Two Future Presidents In Wartime Retreat
Hanging Rock Battlefield Trail
On June 21, 1864, two future presidents marched with Major General David Hunter’s Army of Western Virginia on its retreat from Lynchburg to West Virginia by way of Hanging Rock and the old New Castle Turnpike.
Colonel Rutherford Birchard Hayes, who would become nineteenth president, commanded the first Brigade of Brigadier General George Crook’s Second Division. The brigade consisted of troops from West Virginia and Ohio, including the 23rd Ohio. A young captain with that regiment was destined to become the twenty-fifth president of the United States. His name was William McKinley.
In addition to the battle at Lynchburg, the 23rd Ohio fought at Carnifex Ferry, Princeton, South Mountain, Antietam, Cloyds Mountain, Berryville, Winchester, Fisher’s Hill, and Cedar Creek.
Although McKinley survived the War Between the States, going on to serve in the United States House of Representatives, as governor of Ohio, and ultimately as president, ironically he was felled by bullets – not from the gunfire of wartime battles, but from an assassin.
Rutherford B. Hayes
Born in Delaware, Ohio, October 4, 1822
1852 Married to Lucy Ware Webb
1861 Major in the 23rd Ohio (Later commissioned as Colonel, Brevent [sic] Major General)
1864 Elected to United States House of Representatives (Took office in 1865)
1867 Elected Governor of Ohio (Served for three terms)
1876 Elected nineteenth President of the United States
Died in Fremont, Ohio, January 17, 1893
William McKinley
Born in Niles, Ohio, January 29, 1843
1861 Eighteen-year-old Private in the 23rd Ohio (later served as Commissary Sergeant, Second Lieutenant, Captain, Brevet Major)
1871 Married Ida Saxton
1876 Elected to United States House of Representatives
1891 Elected Governor of Ohio
1896 Elected twenty-fifth President of the United States
1900 Reelected to presidency. Shot by assassin in Buffalo, New York, September 6, 1901. Died in Buffalo from bullet wounds, September 14, 1901
Marker can be reached from the intersection of Thompson Memorial Drive (Virginia Route 311) and Kessler Mill Drive.
Courtesy hmdb.org
