Page:American Boy's Life of William McKinley.djvu/87

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OF WILLIAM McKINLEY
59

CHAPTER VII


Winter in Camp—Dividing up with the Soldier Boys—A Disagreeable March—Battle of Cloyd Mountain—A Teamster's Tribute


Having assisted in the defeat and capture of Morgan and his raiders, the Twenty-third Ohio returned to Charleston, Virginia, and there went into winter camp, where it remained until the end of the following April.

The days proved long and dreary to the soldier boys, especially to those who could not obtain furloughs for the purpose of seeing their folks at home. There was a great deal of sleet and rain, and often a chilling wind would come up calculated to freeze the marrow in one's bones. Truly war isn't all glory, and Lieutenant McKinley found it so. But he stuck to his duty, and his old army friends say that he tried to make the best of the situation.

In those days delicacies were hard to get, and those who managed to obtain them