A Dispatch to Custer: The Tragedy of Lieutenant Kidder [Hardcover]

Randy Johnson (Author), Nancy P. Allan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1999

A Dispatch to Custer tells the little-known story of Lieutenant Lyman Kidder, a young soldier sent on a mission in 1867 to deliver new orders to Lieutenant Colonel George Custer. En route a band of Sioux and Cheyenne ambushed Kidder and his party, killing all eleven soldiers and their Sioux scout. Custer discovered their mutilated bodies a few days later and ordered they be buried in a common grave. When Kidder's father was notified of his son's death, he began the process of recovering his son's remains. Told mainly through the letters of Kidder's family and military colleagues, A Dispatch to Custer conveys a rare intimacy, while the authors' insightful interpretations fill out the story.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"It seems likely the relatively obscure death of a young lieutenant and his men may have had a considerable influence long after in shaping the nation's 19th century policies with American Indians. . . . [A Dispatch to Custer] sustains interest from first to last." --Matt Taylor, Tri-City Herald (Kennewick, WA) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 119 pages
• Publisher: Mountain Pr (August 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0878423982
• ISBN-13: 978-0878423989
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,838,783 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Well Done Work, March 31, 2000

By 

John D. Mackintosh (LEXINGTON, SC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Dispatch to Custer: The Tragedy of Lieutenant Kidder (Paperback)

For those interested in the various aspects of the Plains Indians wars, including some of the more obscure engagements, this book should be of interest. It details the death of Lt Lyman Kidder and all of his eleven men that were wiped out by the Cheyenne. The title of the book is drawn from the last mission of Lt. Kidder that involved delivering an important message to Custer. The events described took place in the summer of 1867 in western Kansas.

The author soundly disproves that the death of Kidder was due to inexperience by documenting that officer's involvement in the 1862 Sioux Outbreak in Minnesota that spilled over into Dakota territory. In the mid-1860's, Kidder ended up in the Second Cavalry and was sent on his ill-fated quest to locate Custer of the 7th, a man whom he had never met. The authors quote extensivley from Custer's writings about finding the horribly mutilated bodies of Kidder and his men. The quest of Kidder's Father to have his son's body returned from wildes of western Kansas is also dealt with.

For me, the best part of the book is the ending where the authors reveal how they located what is probably the site of the battle through artifact finds. Such finds were then used to produce reasonable conjectures about the last moments of these unfortuante soldiers of the U.S. Cavalry. In all, a short but highly detailed look at a grim episode in frontier history.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Personal History of a Little Explored Event, November 10, 2002

By 

Daniel Hurley (Chesapeake, VA.) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Dispatch to Custer: The Tragedy of Lieutenant Kidder (Paperback)

This is a very personal history as the author takes personal interest in the Lt. Kidder massacre that occurred to a platoon of soldiers carrying a dispatch from General Sherman to Custer. This was during the 1867 Kansas Indian war during the military's unsuccessful campaign to defeat the various tribes. Earlier references to Kidder stated that the young inexperienced officer was unfamiliar with Indians and was ill prepared for his mission. However, the author through research confirms that Kidder had Civil War and Indian warfare experience. The latter was during the Sioux wars in Minnesota. The author provides more detail than the normal few pages in books about Custer. The detail includes a biography of Kidder, a detailed description of his family and particularly information about his father who was a judge and politician in South Dakota. High points include the story of the massacre. It starts initially with Kidders recent re-enlistment and assignment in Kansas and within a few weeks of his arrival, the mission to deliver Custer a dispatch who at that time was with the 7th trying to locate and defeat the Indians. Kidder finds Custer's trail but unfortunately where Custer turned off the Wallace trail, Kidder misses the new yet faint trail perhaps because he passed it at night. Approximately 200 warriors found Lt. Kidder instead and he tries to escape finally fortifying himself in a small ravine among high grass. It sounds familiar to the last survivors of Custer Hill running to a ravine for cover also killed without survivors. The author's surprisingly successful archeology digs help them map a course of battle and determine what may have happened. Kidder also had an Indian guide who died with all 11 army members. The author also writes of Kidders father making a brave trek to the battle site to recover his son's body, which actually encouraged the army to recover all the bodies. It's a personal trip with history and a real person's story about the need to find more detail about an often referred to event without elaborate research. The authors virtually take you there with their visit through descriptions, maps and photos.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An incredible insight., August 14, 2001

By 

bill nicol (Aylesbury United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Dispatch to Custer: The Tragedy of Lieutenant Kidder (Paperback)

This book provides an interesting and poignant study of Lt Lyman Kidder and his brutal demise.The work also affords the reader an insight into the tragic existence of the frontier family by following the journey of Lyman's father to claim his son's body from the remote battlesite. The authors' skillful use of original sources paints a vivid picture of a father's search for meaning following the death of his son. Judge Kidder's subsequent correspondance with Custer and Sherman, among others, affords an invaluable window into these turbulant times. The book will not only be enjoyed by students of American Frontier history, anyone with any degree of empathy with, or sympathy for, a family's love for their son will be moved. I recommend this book without reservation.