Official William McKinley Coffee Break Monument
Sharpsburg, Maryland
In 1903, two years after President McKinley had been assassinated, a group of Ohio Civil War veterans erected a 33-foot-tall pillar on the battlefield at Antietam near Sharpsburg, Maryland. It marks the spot where, as a teenager in 1862, the future President served coffee to his comrades during combat. The inscription on the monument, which is embellished with an eagle on a globe and a sculpted woman in mourning, notes that McKinley delivered his coffee "under fire" and "personally and without orders."
The tale of McKinley's coffee break bravery became a political asset, told and retold with every election, until it eventually became a presidential hero legend.
Visiting this monument with a thermos mug of hot coffee and a platter of doughnuts would be disrespectful... but you should read about the antics McKinley has endured at some of his other memorials.