John G. Torbett served in Troops E and I of the First United States Volunteer Cavalry, also known as Theodore Roosevelt's "Rough Riders." His troop was one of the troops forced to stay behind in Florida, and did not take part in the Cuban Campaign.

John G. Torbett born on 20 June 1865, in Galston, Ayrshire, Scotland to coal miner Alexander Torbett and his wife Mary Greenwood Torbett. He was one of 6 children. The Torbett family immigrated to the United States in the early 1870's, settling in Allegany County, Maryland. Alexander Torbett died in 1874 and by 1880 the census indicates that the family had moved to Bloomington, Garrett County, Maryland.

John Torbett found his way west and was working as a miner when he joined the First United States Volunteer Cavalry, also known as the "Rough Riders," on 3 May 1898 at Santa Fe, New Mexico. At the time of his enlistment, he was described as being unmarried, five feet, six inches tall, with a dark complexion, black hair, and brown eyes. Torbett made himself slightly younger, indicating he was thirty years of age, rather than his actual age of thirty-three. He was initially assigned to Troop E and then transferred to Troop I on 12 May 1898. It was a fateful move. Troop E was sent to Cuba. Troop I was one of the four troops ordered to stay behind in Florida. When the hostilities ended in Cuba, the entire regiment was sent to Camp Wikoff, Long Island, New York, where he was discharge on 15 Sept 1898.

In 1900, John G. Torbett was living at Ouray, Colorado and working for the Durango and Rio Grande Southern Railroad as a fireman. Later, he returned to mining. In 1904, he was working at the Ochsner and Sullivan coal mine, near Durango, Colorado and living in company housing. During the evening hours of 9 May 1904, he was reading by candlelight and fell asleep. The candle set the cabin on fire, killing him.