pushing forward, the rebels advanced upon us in strong force. Our regiment was quickly formed in the woods, and charged over rocks and broken ground, through deep underbrush under the heavy fire of the enemy at short range, and after one of the hottest fights of the war, we drove them out of the woods into an open field near the hilltop. Another charge was ordered by Hayes. No sooner had he given the word of command than a minie ball from the enemy shattered his arm above the elbow, crushing the bone to fragments. He called to a soldier to tie his handkerchief about the wound, but, turning faint, he fell, his men passing over and beyond him into the fight, whence he had ordered them. When he regained consciousness, Hayes found himself under a heavy fire, with the bullets pelting the ground all about him. He feared that his men were retreating, but he was soon reassured, when on calling out he was carried safely into friendly cover."

This is the story of the battle as McKinley tells it to show the bravery of Hayes, the commander; but while McKinley says nothing of himself, the story shows how fiercely the battle raged, and how bravely the Ohio boys marched into a terrific fire. McKinley's regiment made three successful charges in that fight, and lost nearly two hundred men half of the effective force - in action. The charges were all with the bayonet, which shows that the Ohio boys were in the thick of the fight most of the time. Although the loss of the Union forces was great, the enemy's loss was heavier.

"The colors of the regiment were riddled," says Whitelaw Reid in his Ohio in the War,' "the blue field was almost entirely carried away by shells and bullets."

After Hayes was wounded, Major Comly took command of the regiment, and led it with his accustomed bravery the rest of the day. Many interesting incidents are told of the battle. So hotly was the ground disputed that in manv cases the wounded on both sides were left huddled in the same shelter, and the Union boys and Confederates who were able to converse, talked over the war in a friendly manner, which always seems to have been the case when they were not actually engaged in firing at each other.

"What regiment do you belong to, and where are you from?" asked a wounded Northern officer of a Confederate lying close by. The southerner answered that he was major of a North Carolina regiment.

"Well, you came a long way to fight us," said the north

erner.

"Where are you from?" asked the Confederate major. "I am from Ohio."

"Well, you came a good way to fight us."

And the enemies continued to talk in that friendly manner while the fight was raging fiercely about them.

McKinley and his comrades were perfectly well aware that this bloody day's work was only the beginning of more serious business directly ahead of them. The real purpose of the Confederates was to capture the city of Washington, in the expectation that Maryland would join their cause and insure final victory. The battle of South Mountain forced General Lee to retreat over the Antietam to Sharpsburg. For the next two days sharp skirmishes took place between different detachments, and on the 17th the battle of Antietam began in earnest.

CHAPTER VI.

SECOND LIEUTENANT AT NINETEEN - PROMOTED FOR BRAVERY AT ANTIETAM.

Antietam, the Bloodiest Day of the Civil War-The Hard Struggle around the Corn-field Surrounded by Woods - Varying Fortunes of the Day - No time for Rest or for Refreshment Famished and Thirsty - Stragglers give Commissary-Sergeant McKinley an Idea - Two Mule Teams Loaded with Hot Coffee and Hot Meats - McKinley's Brave Dash under Constant Fire Cheers for McKinley and his Coffee-Fighting with Renewed Energy - The Day Won-McKinley Promoted to be Second Lieutenant for his Gallantry - Heading off Morgan's Remarkable Raid - The Terrible March to Join Crook - Penetrating a Country Infested with Guerrillas.

T

HE enemy in retiring behind Antietam Creek, had succeeded in occupying a strong position—a rug

ged and wooded plateau, descending to the banks of the Antietam, which at that point is a deep stream, with few fords, and crossed by three stone bridges. On all favorable points the enemy's artillery was posted, and their reserves, hidden from view by the hills on which their line of battle was formed, could manoeuver without being seen by the Union army. From the shortness of their line, they could also easily reinforce any point which needed. strengthening. The 16th was spent in reconnoitering and in hurrying up the ammunition and supply trains, which

had been delayed by the rapid march of the troops. During the day, the enemy opened a heavy fire of artillery, which was promptly returned.

By daylight on the 17th, having crossed the Antietam by the bridge on the Hagerstown Road, General Hooker attacked the enemy's forces in front of him, and drove them from the open field in front of the first line of woods, into a second line of woods beyond. Here the battle raged fiercely for a time, and swayed to and fro with varying fortunes. The scene of the heaviest fighting was a piece of plowed land nearly inclosed by woods, and entered by a cornfield in the rear of the crest of the hill.

Our troops suffered severely the loss in officers and men was frightful- but towards the end of the day an order was given to retake the woods and cornfield, which had been so hotly contested, and it was executed in a most gallant style. The enemy was driven out, and the federal troops were in undisputed possession of the whole field.

The Twenty-third Ohio, to which young Sergeant McKinley belonged, was right in the heat of one of the hottest fights of that campaign. It was a bloody day. The total loss to the Union army in killed, wounded, and missing, was 12,409 that of the Confederates was at least as great. The Ohio men had gone into the battle at daylight, without breakfast, without even coffee. Raging as the battle did, it was not strange that early in the afternoon the men were famished and thirsty, and to some extent broken in spirit. The attack of the enemy was fierce and constant, and no troops could be spared to go to the rear for refreshments.

It was in this situation that Sergeant McKinley, realizing the weakness of the men, and what caused it, con