September 14. William McKinley. In 1861, McKinley was a 17-year-old teacher in a country school when the Civil War broke out, and he enlisted. By the end of the war in 1865, he was a major. By 1897, he had become the 25th President of the United States. He was a man who knew his duty and did it. On this date in 1901, McKinley died from a gunshot wound, a wound inflicted by an assassin.
Faithfulness to God demands daily decisions.
In July of 1864, 21-year-old Second Lieutenant McKinley found himself on Lieutenant Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes’s staff, currently in the Virginia valley near Kernstown.
The Confederates began firing.
The Union army, having underestimated the South’s strength, retreated. Hayes turned to McKinley, a young man he had come to think of as a son, and gave him a task—a dangerous task that would require more courage than Lieutenant McKinley had ever shown.
“There’s a regiment caught in the orchard, still under fire,” Hayes told McKinley. “We need them to move into retreat—if they haven’t already fallen.”
Years before, McKinley had given his life to the Lord. And he had no doubt of the rightness of the North’s cause. So he put his life in God’s hands and simply mounted his horse and took off toward the advancing enemy and the stranded regiment.
In spite of the constant shelling from the enemy, McKinley charged across open fields while his fellow officers watched in concern. The young man directed his mount to sail over fences in plain view. To forge through ditches. To keep moving forward.
The air filled with vapor from the barrage of cannons, and shells whizzed all around. Then one exploded very near to him; the smoke obscured him from view. All the officers who marked his progress flinched, for Lieutenant McKinley was a favorite with everyone, enlisted and officer alike. They feared Lieutenant Colonel Hayes had sent the promising young man to his death.
Then suddenly, “Out of this smoke emerged his wiry little brown horse with McKinley still firmly seated and as erect as a hussar.” (That’s a Hungarian horseman.)
Hope soared as McKinley reached the orchard. Once there, he directed the stray regiment to join the retreat. After one last volley with the enemy, the regiment followed McKinley to safety. They soon fell in line with their brigade to march back to a more secure position.
Young McKinley returned to the side of his commanding officer. Hayes turned to him, “I never expected to see you in life again,” he said.
McKinley simply smiled, acknowledging he had done the duty asked of him for the sake of the men in that regiment.
“We know love by this, that [Jesus] laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 John 3:16 NASB).
Faithfulness to God demands daily decisions. Can you be counted on?
Freidel, Frank, and Hugh Sidey. “William McKinley.” The White House. Accessed July 1, 2020. https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/william-mckinley/.
Hawks, Steve A. “Two Future U.S. Presidents Fight at Kernstown wayside marker.” Stone Sentinels. Accessed July 1, 2020. http://stonesentinels.com/less-known/battles-of-kernstown/two-future-presidents-wm/.
Story read by: Daniel Carpenter
Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter
Audio production: Joel Carpenter
Story written by: Shelli Mandeville, https://worthy.life/
Editor: Teresa Crumpton, https://authorspark.org/
Project manager: Blake Mattocks
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