Riding With Custer: Recollections of a Cavalryman in the Civil War

Years before his fateful stand at the Little Bighorn, George Armstrong Custer fought in the Civil War, a bright and shiny brigadier general of volunteers in the Michigan Cavalry Brigade. Riding with Custer and his “Wolverines” was Captain James H. Kidd, who saw action extending from the raid on Richmond to Appomattox.

 

Riding with Custer is a rousing and vivid illustration of the tactical worth of cavalry in the army. Kidd raised his own company, engaged in more than sixty battles, rose to colonel in 1864, and after conspicuous valor in the Valley Campaign of that year succeeded Custer as commander of the Michigan Brigade. When he wrote these memoirs several decades after the war, his recollections were sharp and indelible—among them the experience of fighting with Custer at Gettysburg, Falling Waters, the Wilderness, Yellow Tavern, and Cedar Creek. He describes life on the move in all kinds of weather and terrain, the sensation of combat, the pleasure of a cup of coffee, and, besides Custer, such famous generals as Judson Kilpatrick, Phil Sheridan, and Wesley Merritt.

 

A reprint of the original 1908 edition, this Bison Book features a new index.

The introducer, Gregory J. W. Urwin, is a professor in the department of history at the University of Central Arkansas. His publications include Custer Victorious: The Civil War Battles of General George Armstrong Custer (Nebraska 1990), The United States Cavalry: An Illustrated History, The United States Infantry: An Illustrated History, 1775–1918, and Facing Fearful Odds: The Siege of Wake Island (Nebraska 1997).