Page:American Boy's Life of William McKinley.djvu/134

106 intended to saturate the cotton and set fire to it, and then send the handcar down the railroad grade, letting it fetch up wherever it might. If they had carried out their plan, there would have been cotton and turpentine blazing away on that track for two or three miles.

"I often wondered how Captain McKinley got the information that led him to give orders that we watch the barn, but I was never able to find out. But I think he was doing some scouting work on the quiet, with the hope of receiving a promotion."

The promotion came, by recommendation of General Sheridan, who had not forgotten the meeting with the young staff officer on the road from Winchester. He was made a major by brevet of Volunteers "for gallant and meritorious services at the battle of Opequan, Cedar Creek, and Fisher's Hill." The commission was signed by Abraham Lincoln, the President for whom he had cast his first vote in the preceding November. It was a document of which the newly appointed major was very proud, and justly so.