They found us there. Toward midnight there was every appearance
that they had given up trying to take the hill that night. It was quiet
all along the line save for the groans of the wounded and dying men that
covered the slope in front of us. It was a beautiful night, and to lie
there and listen to the appeals of those poor fellows and be unable to do
anything for them was heartrending. Toward midnight we stole quietly away,
first moving the cannon back by hand.

General Hill in his report of the second battle of Bull Run stated his
loss in the attack on the Henry House Hill the evening of August 30, 1862,
as 600 men.

It is impossible to refrain from giving an account of Dr. Cutter's
experience in this battle.

Early in the afternoon of the 29th when the first brigade of our division
was ordered in, Dr. Cutter went in with it. He was at the time acting as
division surgeon. The first brigade got into a bad place, lost heavily and
was forced back. As they began to retreat Dr. Cutter drew his sword and
tried to hold the men up to their work. At that moment he was seen to fall
to the ground and was supposed to be killed. A few minutes later, however,
he regained consciousness and looking about saw a Confederate soldier
standing over him and apparently about to run him through with his
bayonet. Dr. Cutter pointed to his green sash and warned the soldier
against killing a non-combatant. "But you have a sword in your hand now,"
replied the soldier. A Confederate officer coming up at the moment ordered
the soldier to move on and took the doctor to the rear. He then discovered
what had happened. He had not been wounded at all. A bullet had struck the
buckle plate of his waist belt and knocked the breath from his body, the
effect of which having now passed off, he offered to assist in taking care
of the wounded. This he was allowed to do and worked with the Confederate
hospital staff all the afternoon taking care of the wounded, both
Confederate and Union.

The Confederates were not slow in discovering that Dr. Cutter was a man of
exceptional knowledge and ability and, when night came on, the gray headed
old man was taken to General Hills' headquarters and treated as an honored
guest. During the evening he told the Confederate officers gathered flatly
who he was, and advanced his abolition ideas with perfect freedom. The
Confederates saw that they had in their midst one of the fathers of
Abolitionism in Massachusetts; that t