October 4, 1826. — Visited the battle-field with Lucy, Mr. Rudy, Corporal West, and Carrington this [my] fortieth birthday, Hunted up the graves of our gallant boys.
[The next day Hayes had a letter from Dr. J. T. Webb, who was with the Twenty-third at Sharpsburg, Maryland, informing him that General Cox had been ordered back to western Virginia. The letter said: “We all expect to be on our way back in a few days. There is much dissatisfaction at the prospect of returning to western Virginia. For my part, I will not remain in western Virginia another winter for any consideration whatever, if there is any way to avoid it.”
Dr. Webb added these words about a young man some day to be President: “Our young friend, William McKinley, commissary sergeant, would be pleased with a promotion, and would not object to your recommendation for the same. Without wishing to interfere in this matter, it strikes me he is about the brightest chap spoken of for the place.”
A few days later Colonel and Mrs. Hayes returned to Ohio. October 17, Miss Laura Platt, Hayes’s niece, wrote Mr. Sardis Birchard announcing her approaching marriage to Mr. John G. Mitchell. To this letter Hayes added the following postscript: “I know Mr. Mitchell (Colonel Mitchell) well. He is a young lawyer, educated at Kenyon, of good family, entered the war as lieutenant, then adjutant, then captain, and now lieutenant colonel of [the] One Hundred and Thirteenth. A member of the Episcopal Church, and a capital fellow. He is neither tall nor slim, but good-looking. He is taller than Laura and about as ‘chunky.'”]
