At the Battle of Globe Tavern on August 21, 1864, he was struck in the face and badly disfigured by a shell fragment and he was forced to leave field command. He spent the remainder of the war as an invalid, administering the draft in Jackson, Michigan. On December 12, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln nominated Cutler for appointment to the grade of brevet major general to rank from August 19, 1864 and the U.S. Senate confirmed the nomination on February 14, 1865.