Colonel John E. Cummins served successively in the 99th, 50th, and 185th Ohio Volunteer Infantry regiments, rising from lieutenant colonel to command of the 185th Ohio by February 1865. He fought in the Battles of Stones River and Chickamauga and through the Chattanooga and Atlanta campaigns, mustering out in September 1865 and later receiving a brevet as brigadier general. Cummins survived the war and relocated to Denver, Colorado, where he died in 1875.