Personal Recollections of a Cavalryman with Custer's Michigan... by James Harvey Kidd

Personal Recollections of a Cavalryman with Custer

Custer claimed it was so his men could see him in the field, but newspapers and superior officers viewed it as preening. Custer took command in 1863 and had a tailor sew a uniform of black velveteen, with gold lace that extended from his wrist to his elbow, a wide-collared blue sailor shirt with silver stars sewn on and a red necktie around his throat. He and his fellow officers assumed a difficult task training men who “enlisted from love of country rather than from a love of arms”. A few months later, he mustered into the 6 th Michigan Calvary Company “E” under General Joseph D. Kidd accepted a commission as a Captain on August 28, 1862.

Kidd was more patient than his peers, however, and waited until the summer of 1862 to join the cavalry as an officer. Even though the Chancellor appealed for cooler heads, many of the fists shaking in protest soon carried rifles on the battlefield. Sumter, an angry mob of students marched towards the Chancellor’s home. The evening the Confederate army fired upon Ft. Many of them “kept their trunks packed and ready to leave at a moment’s notice,” wrote Kidd. Waiting for the Civil War to begin was “painful” for 22-year-old University of Michigan sophomore James H. Lot of 23 items belonging to Brevet Brigadier General James Harvey Kidd (1840-1913). Kidd, 6th Michigan Cavalry, Exceptional Collection Featuring Custer 14K Gold Tiffany Badge, GAR Medals, Sword, & Painted Escutcheon

Personal Recollections of a Cavalryman with Custer's Michigan... by James Harvey Kidd