wooded, steep and difficult to ascend, and was skirted by a stream of water from two to three feet deep. The approach was through a beautiful meadow, five or six thousand yards in width.

Crook's men arrived shortly before midday on the 9th, and quickly came within cannon shot of the enemy, who opened fire upon them. It was clear at the start that Jenkins was very strongly fortified, and that his position could not be taken without the hottest kind of fighting. One attack was made and repulsed, when General Crook came to Colonel Hayes and ordered him, with his brigade and the brigade on his right, to cross the meadow and charge up the hill upon the batteries, adding that he would accompany him. The two brigades formed in the borders of the woods and marched up in perfect line. At the word of command, the regiment advanced at a double-quick across the meadow, under a heavy fire of musketry and artillery, until it came to the edge of the woods. The Confederate fortifications on the woody hill could not be seen, and at the foot of the hill was the creek, which had also remained unseen; but the Ohio boys dashed through it, and started up the hill at a point so steep that the ground above protected them from the enemy's fire. Stopping for a minute to take breath, and shake the water out of their boots, they charged up the hill again.

But as they passed over the protecting curve of the hill, they faced a murderous fire. Officers and men fell in fearful slaughter on all sides. For a moment the whole line seemed to waver and go down, but the men who were not hit pushed on there was no straggling. The officers called for a charge, the men responded cheerfully and were soon

at the fort, which was an earthwork rather hastily thrown up and strengthened with fence rails stuck endwise into it and through it. It was a very difficult embankment to surmount, and the enemy held it in perfect confidence.

All accounts of the battle state that Hayes's men were the first to scramble over the enemy's fortifications, and were the bravest in that fierce struggle for the guns. The first to reach one of the enemy's guns was Private Kosht, a boy of eighteen, a new recruit in Company G, of which Lieutenant McKinley was soon to be made the captain. He sprang from the line with a shout, and hung his cap on the muzzle of one of the enemy's cannons.

Hayes was greatly pleased with the bravery of his men, and in this engagement, as in others, he recognized the superior qualities of McKinley as a soldier. In a letter written home ten days later, Hayes says: "My command in battles and on the march behaved to my entire satisfaction; none did, none could have done, better. We had a most conspicuous part in the battle of Cloyd Mountain, and were so lucky! I hardly know what I would change in it except to restore life and limb to the killed and wounded."

In the only reference which we can find to this desperate battle in McKinley's speeches, he says: "The advance across the meadow in full sight of the enemy, and in range of their guns through the creek, and up over the ridge, was magnificently executed, and the hand-to-hand combat in the fort was as desperate as any witnessed during the Still another charge was made and the rebels again driven back. On we hurried to Dublin Depot, on the Virginia & Tennessee Railroad, burning the bridges there, tearing up the track, and rendering the railroad useless for

war.

the transportation of soldiers or supplies. Then the New River bridge was destroyed, and then with frequent encounters we went on to Staunton, Va."

At Staunton on the 8th of June, the Ohio brigade joined General Hunter's command, and on the 11th, the corps arrived before Lexington, which was taken after an artillery and sharp-shooter fight for three hours.

On the 14th, the Ohio brigade was led to within two miles of Lynchburg, where it drove a body of the enemy up the Virginia & Tennessee Railroad, capturing four pieces of their artillery. That night the army camped near Lynchburg, and so near a body of rebels that the men of both sides took rails from the same fence for their fires. After lying in camp for four days, the command set out to Lynchburg, when the news came that the enemy, heavily reinforced, was about to attack Hunter's center. The Union forces. met and repulsed this attack, which was a very sharp one; but the same evening it was found that reinforcements for the enemy were pouring in from Richmond, and the retreat of the Union side began, with a rapid march toward the town of Liberty.

"All our

McKinley, in speaking of the retreat, said: commissary supplies were consumed, and almost without food we marched and fought our way back, closely pursued by the enemy."

But the men never faltered, and no murmurs were heard. Occasionally men would drop out exhausted, but not a word of complaint was spoken. They reached Buford Gap about 10 o'clock on the morning of the 20th; Salem about 9 a. m. the next day. The skirmishing continued without any intermission until 10 o'clock that night, when they reached

the foot of North Mountain and enjoyed a little sleep. At last, on the 27th, a supply train was met on Big Sewell Mountain, and to use Hayes's words: "We stopped and ate, marched and ate, camped about dark, and ate all night.”

In those nine days, the Ohio men marched 180 miles, fighting nearly all the time, with very little rest, very little eating, and very little chance for either. They had crossed three ranges of the Alleghanies four times, the ranges of the Blue Ridge twice, and marched several times all day and all night without sleep.

It is a strong comment upon the will power of McKinley, who just before his enlistment had been compelled to leave his college life because of impaired health, that he was able to endure, without sickness or serious mishap, not only the warm engagements in which the Twenty-third Ohio had participated, but some of the severest and most exhausting marches in the war.

Remaining at Charleston until the 10th, Crook's command was ordered East to meet Early, then invading Maryland and Pennsylvania. On the 18th, the Ohio men were sent without cavalry and with but two sections of howitzer battery to attack more than 20,000 of Early's men, about ten miles beyond Harper's Ferry. They cut their way through two divisions of rebel cavalry which surrounded them, and got safely back to camp, joining Crook at Winchester on the 22d. Here, two days afterward, the Ohio regiment shared in the first defeat it had known, but it was a battle in which McKinley made himself conspicuous for his bravery.

CHAPTER VIII.

MCKINLEY AT KERNSTOWN - A RIDE IN THE FACE OF DEATH.

Deceived as to Early's Movements - Crook's Troops Left Alone in the Field Worn Out by Hard Marches and Fighting Aroused by the Booming of Cannon on a Bright Sunday Morning - Preparing for the Battle - Ohio Men Led to the Front of the Line Lieutenant McKinley one of the Staff Officers Gallant Resistance of the Staff Brigade - Hayes Sends McKinley on a Dangerous Mission - He Gallops across the Field in Front of the Enemy - Shells Burst about him and Cannon Balls Plough the Ground in his Path - Saving the Guns from the Enemy - He comforts an Old Lady.

A

FTER a wearisome retreat from a raid against Early's

forces, it was thought that the Confederates were at a safe distance, and would occasion no further trouble for some little time, and the exhausted Ohio regiment prepared for a season of much-needed rest at a camp near Winchester, where there was one of the noted springs of the valley gushing in abundance from a crevice in the limestone rock. The boys rolled themselves in their blankets, and laid down in the long grass under the shade of the towering oak trees, and devoted the better part of two days to sleep, of which they had enjoyed so little in their long campaign. It was supposed by General Grant that General Lee had ordered Early with his large army to Richmond, and as