In the short war between the United States and Spain in 1898, in which the most progressive and liberal of modern nations was pitted against a nation whose greatness began to wane soon after it expelled the Jews in the year of the discovery of America, a large number of Jews enlisted as volunteers, besides the number who were in the regular service of the Army and the Navy. It is roughly estimated that about four thousand Jews were found in the military and naval forces which operated against Spain[51] most of them immigrants of the last period, of whom a considerable proportion had served in the armies of Russia, Austria and Roumania before their arrival here. The Jewish army officers of the highest rank were four Majors, who were officers in the army before the outbreak of the war. They were: Major Surgeon Daniel M. Appel (b. in Pennsylvania, 1854) and Major Surgeon Aaron H. Appel (b. 1856), both of whom are now colonels in the Medical Corps of the regular army; the third was Major (of volunteers) George W. Moses, a native of Ohio, who graduated from the Military Academy of West Point in 1892, and was a Lieutenant in the 3rd Cavalry Regiment when he was assigned to duty as a major of volunteers and returned to the regular service in 1899; the fourth was Major Felix Rosenberg of Cleveland, O., who was stationed at Fort Thomas. There were also in the army about a half dozen Captains, one of whom, Moses G. Zalinski (b. in New York, 1863), a graduate of the Artillery School (1894), is now a Lieutenant-Colonel in the regular army. There were also about a dozen Lieutenants, most of whom graduated from the Military Academy of West Point. Several hundred Jews served as non-commissioned officers and privates in the regular army, or enlisted as United States Volunteers. The bulk of the Jewish soldiers, however, served in the regiments of State Volunteers, and were represented among the soldiers of every State of the Union, having among them a goodly proportion of non-commissioned officers, and also a number who held commissions from the State organizations. They were naturally represented in largest numbers in the regiments or companies which were organized in the large cities; some companies in New York regiments containing between twenty-five and thirty Jewish recruits. At least a half dozen Jews are known to have served in the First United States Volunteer Cavalry Regiment (known as the regiment of “Rough Riders”), which was organized by Theodore Roosevelt (b. in New York City, 1858), who later served as President of the United States, from September 14, 1901, to March 4, 1905, as the successor of President William McKinley (1843–1901), and then served a full term (March 4, 1905, to March 4, 1909), until he was succeeded by the present incumbent, William Howard Taft (b. in Cincinnati, O., 1857).