Custer's Michigan Cavalry Brigade in the Civil War

Envision 10,000 mounted men of one of the best cavalries the world has ever produced strung out along 13 miles, marching around Robert E. Lee's right flank, taunting J.E.B. Stuart to come out and fight. In one of the most thrilling and detailed accounts of one of the most important battles of the American Civil War that most people know nothing of, James Kidd tells this story and much more of the Michigan Wolverine Cavalry under the command of George Armstrong Custer. The popular image of General Custer, James Kidd wrote in 1908, is incorrect. He was not reckless or wasteful of men. The battle was Yellow Tavern, part of the Spottslyvania fight, and Phil Sheridan later said he believed it was the greatest cavalry engagement of the Civil War. J.E.B. Stuart was fatally wounded in the fight. At Gettysburg, Brandy Station, the Trevillian Raid, Kilpatrick's Richmond raid, and the Shennandoah Valley, the Wolverines played a crucial role in the Union victory.