Question

1. The "Rough Riders" were

Answer 1

The "Rough Riders" is the name that was given to the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry from 1898. You can read more about what they did on any website. I know Wikipedia is not the best source, but this particular page happens to have tons of references, so it is pretty reliable and you can also look some at this other site.
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rough_Riders
The World of 1898: The Spanish-American War: http://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/roughriders.html

Answer 2

@AlexiaBurch