major battle of the civil war the NUMBER_TOKENst ohio who cashed an artillery battery in a counterattack took NUMBER_TOKEN casualties after the battle of stone's river tom managed to secure a position as an orderly for a succession of brigade and division commanders until he was eventually on the staff of general ulysses s grant and promoted to the rank of corporal it was in that role that he saw some of the most vicious battles in the west including missionary ridge and but in october of NUMBER_TOKEN ottie who was by then a brigadier general of cavalry managed to secure tom a commission as a lieutenant in the sixth michigan cavalry in a position as his brother's aide de camp the final phase of the u.s civil war occurred in the spring of NUMBER_TOKEN when the forces of ulysses s grant finally broke through robert e lee's defense works and ended the NUMBER_TOKEN-month siege of petersburg but lee and the army of northern virginia managed to escape and lee realized that his only hope of continuing the war was to reach north carolina and join up with the confederate army there under the command of general joseph johnston grant knew that if he could prevent lee from getting to north carolina he could end the war the appomattox campaign was a series of running battles between grant's advanced forces and lee's rear guard and custer's cavalry was in the thick of the fight time and again thomas distinguished himself in the chase he was given brevit promotions a brevit rank could mean a couple of things but in tom custer's case it meant a warrant giving a commissioned officer a higher ranked title as a reward for gallantry or meritorious conduct but without conferring the authority precedence or pay of a real rank such promotions were common during the civil war tom was a brevit major by april he had a horse shout out from under him at the battle of five forks on april NUMBER_TOKENst on april NUMBER_TOKENrd custer's cavalry engaged three regiments of confederate cavalry near a place called namazine church it was part of lee's rear guard and in a short sharp action between cavalry units tom led the charge he jumped over a hastily built confederate breastwork and there captured three confederate officers NUMBER_TOKEN confederate soldiers and the battle flag of the second north carolina cavalry for his gallant action that day tom custer was awarded the medal of honor the decisive battle of the appomattox campaign came just three days later on a hill in front of a little creek that was called sailors creek grant had finally caught up to lee and two of lee's three core were forced to engage in the desperate action at the battle of sailors creek the army of northern virginia was literally fighting for its very life and in the brutal combat when the union infantry could not force the rebs to break the cavalry was ordered to charge tom custer was the first cavalryman to get across the second line of confederate breastworks where he
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