish-American War.

OTOH, one could argue that "Whatever the merits of this view, it did insufficient justice to the option of placing Roosevelt in a command position that would have surrounded him with experienced aides with whom he would consult on the newer realities of war." https://books.google.com/books?id=LCEsAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA110 But while it may have been a mistake, it did have considerable military backing, and it certainly seems a curious thing to *hate* Wilson for. (*Politically*, no doubt it was unwise, since Republicans understandably ascribed the worst possible motives to the refusal, and it therefore hardened their opposition to Wilson.)

(BTW, TR told Elihu Root that if he went he did not expect to survive the war, but to be buried in the soil of France. Root replied, "Theodore, if we can just convince Wilson of that, he's sure to grant your request.")
 
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