Thomas Custer Thomas Ward Custer ( March 15 , 1845 – June 25 , 1876 ) was a United States Army officer and two - time recipient of the Medal of Honor for bravery during the American Civil War . He was a younger brother of George Armstrong Custer , perishing with him at Little Bighorn in the Montana Territory . Early life and Civil War . He was born in New Rumley , Ohio , the third son of Emanuel and Marie Custer . He enlisted in the Union Army , in September 1861 , at age 16 , and served in the early campaigns of the Civil War as a private in the 21st Ohio Volunteer Infantry . He saw action at numerous battles , including Stones River , Missionary Ridge and the Atlanta Campaign . He mustered out in October 1864 as a corporal . Commissioned a second lieutenant in Company B of the 6th Michigan Cavalry , he became his brother ' s aide - de - camp and accompanied him throughout the last year of the war . Tom Custer distinguished himself by winning successively the brevets of captain , major , and lieutenant colonel , although he was barely 20 years of age when the Civil War ended . He was awarded two Medals of Honor . He was the first soldier to receive the dual honor , one of only four soldiers or sailors to receive the dual honor during the Civil War , and one of just 19 in history . Medals of Honor . Both actions that earned Custer the Medal of Honor involved capturing Confederate regimental flags ( 2nd North Carolina Cavalry flag at Namozine Church on April 3 , 1865 , and again at Sayler ' s Creek on April 6 , 1865 ) . Such battle flags " denoted individual persons , or units , on the field of battle . The flag symbolized the honor of the regiment . . . In combat , with the field full of noise and smoke , the soldiers watched their regimental flag and if it advanced or retreated they followed . The names of the battles that the regiment participated in were sometimes stitched onto the flag . The loss of a regimental flag was a disgrace to the command . " First Award . Custer earned his first Medal of Honor for actions during the Battle of Namozine Church , April 3 , 1865 . Among Union forces charging Confederate barricades , Custer had his horse leap a barricade while coming under fire . The Confederates fell back in confusion before him , while he saw a color bearer . Racing forward he seized the flag of the Second North Carolina cavalry from the bearer and commanded those around him to surrender . He took three officers and eleven enlisted men prisoner , took them behind the federal column and requisitioned another horse as his had been shot in the charge . Second Award . Similar actions in the Battle of Sayler ' s Creek resulted in Custer being the first American soldier to receive two Medals of Honor . Riding alongside Colonel Charles E . Capehart when the command to charge was given , he raced his horse toward the enemy barricades through a line of rifle fire , then leapt the barricade to be surrounded by the enemy . He discharged his pistol to both sides , scattering the enemy . He noticed Confederates attempting to make a new battleline and saw the color bearer they were rallying to . Custer charged the bearer . Colonel Capehart reported the rest of the events in a letter to Libbie Custer : ( Pictures taken shortly after the battle show a scar " with minor soft tissue damage to his lower jaw extending to a point just below the right ear " ; though the wound to Tom ' s face was across blood rich tissue and covered him in his own blood , had the bullet gone through the mouth or the soft tissue of the neck it would have likely struck a major vessel and have caused him to bleed to death . ) Having captured the flag Custer held it aloft and rode back to the Union column . An officer of the Third New Jersey cavalry , seeing Custer ride back with the banner flapping , tried to warn him that he might be shot by his own side : " For God ' s sake , Tom , furl that flag or they ' ll fire on you ! " Custer ignored him and kept riding towards his brother Armstrong ' s personal battle flag and handed the captured flag to one of Armstrong ' s aides while declaring , " Armstrong , the damned rebels shot me , but I ' ve got my flag . " Custer then turned his horse to rejoin the battle , but Armstrong ( who had only seconds before seen another of his aides be shot in the face and fall from his horse dead ) ordered Custer to report to the surgeon . Tom ignored the order and his brother placed him under arrest , ordering him to the rear under guard . Date of actions . Until 1948 , official references for the date of actions for which Thomas Custer was awarded the Medal of Honor were listed as April 2 and 6 , 1865 . However , that year a U . S . Army book on Medal of Honor citations listed the dates as May 11 , 1863 , and April 6 , 1865 . Consolidated lists of all Medal of Honor citations were published by the U . S . Senate in 1963 , 1973 , and 1979 with the incorrect first date of May 11 , 1863 and in 1963 and 1973 with the correct second date of April 6 , 1865 . The 1979 edition published the second date as April , 1865 , and this would seem to be why the online Army Medal of Honor citations at United States Army Center of Military History has two incorrect dates . The Civil War Army recipient that follows Thomas Custer alphabetically is Byron Cutcheon whose date of action was May 10 , 1863 , which may explain how the first date for Thomas Custer appeared as May 10 , 1863 . Indian Wars . Following the war , Custer 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 , where he fought in the Battle of Honsinger Bluff , and the Black Hills Expedition of 1874 . He was appointed captain in 1875 and given command of Company C of the 7th Cavalry . In 1874 , at the trading post at Standing Rock Agency , Custer participated in the arrest of the Lakota Rain - in - the - Face for the 1873 murder of Dr . John Honsinger . 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 , cut out Tom Custer ' s heart after the battle ; though the chief later denied it during an interview . Custer ' s remains were identified by a recognizable tattoo of his initials on his arm . Tom Custer was buried on the battlefield , but exhumed the next year and reburied in Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery . A stone memorial slab marks the place where his body was discovered and initially buried . George Custer was alleged by some to have married an Indian woman named Monaseetah while on the plains and had children with her . However , he had apparently become sterile after contracting gonorrhea at West Point , leading some historians to believe the father was in fact Thomas . This too may have been just a rumor since Monaseetah was captured after the Battle of Washita River in November 1868 and gave birth in January , making it impossible for either man to be the father . Cheyenne oral tradition tells that she gave birth to another child later that same year , fathered by George , but the child ' s paternity was never determined .