Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. IV.djvu/59

WILLIAM McKINLEY 35 next day, July 25, 1864, at the age of twenty-one, McKinley was promoted to the rank of captain. The brigade continued its fighting up and down the Shenandoah valley. At Berryville, September 3, 1864, Capt. McKinley s horse was shot under him. After service on Gen. Crook s staff and that of Gen. Hancock, McKinley was assigned as acting assistant adjutant-general on the staff of Gen. Samuel S. Carroll, commanding the veteran reserve corps at Washington; where he remained through that exciting period which included the surrender of Lee to Grant at Appomattox and the assassina tion of Lincoln. Just a month before this tragedy, or on March 14, 1865, he had received from the president a commission as major by brevet in the volunteer U. S. army, "for gallant and meritorious service at the battles of Opequan, Cedar Creek, and Fisher s Hill." At the close of the war he was urged to remain in the army, but, deferring to the judgment of his father, he was mustered out with his regiment, July 26, 1865, and returned to Po land. He had never been absent a day from his command on sick leave, had only one short fur lough in his four years of service, never asked or sought promotion, and was present and active in every engagement in which his regiment partici pated. On his return to Poland with his old com pany, a complimentary dinner was given them, and