On June 21, 1864, two future presidents marched with Major General David Hunter’s Army of Western Virginia on its retreat from Lynchburg to West Virginia by way of Hanging Rock and the old New Castle Turnpike. Colonel Rutherford Birchard Hayes, later the nineteenth president, commanded the 1st Brigade of Brigadier General George Crook’s 2nd Division, a brigade made up of troops from West Virginia and Ohio, including the 23rd Ohio. A young captain in that regiment, William McKinley, was destined to become the twenty-fifth president of the United States. Besides fighting at Lynchburg, the 23rd Ohio also fought at Carnifex Ferry, Princeton, South Mountain, Antietam, Cloyds Mountain, Berryville, Winchester, Fisher’s Hill, and Cedar Creek. McKinley survived the War Between the States and later served in the United States House of Representatives, as governor of Ohio, and as president, but he was ultimately killed by an assassin rather than by wartime gunfire. Hayes was born in Delaware, Ohio, on October 4, 1822, married Lucy Ware Webb in 1852, became a major in the 23rd Ohio in 1861, was later commissioned as colonel and brevet major general, was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1864 and took office in 1865, was elected governor of Ohio in 1867 and served three terms, was elected the nineteenth president of the United States in 1876, and died in Fremont, Ohio, on January 17, 1893. McKinley was born in Niles, Ohio, on January 29, 1843, entered the 23rd Ohio in 1861 as an eighteen-year-old private and later served as commissary sergeant, second lieutenant, captain, and brevet major, married Ida Saxton in 1871, was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1876, was elected governor of Ohio in 1891, was elected the twenty-fifth president of the United States in 1896, was reelected in 1900, was shot by an assassin in Buffalo, New York, on September 6, 1901, and died there from bullet wounds on September 14, 1901.