THOMAS CUSTER

“YOU MIGHT THINK THAT TOM LACKS CAUTION, JUDGEMENT.ON THE CONTRARY HE POSSESSED BOTH TO AN UNUSUAL DEGREE. HIS EXCELLENT JUDGEMENT TELLS HIM WHEN TO PRESS THE ENEMY, AND WHEN TO BE MODERATE”
George Custer

Aged just 16 when the US Civil War broke out in 1861, Thomas Ward Custer was too young to enlist. However, eager to fight alongside his celebrated older brother, George, for the Union, he simply lied about his age and joined the 21st Ohio Volunteer Infantry. As the country was torn apart, he fought against the Confederate South in Tennessee and Georgia, before being promoted to Second Lieutenant and serving in the 6th Michigan Cavalry in Virginia – on the staff of his Brigadier-General brother.

By April 1865, two years after the Battle of Gettysburg, the Union Army – also known as the Federal Army – outnumbered the Confederates by 112,000 soldiers to 58,400 and was close