memory |
Boller [1a] says: McKinley had a remarkable memory for faces and names... Once, while waiting for ceremonies to begin at the dedication of a monument at the Antietam battlefield, he walked over to the edge of the platform and called down to an old veteran in blue, "Hello, comrade, I saw you in the crowd at Gettysburg last month when I spoke there, didn't I?" Astonished, the veteran exclaimed, "Yes, but how did you recognize me?" Queried about his memory afterward, McKinley shrugged it off: "Oh, I don't know, it just comes naturally." |
height |
McKinley was 5 feet 7 inches tall, shorter than the average man. He was ridiculed as a "little boy" when he ran for President in 1896 [7]. Comment: This is a clear illustration that politics always has been, and always will be, a nasty business. McKinley's manhood should not have been open to challenge, given that he enlisted in the Army at age 17, just weeks after the Civil War began at Ft. Sumter, and that he served in the field virtually the entire war, including the battles of South Mountain, Antietam, Winchester, Cedar Creek, and countless others [6a]. |
cried in office |
[Interesting that McKinley advised to take advantage of a physiological fact to conceal from others that he had been crying.] [4a] [More] |
the grippe |
"At the beginning of the next season [1899?] a New Year's reception was held. After that the President was taken sick with the grip [sic], and consequently all the receptions and dinner parties were over for that season." [8a] |
 
assassination |
McKinley was shot at close range. He underwent surgery within hours. He survived the operation, but died on the ninth post-operative day. Both his post-operative course [More] [2a] and his autopsy [More] [2b] have been meticulously documented [9] [10]. There was intense controversy about McKinley's medical care [More]. Some thought that McKinley could have been saved had renowned surgeon Roswell Park performed the operation [More]. More recent commentators believe, however, that McKinley died from pancreatic necrosis, a condition which is still difficult to treat today, and which the surgeons of McKinley's time could not have treated or prevented [5]. |
