James Harvey Kidd

James Harvey Kidd was born on February 14, 1840, in Ionia County, Michigan. Growing up in mid-nineteenth-century Michigan, he developed the academic foundation and intellectual curiosity that would shape his life. At eighteen, he left home to pursue higher education at the University of Michigan, where he studied during a growing political tension over the future of the Union.

Kidd had completed his sophomore year when the American Civil War drew him away from his studies. In the fall of 1862, he helped raise a company for the 6th Michigan Cavalry, beginning a distinguished military career at the age of twenty-two. Years later, his writing and memoirs would earn recognition from his alma mater, which awarded him an honorary doctorate in literature.

When the American Civil War began in 1861, Kidd – like thousands of young men across Michigan – felt the call to serve. His military career took shape in the fall of 1862, as the Union expanded its mounted forces. Authorized to raise a company in his home region, Kidd demonstrated leadership and organizational ability. His company became part of the newly formed 6th Michigan Cavalry, a regiment that would soon join the Michigan Cavalry Brigade. Kidd was commissioned a captain and advanced through the ranks as his service, leadership, and conduct under fire earned recognition.

Serving Alongside George Armstrong Custer

The course of Kidd’s military career changed in June 1863. At just twenty-three, George Armstrong Custer was promoted from Captain to Brigadier General and given command of the Michigan Cavalry Brigade, which comprised the 1st, 5th, 6th, and 7th Michigan Cavalry regiments.

Custer inherited a brigade of proud, independent-minded Midwesterners who initially viewed the flamboyant, long-haired young general with skepticism. His aggressive, front-line leadership soon earned their respect. Kidd served within this formation and developed a close professional association with Custer that would shape his wartime service. Under Custer’s command, the brigade became known as “the Wolverines” and earned a reputation as one of the Army of the Potomac’s leading cavalry formations.

The nickname “Wolverines” had been applied to Michigan residents by the mid-1830s. One explanation traces it to the Toledo War, a territorial dispute between the Michigan Territory and Ohio over the Toledo Strip. During the heightened tensions and minor skirmishes, Ohioans reportedly used “wolverines” as an insult, portraying Michiganders as aggressive and stubborn. Michigan residents eventually embraced the name as a badge of toughness and resilience. Another theory links the nickname to the fur trade around Sault Ste. Marie, where wolverine pelts were traded and associated with the region.

The term was used broadly for Michigan residents before and during the Civil War. It was also adopted by University of Michigan students and alumni; the original article dates that association to as early as 1861.

Gettysburg and the Eastern Theater Campaigns

Kidd’s first major campaign alongside Custer came in the summer of 1863, during the Gettysburg Campaign. On July 3 – the day of Pickett’s Charge – Custer’s Michigan Brigade played an important role on the Union army’s right flank, east of Gettysburg.

Confederate cavalry under J. E. B. Stuart attempted to move around the Union rear and threaten its supply lines. Custer met the Confederate force in a fierce mounted engagement at East Cavalry Field. Amid saber charges and close-range carbine fire, Kidd and the 6th Michigan Cavalry fought to stop Stuart’s advance. Custer’s aggressive counterattack became one of the engagement’s defining moments. Kidd witnessed the general’s conspicuous courage and the leadership style that inspired loyalty while exposing commanders to constant danger.

After Gettysburg, Kidd served in major Eastern Theater operations, including the Bristoe Station and Mine Run campaigns and the Overland Campaign of 1864. As the fighting continued and casualties mounted, he advanced through the ranks, eventually becoming a colonel and commanding the 6th Michigan Cavalry. At times, he also led elements of the brigade.

Kidd’s commissions were United States Volunteer commissions administered through the Union’s wartime system. Volunteer regiments such as the 6th Michigan Cavalry were organized at the state level, with the governor authorizing recruitment and recommending officers. Their officers nevertheless served in the federal volunteer forces. Kidd received his captain’s commission in 1862 after helping raise Company E of the 6th Michigan Cavalry. He was commissioned colonel in 1864, following service in the Eastern Theater. At the end of the war, he received the honorary brevet rank of brigadier general in recognition of distinguished service.

