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Henry W. Nash, (September 9, 1869 – July 5, 1902) was an Arizona pioneer who served as a Sergeant in Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders during the Spanish–American War. Later, he was one of the first Thomasites sent by the U.S. government to establish an English language-based public education system in the Philippines in the early 1900s.
Harry Nash grew up in Mount Sterling and attended school a few miles south in Vevay, Indiana. He went on to college at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana.
In Arizona, Nash taught at many schools in Gila County and Yavapai County, including the Strawberry School near Payson, Arizona. The Strawberry School had been built in 1884, largely through the efforts of Nash's uncle, Lafayette P. Nash, and was under the jurisdiction of Yavapai County school superintendent Buckey O'Neill. Harry Nash would become friends with O'Neill, who served as Sheriff and then Mayor of Prescott, Arizona in the 1890s. Whenever school was not in session, Nash found work as a ranch hand and cowboy, but became especially interested in mining. As time went on, he would study assaying in San Francisco and owned "some fine claims" in Gila County.
In 1896, the National Direct Legislation League ("N.D.L.L.") was founded, and both Nash and O'Neill became active in local efforts to reduce public corruption by establishing an initiative and referendum system that allowed direct legislation by the territory's citizens. In 1897, Nash was appointed the N.D.L.L. Vice-president and Organizer for the Arizona Territory, and wrote a weekly column in the Prescott Pick and Drill promoting the cause. With the aid of O'Neill, Nash secured the passage of several minor direct legislation laws in the territorial legislature.
The 1st Volunteer Cavalry would soon be widely known as the "Rough Riders" under the command of Colonel Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt had previously pushed for American support of independence in his role as Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Roosevelt's Rough Riders included many college athletes, cowboys, and ranchers. In April, Buckey O'Neill had also joined the Regiment as Captain of Troop A, and thus was Nash's Troop commander. O'Neill tried to establish an entire Cavalry Regiment made up of Arizona cowboys, but only Troop A and Troop B, with 107 men each, eventually fought in Cuba.
Nash and the other men mustered in at Fort Whipple Barracks near Prescott, Arizona. On May 4, Arizona's Troops marched down to the Prescott town plaza for a grand send-off before they boarded a train headed to San Antonio for difficult and intensive training with "half broken range horses". Nash apparently did well, as he was promoted to Sergeant on May 14. At the end of May, they traveled from San Antonio to Tampa, Florida, their embarkation point. On June 13, eight Troops, including A and B, boarded the transport Yucatan No. 8 for Cuba. Four Troops from the Regiment and almost all the men's horses were left behind.
The Rough Riders landed at Daiquirí, Cuba, on June 22, 1898. Nash, by then, had been made Troop A's Second Duty Sergeant, the third highest ranking non-commissioned officer in the Troop after the First Sergeant and the First Duty Sergeant. The next afternoon, the Regiment hiked twelve miles through a jungle to Siboney. On June 24, Nash and the Rough Riders saw their first action at the Battle of Las Guasimas, as 940 Americans advanced steadily against 4000 Spaniards. Nash also participated in the decisive Battle of San Juan Hill on July 1, 1898, where the Rough Riders, led by Colonel Roosevelt, charged and took Kettle Hill, driving the Spanish forces from their trenches. But the victory was not without cost as Captain Buckey O'Neill was killed in action while fighting that day. The Regiment kept the pressure on through the Siege of Santiago that ultimately ended the war in Cuba within a few more weeks.
The camps of the Rough Riders were infested with malaria, and the men were more affected by the mosquito-borne disease than they had been by Spanish bullets. On August 8, the weary Regiment shipped out of Santiago, headed for Camp Wikoff at Montauk Point, New York on Long Island. Upon reaching Camp Wikoff on August 25, Nash was hospitalized with "malarial fever" contracted while in Cuba.
Nash and the rest of the Regiment mustered out of the service on September 15, 1898, and he arrived back home in Globe on October 7 as a war hero. Upon his return, Nash gave "a very interesting account of the Santiago campaign" and paid "a high tribute to the bravery and soldierly bearing of the late Capt. Bucky O'Neil who commanded A Troop." He soon resumed teaching, but headed to the mountains in search of gold, silver and copper after his school sessions were over. The Arizona Silver Belt descriptively noted his departure from Globe in May 1900 as he headed out in search of that summer's fortune: "Harry Nash, the straight up and all around hustler, soldier and miner, left Friday for the South."
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