I would like to point out that two future presidents fought at South Mountain... wiki...
Two future presidents, Rutherford B. Hayes, and William McKinley fought at Fox's Gap during the Battle of South Mountain, as part of the 23rd Ohio Infantry—Hayes as its commander, and McKinley a commissary sergeant.
Fox's Gap[edit]
Just to the south, other elements of Hill's division (most notably
Drayton's Brigade
[10]) defended Fox's Gap against Reno's IX Corps. A 9 a.m. attack by Union Brig. Gen.
Jacob D. Cox's Kanawha Division secured much of the land south of the gap. In the movement, Lt. Col.
Rutherford B. Hayes of the 23rd Ohio led a flank attack and was seriously wounded. Cox pushed through the North Carolinians positioned behind a stone wall at the gap's crest, but he failed to capitalize on his gains as his men were exhausted, allowing Confederate reinforcements to deploy in the gap around the Daniel Wise farm. Reno sent forward the rest of his corps, but due to the timely arrival of Southern reinforcements under Confederate Brig. Gen.
John Bell Hood, they failed to dislodge the defenders.
Union Maj. Gen. Jesse Reno and Confederate Brig. Gen. Samuel Garland, Jr., were killed at Fox's Gap. After Farmer Wise was paid one dollar each to bury the Confederate soldiers who died behind the stone walls on or near his property,
sixty (or more) bodies were dumped down his dry well.
[11][12][13][14]
LINK:
https://www.essentialcivilwarcurriculum.com/presidents-who-were-civil-war-veterans.html
William McKinley
William McKinley was born on January 29, 1843 of Irish-Scottish heritage in Niles, Ohio. The family moved to nearby Poland, Ohio a decade later. He briefly attended Allegheny College but returned home in 1860 and was teaching school when the Civil War broke out. McKinley and a friend enlisted as privates. McKinley was sworn in by John C. Frémont at the Union training camp in Columbus, Ohio. He joined the Poland Guards, which became Company E of the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He joined fellow future U.S. President Rutherford Hayes, who would become commander of the 23rd.
In April, 1862, with the 23rd campaigning in West Virginia, McKinley was promoted to commissary sergeant. It was in this capacity that he had his most memorable experience in the Civil War. On September 17, 1861 at the battle of Antietam, the 23rd was serving in Major General Ambrose Everett Burnside’s IX Corps. When he saw his comrades pinned down without having any food that day, McKinley loaded a mule-driven wagon with food supplies and headed for the front in the face of Confederate fire. His battlefield bravery was recognized by his promotion to second lieutenant following this bloody conflict. In March, 1863, McKinley was promoted to first lieutenant.
Rutherford Birchard Hayes
Hayes was born in Delaware, Ohio on October 4, 1822. His family moved to Ohio from New England. His father died before he was born and he and a sister were raised by his widowed mother. Hayes graduated from Kenyon College and Harvard Law School. He began his legal career in Lower Sandusky and later moved to Cincinnati. There he met and married his wife Lucy (a teetotaler and abolitionist). They married in 1852 and had three sons. In 1859, Hayes became the city solicitor of Cincinnati.
With the outbreak of the Civil War, Hayes and friends from the Literary Society of Cincinnati volunteered and became members of the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry (OVI), first commanded by William Rosecrans. With Hayes as an officer, the 23rd was sent to West Virginia to drive the Confederates out of what became a largely pro-Union area. Its first engagement was at Carnifex Ferry in the Kanawha Valley on September 10, 1861. That Winter Hayes became commander of the 23rd OVI. In a skirmish on May 10, 1862, in the Valley Hayes suffered his first war wound, an injury to his knee.
That August, as part of Jacob Cox’s Kanawha Division, Hayes and his regiment were ordered east to join the Army of the Potomac. Now again under Major General George Brinton McClellan, it was headed toward a confrontation with Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, invading Maryland after its victory over Brigadier General John Pope at Second Manassas. Hayes and others in Cox’s command were assigned to Major General Jessie Lee Reno’s IX Corps. En route to Frederick, Maryland Reno and Hayes engaged in a brief debate about Hayes’ troops making campfires with local farmers’ fence rails.
On September 14, McClellan ordered Reno’s Corps to force its way across South Mountain through Fox’s Gap. Reno ordered the Kanawha Division to lead the attack. That morning Hayes led the 23rd up the mountain only to be wounded in his left arm and eventually retrieved for medical care. During the battle, Reno was killed. Soon, Lucy arrived to care for her wounded husband.