Wilson's Raid -- Yankee Blitzkrieg
1864: In Northern minds, the end of the Confederacy was near. Northern newspapers heralded Grant’s near complete investment of Petersburgh, the victories at Cedar Creek and Atlanta, and finally Sherman’s Christmas gift to President Lincoln, the surrender of Savannah. However, in Confederate cities throughout the Western Theater, people were still optimistic for victory. President Davis was as determined and defiant as ever; and, local newspapers assured citizens that their unstoppable Confederate cavalry would protect them. Southern men were still prepared to fight, led by one legendary cavalry commander in particular, Nathan Bedford Forrest. Lincoln knew this. To tamp down all Confederate defiance, he must be decisive across the South. He needed a lightning strike. Enter a young West Point cavalryman, General James Harrison Wilson. Come to our January meeting, and witness a video re-telling of Wilson’s famous raid, by our own Dave and Nina Kidd. Do not miss this vey entertaining, and enlightening, presentation.
Mrs. Nina Kidd
Nina Kidd is a first-generation Californian, born and raised in Los Angeles. She attended Scripps College and Claremont Graduate School. She taught art, and advised the yearbook staff, at Brentwood School, an independent college-prep school in West Los Angeles. She is a nonfiction writer and illustrator. Since co producing the video A Walk with My Civil War Soldiers (2019) with her husband, she has become more interested in reading and telling stories of the Civil War.
Mr. David Kidd
David Kidd is a first-generation Californian, who grew up on a dairy farm, in Modesto, with his parents, and Tennessee grandmother. Dave graduated from Claremont Men’s College, and retired in 2000, from a career in management, at Hughes Aircraft Company. It was stories told him, by Grandma Josephine Wilkinson Kidd, and the works of author Bruce Catton, that first stirred his interest in his family, and the American Civil War. David co-produced the video A Walk with My Civil War Soldiers, with his wife Nina, for the LACWRT in 2019.