Peter Thompson ( Medal of Honor ) Peter Thompson ( December 28 , 1854 - December 3 , 1928 ) was a Scots - American soldier who was awarded a Medal of Honor for his actions at the Battle of the Little Bighorn . Biography . Thompson was born in Markinch in Fife , Scotland . After emigrating with his family to the United States in 1865 , Thompson lived near Pittsburgh , and later in Indiana County , PA , where he worked as a miner . He enlisted in the United States Army in September 1875 , serving in the U . S . 7th Cavalry Regiment ' s C company from 1875 until 1880 . His commanding officer was Capt . Thomas Custer . After an honorable discharge , he resided first in Lead , SD , where he worked at the Homestead Mine . Later he moved to Alzada , MT , where he became a rancher . He married Ruth Boicourt in 1904 . They had two children , Susan and Peter Jr . , born in 1906 and 1909 . Thompson died on December 3 , 1928 , at Hot Springs , SD , of heart failure . He is buried West Lead Cemetery Lead , South Dakota . Little Big Horn . In 1876 , while serving under George Armstrong Custer in the eastern Montana Territory , he took part in the Battle of the Little Bighorn . Had his horse not given out on the bluffs above the river as the regiment reached the battlefield , Thompson would have died with Custer . As it was , Thompson and a companion named James Watson fell behind , but continued on toward the river . Unable to rejoin their own company , the two later climbed back up the bluffs and joined surviving elements of the regiment , under Major Marcus Reno . Thompson took part in other parts of the battle and was wounded in the hand and arm . In spite of his wounds , he made trips outside the lines to obtain water for the wounded , an act that gained him one of 24 Medals of Honor awarded for the battle . After the fight , he was evacuated to Fort Abraham Lincoln by steamboat . When his hand had recovered sufficiently , he wrote a lengthy account of the fighting . Notably , he said he had been in a hiding place from which he had seen Custer near the river , and had also witnessed the beginning of the fight in which Custer was killed . By implication , he may have been the last white man to have seen Custer alive . Controversy over Thompson ' s story . Thompson was interviewed by the respected Indian Wars researcher Walter Mason Camp at the Little Bighorn Battlefield in 1909 . Camp , who met with Thompson on other occasions and corresponded him for many years , was unable to reconcile Thompson ' s account with what he had learned from other participants and records . Thompson published his controversial 26 , 000 word account in his regional newspaper , the Belle Fourche , South Dakota " Bee " in the spring of 1914 . This was an era when a number of old men ( or deceased men , through their obituaries ) claimed to have been " the last survivor " of Custer ' s Last Stand . Thompson would later have confrontations with other battle participants , and be accused of being a liar . He was so labeled by one veteran named William Slaper in a 1925 book , " A Trooper with Custer , " edited by Earl A . Brininstool . Thompson ' s attempts to prove his claims were frustrated by the unknown whereabouts of James Watson . Peter Thompson died in Hot Springs , South Dakota , and was interred in the West Lead Cemetery in Lead , South Dakota . Thompson ' s story has received significant attention in recent years . Daniel O . Magnussen wrote in 1974 that , while Thompson seemed to have been an honest man , his account was riddled with errors . He speculated that Thompson ' s memory may have been clouded by hallucinations brought on by stress and his wound . More recently , the publication of Camp ' s notes has again stimulated interest in Thompson ' s story , and provided corroboration for many controversial parts of the account . Like Curley ' s stories of the Little Bighorn , Thompson ' s account remains a fascinating enigma . Medal of Honor citation . Rank and organization : Private , Company C , 7th U . S . Cavalry . Place and date : At Little Big Horn , Mont . , June 25 , 1876 . Entered service at : Pittsburgh , Pa . Birth : Scotland . Date of issue : October 5 , 1878 . Citation : After having voluntarily brought water to the wounded , in which effort he was shot through the head , he made two successful trips for the same purpose , notwithstanding remonstrances of his sergeant .