Leadership and the Closing Campaigns

As a commander, Kidd combined energy with a strong sense of responsibility for the men under his command. Whereas Custer often favored high-risk, high-reward tactics, the original article characterizes Kidd as maintaining tactical discipline while preserving the aggression required for cavalry warfare. The Michigan Brigade played a prominent role in Philip Sheridan’s 1864 Shenandoah Valley campaigns and in the Union pursuit of Robert E. Lee’s army toward Appomattox in April 1865.

By the time Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House, Kidd was a seasoned cavalry officer. The Michigan Cavalry Brigade had helped block Confederate escape routes during the final operations of the war. In recognition of his service and leadership, Kidd received the brevet rank of brigadier general of volunteers.

Postwar Michigan: Journalism, Public Service, and Historical Memory

After the war, Brevet Brigadier General James H. Kidd returned to Michigan and resumed civilian life. He applied the same energy to civic affairs, business, and writing that he had brought to military service.

When Kidd returned, Ionia County had a population of roughly 2,500; the population grew substantially in the decades before his death. Lumbering, timber processing, agriculture, and woodworking were important local industries.

Kidd became a prominent figure in Ionia’s newspaper business. Over time, local publications were consolidated, eventually contributing to the newspaper known today as the Ionia Sentinel-Standard.

Kidd’s work with the Ionia Sentinel – founded as the Ionia County Sentinel in 1866 – became a central part of his postwar legacy, complementing his service as a cavalry officer.

Kidd purchased the Sentinel in 1870, five years after leaving the Union Army. Under his stewardship, the publication grew into an influential voice in the region, serving local readers and shaping debate about politics and community affairs.

Kidd’s public profile extended beyond journalism. He served as register of Ionia’s federal land office and later as the city’s postmaster. He was also active in veterans’ organizations, including the Grand Army of the Republic, and in the Michigan National Guard. The Sentinel reflected the political and veterans’ interests important to Kidd and many of his readers.

Kidd married Florence Sedgewick McConnell in 1871. Their son, Frederick McConnell “Fred” Kidd, was born in 1881 and later continued the family’s association with the Ionia Sentinel.

Kidd used his printing business, Sentinel Printing Company, to publish more than local news. His firsthand experience of the Civil War informed his historical writing and culminated in his memoir, Personal Recollections of a Cavalryman, published in 1908.

Kidd’s decades in the newspaper business left a lasting mark on local journalism. He was later inducted into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame.

The Sentinel continued to evolve through subsequent mergers and is now known as the Ionia Sentinel-Standard.

Kidd remained involved in public administration. He was appointed register of Ionia’s federal land office in 1867 and served as Ionia’s postmaster from 1890 to 1893.

He also remained active in veterans’ affairs, serving in the Grand Army of the Republic and holding a senior leadership position in the Michigan National Guard. Through these activities, he helped preserve the memory and traditions of Civil War veterans.

Kidd’s most enduring contribution may have been his work as a historian. In 1908, he published Personal Recollections of a Cavalryman: With Custer’s Michigan Cavalry Brigade in the Civil War. The memoir offers a firsthand account of cavalry operations in the Army of the Potomac and a personal assessment of Custer, acknowledging both his battlefield strengths and his human flaws.

In recognition of his literary and historical contributions, the University of Michigan awarded Kidd an honorary doctorate in literature – an honor that connected his interrupted university studies with his later work as an author and chronicler of the Civil War.

James Harvey Kidd died on March 19, 1913, in Ionia, Michigan, and was buried at Highland Park Cemetery. He is remembered not simply as a figure in George Armstrong Custer’s story, but as a Michigan soldier, commander, newspaperman, and chronicler whose writing helped preserve the history of the Union cavalry.