Henry Clay Green – 1868-1898
Henry Clay Green enlisted as a trooper in Troop E, 1st Regiment, US Cavalry Volunteers, also known as “the Rough Riders,” on May 6, 1898. He died on July 1 from a bullet wound in the chest during the first charge up San Juan Hill, one of only three who died on the hill. He was educated at Kansas University and, after leaving school, followed mining. He was foreman of the Stephenson & Bennett Mine near Las Cruces, New Mexico, and at the time of the first call for volunteers to go to Cuba, he held a position at the Ortiz Mine near Cerrillos where he earned $3 per day. Buried first where he fell in Cuba, Green was later returned home to New Mexico for burial. He remains to this day in the Cerrillos Protestant Cemetery. Theodore Roosevelt payed his respects to Green’s parents at the July 4, 1899 Rough Rider Reunion in Las Vegas, New Mexico. The detail below of an 1898 painting by Frederick Remington, Charge of the Rough Riders at San Juan Hill, shows the moment of Green’s death; Roosevelt is on the horse.
- From Paul Secord/Homer Milford “The Galisteo Basin and Cerrillos Hills”
Figure 1 - Charge of the Rough Riders at San Juan Hill Frederic Remington
Figure 2 - Newspaper Article Published in Cerrillos Rustler
Figure 3 - Military Marker Cerrillos Protestant Cemetery