Page:American Boy's Life of William McKinley.djvu/81

Rh valuable officers and a large number of men; in round figures, over two hundred. Many were sick, and the camp equipments were no longer of the best. More than this, the eyes of every volunteer were now wide open to the fact that the soldiers of the South could fight just as bravely and sturdily as those of the North, and that the war was likely, in consequence, to last for a long while to come.

"Tell you what, it ain't going to be no picnic, after all," drawled one of the privates. "It's going to be hard work and plenty of it."

Yet for the time being there was little to do. The regiment remained where it was until the middle of March, 1863, when it was ordered to Charleston, Virginia, remaining there several months. During this time Lieutenant McKinley was occupied in drilling a portion of the command. His spare time was used in reading history and the biographies of noted military men, for he was now thinking strongly of making the army his chosen profession. In speaking of those days, one old veteran has said:—