From the Times-Dispatch, June 4, 1905.
THIRTY-THIRD VIRGINIA AT FIRST MANASSAS.
Colonel Cummings Takes Liberties with his Orders and Does Good Work.
Colonel J. W. Allen's Report—Interesting Recollections of Deeds of Valor at First Manassas Battle.
The fame of "Stonewall Jackson" overspread the Honey Hill combat at Manassas, 2ist of July, 1861, but the reports of all his regimental commanders having been lost, no official record clarifies the movements and achievements of his five regiments on that day. The recent discovery and publication in The Times-Dispatch of Colonel Kenton Harper's report of the Fifth Virginia Infantry, have fixed the movements of that regiment, and various communications from reliable officers and men have well nigh completed the history of the brigade on that occasion. Colonel Arthur C. Cummings, of Abingdon, commanded the Thirty-third Virginia Infantry that day. He had served in the Mexican War, and was a highly accomplished soldier and gentleman, worthy of higher command than befel his lot. His recent death has brought the name of this modest and heroic man again before the public. He shunned notoriety of all kinds, and rested content in "the conscientiousness of duty faithfully performed."
Captain John H. Grabill, of the Thirty-third, who was with his regiment in the Manassas battle, and has kindly furnished me a brief statement and also with a pretty full account from Colonel Cummings, contained in a letter addressed to Captain Grabill at Woodstock, where he lives, dated May 16, 1898. It is due to history that these memorials of a brave regiment and of valiant deeds that had no little to do with the Confederate victory, be published. Captain Grabill relates his distinct memory of the charge of the Thirty-third, and that it was against the Brooklyn Zouaves (the Fourteenth New York), and a Michigan Regiment (the Michigan then commanded by Colonel, afterwards Major-General Orlando B. Wetroy), who was at the front of the Federal battery. He says:
