Personal Recollections of a Cavalryman

James Harvey Kidd was a Union army cavalryman who served under General George Armstrong Custer. Hailing from the Michigan, Kidd initially volunteered for the Union infantry in the western theatre. Before long he transferred to the cavalry and was brought over to fight the Confederacy in the Virginia theatre in 1863.

Kidd wasn’t in Virginia long before Robert E. Lee invaded the northern states. Kidd saw action in the Gettysburg campaign and was wounded shortly afterwards during the pursuit of Lee’s army back into Virginia. It was at this point that the Union Cavalry started to gain an advantage over the Confederate Cavalry, and Kidd participated in numerous raids against Confederate infrastructure in Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley.

By the end of the war Kidd was promoted to Colonel. He also witnesses the surrender of the famous Confederate cavalryman John S. Mosby, after the surrender of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Courthouse. After the war Kidd was sent west to pursue a party of Sioux and Cheyenne Indians before being honourable discharged from the service before the end of 1865.