The collection consists of an autobiography, portraits, and a steel engraving plate. His personal recollections of his and his division's part in the war were written for his family. The chapters include: "Preliminary--Enlistment--Rendezvous"; "Going to the Front"; "Washington to Fredericksburg"; "Fredericksburg, "with a vivid description of the "bloody and lamentable" battle of Fredericksburg, and an analysis of McClellan as a general; "From Fredericksburg to Louisville, "with an explanation of the demoralization of Col. A. W. Williams; "Louisville to Horse Shoe Bend," with an account of the squabble between Colonel Doolittle and Colonel Mausar over slaves to be or not to be returned to their owners, and the issuing of the paper Union Vidette; "The Battle of Horse Shoe Bend, Ky."; "Down the Mississippi to Vicksburg" and "The Jackson Campaign"; "From Mississippi to Tennessee" and "East Tennessee Campaign" with "The Battle of Campbell Station"; "Siege of Knoxville"; "The assault on Fort Saunders"; "some Incidents of the Siege of Knoxville"; "After the Siege of Knoxville"; "East Tennessee to Virginia" and "Back to the Army of the Potomac"; "Through the Wilderness"; "To Ny River and Spottsylvania"; "Hospital Experience"; "In Front of Petersburgh" and "The Battle of the Crater"; "Incidents of the Battle of the Crater"; "After the Crater"; "Weldon Railroad and Ream's Station." "Poplar Springs Church and Beyond"; "Peebles Farm to Fort McGilvery"; and "The Winter in the Petersburg Trenches."
Cutcheon was principal of the high school at Ypsilanti when he answered President Lincoln's call July 15, 1862. He was in the 20th and 27th Michigan Infantries, and rose from second lieutenant to colonel; brevet colonel, August 1864, for gallant service at the battle of the Wilderness and brevet brigadier general, March 13, 1865, for conspicuous gallantry at the battle of the Wilderness. He was wounded in action May 10, 1864. He resigned and was honorably discharged on March 6, 1865 and later served as a Regent of the University of Michigan as well as a United States Congressman.
