On June 14, 1898, Lt. Col. Theodore Roosevelt and the First United States Volunteer Cavalry, known as the Rough Riders, embarked from Port Tampa for victory in the Spanish-American War. The Tampa Bay Hotel served as headquarters for general officers who came to organize an invasion force for Cuba, and it gained national attention. Lt. Col. Roosevelt and his wife, Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt, were briefly guests there. Later, Colonel Theodore Roosevelt became the 26th president of the United States of America from 1901 to 1909.