In the spring of 1898, John J. Turner resigned from his position as superintendent of the Cliffside cemetery in New Jersey to join the 71st Regiment (New York). After the 71st arrived in Camp Tampa (Florida), he was reassigned to Company D, First Cavalry "Rough Riders." He fought in the battles of La Guassima on June 24th and El Caney and San Juan on July 1st and 2nd. Sgt Turner is shown in the photo at the left. The arrow, I assume, is pointing towards him. Shown below is a larger photo of Troop D, Rough Riders.
In June 1918 the Beverly Times published an account of the Spanish-American War written by John J. Turner. The image to the left shows a clip from that article. Sometime around 1995-1997 I transcribed the entire article into a Word document. I then submitted it to the Spanish-American War Centennial web site for publication. Click here to see the article.
January 8, 1919United Shoe
Was One of Roosevelt's Rough Riders
J. J. Turner of the G. R. O. setting up department heard with deepest regret the news of the death of Theodore Roosevelt, with whom he served as sergeant in Troop D of Roosevelt's Rough Riders in the Cuban campaign. Mr. Turner has placed the flag on his home at half mast out of respect to his former commander. Mr. Turner learned to love and admire the dead ex-president through personal contact with him while a member of the Rough Riders and kept up his acquaintance with him long after the Spanish war. It was through Mr. Roosevelt that Mr. Turner's son, who is now a captain in the regular army in France, was named to enter West Point, from which he graduated with high honors. Mr. Turner has written a history of the Rough Riders from the time it was mustered in until the muster out and in which he lauds Col. Roosevelt in the highest terms.
Notice the sentence I underlined in the above paragraph. This is a complete mystery to me. Of the known children of J.J. Turner, none were old enough to have gone through West Point and be a captain in the Army in 1919. The oldest known child, Arthur, would've been 19 at the time so it could not have been a reference to him.
As of this date, February 16, 2008, I am attempting to locate corroborating information concerning J.J. Turner's service during the Spanish-American War. I have been unable to find any record of him having to do with the 71st New York and 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry (Rough Riders). I plan to submit an SF 180 to the national archives to locate his service records. I have found out that this difficulty is not unusual. He served for probably no more than six months and additionally, he was transferred from one unit to another. I am not surprised by the difficulty I am having finding records of him. I will come back to this post once I hear from the national archives people.
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