Customer Reviews

One of Custer's Wolverines: The Civil War Letters of Brevet Brigadier General James H. Kidd, 6th Michigan Cavalry

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In yet another wonderful anthology of the Civil War, author Eric J. Wittenberg expands his library of work on Custer's successor in the Michigan 6th Cavalry, Brigadier General James H. Kidd. Wittenberg provides readers with a remarkable sense of reality, an inescapable feeling that they are sharing a personal fireside chat with a living, breathing veteran of our own Civil War.

"Under Custer's Command" is sure to please any readers of his previous collections of James Kidd. This latest book, a well-preserved and edited anthology of the personal letters of the young colonel and brevet brigadier general continues Wittenberg's efforts to detail the wartime activities of the Michigan 6th Cavalry. One of the most successful mounted commands during the war, the "Wolverine's" received far less acclaim and few of the accolades enjoyed by cavalry units led by men such as Jeb Stuart and Stonewall Jackson.

"One of Custer's Wolverines" is an exceptionally well-written collection of personal letters. Kidd's abilities as a writer breath life into his experiences and observations. As one of the few existing collections of first-person accounts, Wittenber's latest book expands and improves on the legend of Custer's cavalry. This wonderful book is a fantastic addition to any serious Civil War Custer library.

I have always been a fan of the cavalry in the Civil War, and this book provides some of the best accounts from a cavalryman I have ever seen. Mr. Wittenberg has done a great job annotating these letters, and has made the letters flow. Kidd was a great writer, and Mr. Wittenberg has made his work all the better. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves cavalry, or who loves the Michigan Brigade and Custer's men.

What I loved about this book was the personal insight it gave me into the life of a soldier in the Civil War. The added dimension of the link to Custer before his time in the West was another plus. As a former resident of Michigan whose family was plunged into poverty by the loss of its older sons in the Civil War and a mother of a University of Michigan grad, I was proud to get to know these young "Wolverines" on a personal level.