Lyman S. Kidder
Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army

Lyman S. Kidder was born on 31 August 1842 in Vermont. He moved to St. Paul, MN, with his parents in 1858. His father, Jefferson Parish Kidder, was a Judge in the Minnesota Supreme Court.

From 1861-65, Kidder fought in the Union Army during the Civil War. After the Civil War, on 18 May 1867, he was appointed Second Lieutenant, 2nd Cavalry. On 29 June 1867, at Fort Sedgwick, KS, he was given a message to take to Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer, 7th U.S. Cavalry, who was patrolling about 50 miles south of the Fort. Kidder never arrived.

On 12 July, Custer's patrol found a dead horse with U.S. Army markings. They soon found another dead Army horse, and then the bodies of Kidder and his 10 men; scalped and decomposing. The men had been ambushed by Sioux and Cheyenne, and fought a running battle south, until forced to make a last stand in a small ravine, where they were killed.

The Indians stripped the bodies, scalped them, and filled their bodies with arrows. Kidder's body was identified by a scrap of black and white flannel shirt which his mother had sent him. The incident became known as the Kidder Massacre. Originally buried in a mass grave at the site, the soldiers' bodies were reburied in 1886 at Fort Leavenworth's Cemetery, while Lt. Kidder's body was taken back to Minnesota by his father.

Death and Burial

Second Lieutenant Lyman S. Kidder was killed in action on 2 July 1867 in Sherman County, KS. He is buried at Oakland Cemetery in St. Paul, MN.