Company  E.  had  three  commissioned  officers  and  56  men  in
line,  of  whom  but  seven  came  out  unharmed  and  of  the
others  twenty-five — lacking  one  of  one-half — were  killed  or
mortally  wounded.  In  the  ranks  of  that  company  that  day
stood  five  brothers,  from  Manchester,  Henry,  Hiram,  Silas,
William  and  Edward  Cummings,  with  a  cousin  of  the  same
surname,  William  H.  Cummings,  and  a  brother-in-law,
Horace  Clayton.  Of  these  seven  men  six  were  killed  and

1  We  could  not,  allowing  for  shirks  and  feeble  men,  blown  by  double-
quicking,  have  carried  more  than  400  muskets  into  battle.     We  lost  in
twenty  minutes  206  men,  killed  and  wounded.     In  spite  of  this  awful  loss
the  regiment  held  its  ground  and  quelled  the  fire  of  the  enemy ;  and  it  was
difficult  to  make  the  men  understand  why  they  should  retreat  after  dark;
for  they  felt  that  they  had  held  their  ground  and  won  the  day." — Statement
of  Sergeant  Lucius  Bigelow.
2  This  scene,  so  sad  to  Union  eyes,  was  visited,  and  of  course  viewed
with  different  feelings,  by  many  Confederate  officers.     In  his  article  on
McClellan's  Change  of  Base,  in  the  Century  Magazine  for  July,  1885,  Gen-
eral  D.  H.  Hill  says  of  it :     "About  half  a  mile  from  the  Station  (Savage's)
•we  saw  what  seemed  to  be  an  entire  regiment  of  Federals  cold  in  death,
and  learned  that  a  Vermont  regiment  had  made  a  desperate  charge  upon
the  division  of  McLaw's,  and  had  been  almost  annihilated."


298  VEBMONT  IN  THE  CIVIL    WAR.
one  severely  wounded.1  Such  fatality  in  one  family  in  one
battle,  was  probably  without  a  parallel  in  the  war.
