Page:American Boy's Life of William McKinley.djvu/80

52 those fourteen months in which I served in the ranks. They taught me a great deal. I was but a schoolboy when I went into the army, and that first year was a formative period in my life, during which I learned much of men and affairs. I have always been glad that I entered the service as a private and served those months in that capacity."

Early in October the regiment returned, with the rest of the Kanawha division, to West Virginia, marching by way of Hagerstown. There was a report of a Stuart raid in Pennsylvania, and a quick march was made in that direction. Quick marches were the order of the day, and on returning to Hancock the regiment ate breakfast in Pennsylvania, dinner in Maryland, and supper in Virginia, which was certainly a remarkable accomplishment when it is considered that the troops covered the ground largely on foot.

In the middle of November the regiment went into winter quarters at the falls of the Great Kanawha. The records show that during the campaign of 1862 it marched about six hundred miles. It had lost