een glad
that I entered the service as a private and served those months in that
capacity."

McKinley made a good soldier and saw plenty of fighting. Six weeks after
leaving Columbus, his regiment was in the battle of Carnifex Ferry,
Western Virginia, where the only victories of the early days of the war
were won. It was the hardest kind of work, hurrying back and forth
through the mountains, drenched by rains, and on short rations most of
the time. The boy did his work well and was soon ordered to Washington,
where he became one of the units in the splendid Army of the Potomac
under General McClellan.

At Antietam, the bloodiest battle of the war, McKinley's gallantry was
so conspicuous that he was promoted to a lieutenancy. He was sent to
West Virginia again, where he was fighting continually. As an evidence
of the kind of work he did, it may be said that one morning his regiment
breakfasted in Pennsylvania, ate dinner in Maryland, and took supper in
Virginia.

Winning promotion by his fine conduct, he became captain, July 25, 1864,
and was brevetted major, on the recommendation of General Sheridan, for
conspicuous bravery at Cedar Creek and Fisher's Hill. The title, "Major
McKinley," therefore, is the military one by which the President is
remembered.

With the coming of peace, the young man found himself a veteran of the
war at the age of twenty-two, and compelled to decide upon the means of
earning his living. He took up the study of law, and was graduated from
the Albany, N.Y., law school, and admitted to the bar in 1867. He began
practice in Canton, Ohio, and, by his ability and conscientious
devotion, soon achieved success. He early showed an interest in
politics, and was often called upon to make public addresses. He
identified himself with the Republican party, and was elected district
attorney in Stark County, which almost invariably went Democratic. In
1876, he was elected to Congress, against a normal Democratic majority,
for five successive terms, being defeated when he ran the sixth time
through the gerrymandering of his district by his political opponents.

[Illustration: GREATER NEW YORK.

On January 1, 1898, Greater New York was created by the union of New
York, Brooklyn, Long Island City, and Staten Island, into one
municipality. The city now covers nearly 318 square miles, contains over
three and one-half millions inhabitants, and, next to London, is the
largest city in the world.]

During