Page:American Boy's Life of William McKinley.djvu/79

Rh sneer. Instead, when he heard of it, he was deeply impressed, and, later on, told Governor Todd the particulars.

"Such a fellow deserves promotion," said the governor, and at once wrote to headquarters, requesting that McKinley be made a lieutenant. The request was favorably considered, and on September 24, 1862, William McKinley became a second lieutenant. A loving attention to duty had won him his shoulder straps. Of this incident, Ex-President Hayes, in making an address years afterward, said:—

"From Sergeant McKinley's hand every man in the regiment was served with hot coffee and warm meats, a thing which had never occurred before under similar circumstances in any army in the world. He passed under fire and delivered with his own hands those things so essential to the men for whom he was laboring."

As a lieutenant McKinley was warmly received, although some mourned over losing such a conscientious commissary sergeant. Of his days as a private, McKinley himself wrote:—

"I always look back with pleasure upon