The Other Custer

When you think of the name “Custer,” most people automatically think of General George Armstrong Custer and his death at Little Bighorn. But there was another Custer in the Army at the time, George’s younger brother Thomas Ward Custer. And he was pretty impressive. Here is what his more famous brother George had to say about him:

“If you want to know what I think of him, all I can say is Tom ought to have been the general and I the captain.”

Before I go any further, I feel I should mention that a third Custer brother was serving in the Army at the same time as George and Thomas. His name was Boston, and he died while fighting alongside his brothers at Little Bighorn.

Thomas Custer enlisted in the Union Army in September of 1861 at 16. He fought in many early campaigns of the American Civil War as a private in the 21st Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Working his way up the ranks, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in Company B of the 6th Michigan Cavalry, where he became aide-de-camp to his brother George. Thomas accompanied his brother in this capacity for the remainder of the war.

He worked his way up the ranks, eventually becoming a captain, major, and finally lieutenant colonel by the time the Civil War ended, all having barely reached the tender age of 20. When I was 20, I was still doing keg stands at the frat house. I was a cadet who barely knew one end of an M16 from the other, let alone a decorated field-grade officer with years of combat experience. And these are no minor awards I’m talking about. Tom Custer was awarded the Medal of Honor twice. He was the first soldier ever to do so, one of just nineteen in US military history.

Both of the younger Custer’s Medals of Honor involved the capture of Confederate battle flags. Battle flags were extremely important parts of the battlefield during the Civil War. In a practical sense, they were used in signaling and communicating, but they also symbolized all that was important to the troops they represented. They served as a source of morale and fierce, loyal pride. They inspired men to perform to the best of their abilities and as such were zealously protected during battle. Flag bearers would fight to the death rather than give up their colors. Capturing an enemy battle flag required extraordinary courage, resourcefulness, and fighting skills. The loss of a flag meant troop confusion, demoralization, and the potential for taking friendly fire.

The First Award

At the onset of the Appomattox Campaign, operating near the area of Namozine Church, Tom was an officer on the staff of Colonel Henry Capehart of the Army of the Potomac’s 3rd Cavalry Division. Custer reportedly jumped his horse over a barricade, tore the battle flag out of the hands of the flag bearer, and demanded the immediate surrender of the Confederate troops around him. Eleven soldiers and three officers complied on the spot. Custer’s horse had been wounded, but Tom had not received a scratch.

After the battle, elder brother George, by that time a Brevet Major General, wrote home to his wife: “God has blessed us with victory….Tom in the most gallant manner…captured the battle flag of the Second North Carolina Cavalry.” 

The Second Award

Tom was at it again just three days after he captured the flag at Namozine Church…repeating the feat at Sailor’s Creek. Again, he began a charge on his horse while under heavy fire from the entrenched infantry troops of Lieutenant General Richard Ewell. During the fight, Custer engaged several troops with only his pistol. He noticed a standard bearer using a Confederate flag as a marker for a rally point and made a beeline for it.

Colonel Capeheart described the action in a letter he wrote to Libbie Custer:

“Having crossed the line of temporary works in the flank road, we were confronted by a supporting line. It was from the second line that he wrested the colors, single-handed, and only a few paces to my right. As he approached the colors he received a shot in the face which knocked him back on his horse, but in a moment he was upright in his saddle. Reaching out his right arm, he grasped the flag while the color bearer reeled. The bullet from Tom’s revolver must have pierced his heart. As he was falling, Captain Custer wrenched the standard from his grasp and bore it away in triumph.”

Keep in mind, that Tom Custer is not even twenty years old at this point. After gathering his trophy, young Custer galloped back to his own lines, waving his new trophy in the air. A fellow officer, concerned that he might be mistaken for an enemy soldier shouted to him, “For God’s sake, Tom, furl that flag or they’ll fire on you!” Custer, bleeding profusely from his face, kept riding forward, however, looking for his brother. He found him and said, “Armstrong (that’s what he called George), the damned Rebels shot me, but I’ve got my flag!”

Tom Custer, full of youthful exuberance and adrenaline, was preparing to head back to the fight when his brother ordered him to report immediately to the field surgeon. The younger Custer showed every indication that he was going to ignore his brother’s order, so George had him arrested and taken against his will to the field hospital. The wound was extremely bloody, but Tom was fortunate in that it managed not to sever any major arteries. It did, however, leave him with a noticeable scar for the rest of his short life.

The war was now over for the younger Custer. Lee surrendered at Appomatox just three days later. Tom had been promoted to brevet lieutenant colonel and had been awarded his second Medal of Honor for bravery.

The End

You already know how this story ends, but it didn’t happen immediately. Tom stayed in the Army and served with distinction in the West. He was wounded once again in the Indian Wars’ Washita Campaign. By all accounts, he was highly respected by his men. The younger Custer was known as a hard-drinking soldier who played as hard as he fought. He caroused with what were called “sporting” women at the time, hunted buffalo, and kept rattlesnakes and wolves as pets.

Custer played an instrumental role in the capture and arrest of Sioux Chief Rain-in-the-Face (who later claimed to have cut out Tom’s heart as revenge). And for reasons lost to history, he had a longstanding feud with former cavalry scout, sometime lawman, and eventual folk hero, James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickock.

There is little known about how Tom Custer died at the battle of the Little Big Horn with his brothers George and Boston, eyewitness accounts are virtually non-existent except for one or two of dubious veracity.  His body was found stripped and mutilated after the battle and was identified by the tattoo of his initials on one arm.

All of this, and Tom Custer has remained in the historical shadow of his better-known older brother.