Thomas Ward Custer
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Brother of George Armstrong Custer and the only man to win two Medals
of Honor during the Civil War.
1845-1876
Although only a teenager, Custer 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.
After the war he was commissioned directly into the regular army and
soon joined his brother's regiment, the 7th Cavalry, with which he
went to his death at the Little Big Horn.
