a flourishing agricultural and mining section. This move was made both for business and educational reasons, the place being somewhat noted for its academy. In this busy but unostentatious village, the younger McKinley began his school career. It was at first the usual tame submission to the routine of the public schools, and then a loftier and pleasanter walk in the portals of the academy. The pupil was ever obedient and progressive. He labored hard during the school sessions to improve his opportunities, and during vacations he did not hesitate to follow the custom of the times by earning pocket and book money on his own account. As he progressed with his studies, he filled in his leisure with odd clerical jobs, and taught a term of public school in a district contiguous to Poland, thus contributing materially to the expense of his academic education, as well as to the development of his intellectual organization and powers of self-control. As a boy and pupil, young McKinley gave evidence of many of those qualities which in their maturity characterized his public life. His industry and perseverance were earnests of that assiduity and persistency which afterwards enabled him to meet and conquer the hard prob lems of legislation and statescraft. His youthful love of fun, exercise and athletics gave assurance of sturdy phys ical power, equal to the hardest strains of the battlefield or the severest exactions of the political campaign or committee room. In his youthful candor and generosity of spirit, were the germs of that social elegance and pleasing political address admired as much by those who opposed as those who favored his views. In his boyish democracy were the seeds of that philanthropy which would bring the beneficences of economic legislation down to the looms and the furnace hearths, and into the domestic lives of the toiling masses. In the brightness and acquisitiveness of his youthful intellect, we see that future mastery of our industrial status, and that successful application of remedial laws which have borne such relishable fruits and have left him without a peer in popular affection. In that young faithfulness to family, in obedience, in all that reflected a noble mother's assiduous training, have been found that exalted moral life, noble integrity of purpose, severe adherence to the codes of honor that regulate our business and political estates. In short, the boyish and educational estate of William McKinley presaged the coming man with far greater accuracy than is common, even with those who have the greatest reason to appreciate the stern lessons of early years. He left the Academy at Poland when seventeen years of age, and entered Allegheny College. But his career here was brief, owing to sickness. On his return to Poland he again taught public school for a time, and also Bible class in his Sunday school, he being then a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. ARMY CAREER. A youth of McKinley's patriotism could not, of course, resist the high call to duty which came with the breaking out of the Civil war. Burning with desire to aid the cause of the Union, forgetting his unripe years and the sacrifices that one so young would have to make, he joined the band of companions that went out from Poland early in the war-June 11, 1861-and that afterwards became Company E, of the 23d Ohio Volunteers. He bore no commission, was honored by no title, but marched as private in the ranks, impelled only by the sacredness of his cause and that inward devotion to principle which actuated his entire military career. He was but a stripling of eighteen years, but as undaunted as the volunteer of stronger mould and more mature years, in whose hands the musket was less unwieldy, on whose back the knapsack was less a burden, whose limbs were stronger for fatiguing march, whose vitality was hardier against camp exposure. Hardly had he found his way to headquarters before he attracted the attention of his superiors, as one possessed of more than the usual qualities of a private soldier. He was ever attentive to duty, promptly in his place at every command, fearless of danger and exposure, an inspiration to his fellow soldiers, and withal, gave evidence of an ability to originate and execute which bade fair to be of inestimable value to those over him. His Colonel was W. S. Rosecrans who, being a West Pointer, proved to be a severe disciplinarian. If McKinley and his comrades found their school of the regiment at first a hard one, it was none the less useful, and the time would prove to be near when the advantages of discipline would become apparent. Stanley Matthews was the first Lieutenant Colonel of the regiment, and Rutherford B. Hayes, afterward, President Hayes, was its first major. Here was certainly distinguished company, and to win the favor of such men by rigid adherence to duty, and by show of superior ability was a matter of more than ordinary moment. The rendezvous of the regiment was Camp Chase, Columbus, Ohio. It had enlisted for the three months' service. On its arrival at camp, the State quota for three months' men was found to be full. But orders for three years' men had already been issued from Washington, and the 23d Ohio was asked to change the term of its enlistment. A great majority of them, including McKinley did so, and thus the regiment which had been third to enlist of the three months' men, became the first to enlist of the three years' men. The regiment continued to drill at Camp Chase during July, 1861. Owing to the promotion of General Rose'crans, E. P. Scammon became its Colonel. It was now ripe for the field, and was waiting at Clarksburg, W. Va., a mountainous, remote, difficult section infested by guerrillas. Here the regiment was not likely to meet an enemy in pitched battle, but a secret foe, who kept it on almost a continuous march by night and day, over steep mountains, through dangerous defiles, drenched with rain to-day, shelterless and foodless to-morrow, routing, chasing and scattering an adroit, swift and heartless enemy. The mountain incursion may not have called forth the highest fighting qualities of the regiment, but it was certainly a severe test of its powers of endurance, and an excellent foretaste of the real hardships of campaigning. The only engagement fought by the regiment that reached the magnitude of battle was that at Carnifex Ferry on September 10, 1861. This was a series of active skirmishes throughout the day, followed by the stealing away of the enemy at night. These operations ended by a difficult march of the regi ment to Camp Ewing on New river, which proved to be a very unhealthy spot, and where the ranks were greatly decimated by an outbreak of disease, owing to exposure and lack of proper food. In May, 1862, the regiment, now fully recruited and in good condition, left its camp, under the lead of Lieutenant Colonel Hayes, and marched upon Princeton, W. Va. The enemy first evacuated the town, but afterwards returned. A sharp engagement followed, May 15, 1862, resulting in the defeat of the Union forces. They retreated, however, in good order, but were afterward subjected to great hardship by the cutting off of their supplies. While in camp at Flat Rock, orders were received to march to Green Meadows and thence to Camp Piatt on the Great Kanawha, on the way eastward to reinforce, McClellan's army, then about to confront the forces of Lee in Maryland. In three days, the regiment covered the very difficult distance of one hundred and four miles from Green Meadows to Camp Piatt. The embarcation for Washington was speedy, and the arrival in Washington timely, for after a rest of a day or two, the regiment was on the march with McClellan toward Frederick City, Md., to head off Lee's threat upon Washington and Balti more. But now McKinley was no longer a private in the ranks. In recognition of those very executive qualities Colonel Hayes had discovered in him while at Camp Chase, he had secured his promotion to the important post of commissary sergeant, April 15, 1862, ere they left the wilderness of West Virginia. This brought him into a staff relation with his colonel, and they not only became friends, but their intimacy proved to be deep and lasting. The preliminary battle of dreadful Antietam had now to be fought, September 14, 1862. McKinley's regiment, still commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Hayes, was at tached to Cox's division, which was the division in the advance of McClellan's army. The battle opened by an attack of this advance upon the enemy, strongly entrenched up the mountain side. A murderous fire at short range |