Riding with Custer: Recollections of a Cavalryman in the Civil War
by James Harvey Kidd
Category: History

Riding with Custer is a rousing and vivid illustration of the tactical worth of cavalry in the army. Captain James H. 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.