The Capture of Two Future Presidents?

Capt. Jesse C. McNeill is the subject of one of my current research projects. He is the Confederate cavalryman credited with the daring capture of Union generals Crook and Kelley at Cumberland, Maryland, in February 1865. According to one account, he missed the chance to make future presidents William McKinley and Rutherford B. Hayes prisoners of war, as both men were supposedly quartered in the same hotel as Crook.

Upon checking other sources, including a well-regarded biography of McKinley and the diary of Hayes, I discovered that McKinley was in the same hotel with Gen. Kelley, but Hayes was not with Kelley or Crook at the time.

Although the account is partly true, the fact that McNeill could have captured McKinley makes for an interesting historical footnote!