Captain Thomas Ward Custer
Civil War
At age 16, he made a first attempt to enlist in the Army, but in this, his efforts were thwarted by his father. Only a few months later, his persistance paid off an he enlisted as a private in Company H, 2lst Ohio, on September 2, 1861. He saw action at Stones River, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, and in the Atlanta Campaign, before being mustered out of the service at the completion of his three-year term on October 10, 1864.
Appointed second lieutenant in the 6th Michigan Cavalry, on November 8, 1864, Custer was promptly assigned to the staff of his brother in the Shenandoah Valley. He moved with Custer's Division to the lines around Petersburg and participated in the final victory at that place and in the campaign to Appomattox.
On April 3, 1865, he captured a rebel flag in a fight at Namozine Church. Later that month he was given the Medal of Honor for this exploit. Three days after his first heroic display, he earned a second medal at the battle of Sayler's Creek. In this action, according to General Sheridan, "he leaped his horse over the enemy's works, being one of the first to enter them, and captured two stand of colors, having his horse shot under him and received a severe wound." In this charge, with the 2nd Ohio Cavalry, Custer was wounded in the face but after turning the captured colors over to his brother he wanted to return to the fray. General Custer had to place his younger brother under arrest to get him the needed medical attention. Lieutenant Custer was also honored by being brevetted through grades to major of volunteers and later to lieutenant colonel in the regulars.
Rather than post the citation, the best description of Custer's bravery is through an eyewitness report stated, "Custer crossed the line of temporary works on the flank of the road, where his unit was confronted by a supporting battle-line. In the second line he wrested the colors from an enemy color bearer. Advancing on another standard he received a shot in the face which knocked him back on his horse. Despite his wounds, he continued his assault on the color bearer who began to fall from wounds he had also received. As he fell, the wounded Lieutenant Custer reached out to grasp this second standard of colors, bearing both off in triumph."
Lt. Custer was the only man to receive two Medals of Honor in the Civil War (making him the first of 19 double recipients of the Medal of Honor). In both actions he was cited for capturing enemy flags, an ironic twist since his older brother George was the first Union soldier to capture an enemy flag in that war (in 1862 as aide-de-camp to General McClellan).
After the War
Following the war was appointed first lieutenant in the 7th Cavalry in 1866. He was wounded in the Washita campaign of the Indian Wars, in 1868. He later served on Reconstruction duty in South Carolina and participated in the Yellowstone Expedition of 1873 and the Black Hills Expedition of 1874. He was appointed captain in 1875 and given command of Company C of the 7th Cavalry. Custer participated in the arrest of the Lakota Rain-in-the-Face for murder at the trading post at Standing Rock Agency.
During the 1876 Little Bighorn campaign of the Black Hills War, he served as aide-de-camp to Lt. Col. George A. Custer and died with his brother. Lt. Henry Harrington actually led Company C during the battle. Younger brother Boston Custer also died in the fighting, as did other Custer relatives and friends. It was widely rumored that Rain-in-the-Face, who had escaped from captivity and was a participant at the Little Bighorn, had cut out Tom Custer's heart as revenge. This tale seems apocryphal. However, Custer's body was badly mutilated post-mortem. His remains were identified by a recognizable tattoo of his initials on his arm.
Interment
Tom Custer was buried on the battlefield of the Little Big Horn. As all those who were killed in the battle, he was burried where his body was found. In 1877, his body was exhumed and reburied in Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery. A stone memorial slab marks the place where his body was discovered and initially buried.