The work accomplished on that day marked young Lieutenant McKinley as both modest and brave. Early in 1863, William McKinley, Jr., was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant, but was retained on staff duty, as his superior ability, coolness and rare judgment made him invaluable to the regimental commander. That year the regiment saw service almost exclusively in West Virginia, engaged in the scouting duty which alone preserved that territory from falling into the possession of the enemy. It was a wearying year, trying on the men without giving them opportunity to share the glory that more active soldiering would have brought. They were marched east and west, north and south. It was a year of inaction, so far as achieving results were concerned. And in this severer test Lieutenant McKinley proved himself a soldier of the best ability. He kept up that esprit du corps throughout the regiment, without which it would have been ill prepared for service when the time for action came. This hour—this opportunity—came in late midsummer, when Morgan’s raiders swept that terrifying march to the north of the Ohio river—that raid which struck the great North with the shock of a war experience which they had so happily escaped. The Twenty-third was just near enough to hear the summons and fly to the confronting of Morgan and his men. And it was his engagement with McKinley’s regiment at Buffington’s Island, Ohio, which so crippled the raiders as to completely disarrange their entire plan of campaign, and pave the way for that hopeless march from which they never returned. In that engagement the young Ohio officer bore himself with all bravery, and won a generous share in the honor of crushing the advance of a force which was seriously affecting the moral tone of the whole loyal North. In the spring of 1864 the Twenty-third marched to Brownstown, on the Kanawha river, where it became a part of the force of General Crook, who was then preparing for his celebrated raid on the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad. The expedition differed little in experience, in danger and in hardship from the everyday service in West Virginia through the previous year. On June 20 the rear of the Union forces, consisting of Hayes’ brigade, held Buford Gap against the enemy’s advance, and then made a hasty night retreat for the van, supposed to be at Salem. But Hunter was not at Salem. The enemy had attacked and cut off his trains, and had forced him beyond the city. Crook’s rear guard was in a manner surrounded, and it was only by rare strategy and brave fighting that he extricated his command from the dilemma. There can be no question the service of Lieutenant William McKinley that day saved the little army, and prevented, in a time when reverses were costly, the recurrence of a Confederate victory.