The Portrait Gallery: William McKinley

This double portrait of of William McKinley is part of a monument designed by J. B. King in 1903 that stands on the road to the Burnside Bridge on the Antietam Battlefield in Sharpsburg Maryland. It shows McKinley as a Commissary Sergeant during the Civil War and as President of the United States.

"At the Battle of Antietam, McKinley, then twenty years of age, served as the commissary sergeant of the 23rd Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry. His duty was to administer the commissary supplies, which were approximately two miles from the battlefield. During the midst of battle on 17 September 1862, McKinley risked his own life to travel to the battlefield and deliver hot coffee to all of the troops. He was elected president of the United States in 1897 and returned to Antietam in 1900 to dedicate the Maryland State Monument. McKinley's Monument was sculpted by J.B. King of the Hughes Granite and Marble Company.

The William McKinley Monument was dedicated on 13 October 1903 by the State of Ohio. It was listed on the National Register on October 15, 1966, with a confirmation National Register form updated and approved by the Keeper on February 10, 1982." -- NPS Classified Structures Report.

The allegorical female figure holding a flag and an olive branch is said to represent "the spirit of the people and their devotion to the martyred dead"

This inscription is on the rear of the Monument.

Fourteen Years Member of Congress
Twice Governor of Ohio 1892-3 and 1894-5
Twice President of United States 1897-1900 and 1901.

Sergeant McKinley Co. E. 23rd Ohio Vol. Infantry, while in charge of the Commissary Department, on the afternoon of the day of the battle of Antietam, September 17, 1862, personally and without orders served "hot coffee" and "warm food" to every man in the Regiment, on this spot and in doing so had to pass under fire.

The front of the monument has a plaque depicting McKinley serving coffee to the Ohio troops

Rutherford B. Hayes, who in 1862 was the commanding officer of the 23rd O.V.I. told the story this way.

"The bloodiest day of the war, the day on which more men were killed and wounded than on any other day of the war, was the seventeenth of September, 1862, in the battle of Antietam. That battle began at daylight. Without breakfast, without coffee, the men went into the fight and continued until after the sun went down. Early in the afternoon they were famished and thirsty. The commissary department of the brigade was under Sergeant McKinley's administration and a better choice could not have been made. For when the issue came he performed a notable deed of daring at the crisis of the battle, when it was uncertain which way victory would turn. For fitting up two wagons with necessary supplies he drove them through a storm of shells and bullets to the assistance of his hungry and thirsty fellow soldiers.

"The mules of one wagon were disabled, but McKinley drove the other safely through and was received with hearty cheers, and from his hands every man in the regiment was served with hot coffee and warm meats, a thing that had never occurred under similar circumstances in any other army in the world. He passed under the fire and delivered with his own hands those things so essential for the men for whom he was laboring."