Thomas Custer 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. A younger brother of George Armstrong Custer, he served as his aide at the Battle of Little Bighorn against the Lakota and Cheyenne in the Montana Territory. Together with the younger Boston Custer, the three brothers were killed in that overwhelming defeat of United States forces. He was born in New Rumley, Ohio, the third son of Emanuel and Marie Custer. The paternal line was of ethnic
Last stand due to the pull on popular imagination. Historian Nathaniel Philbrick argues: During World War I, the expression to fight "with one's back to the wall" became a widely-known way to refer to making a last stand. The London "Times" reported on April 13, 1918 that General Douglas Haig ordered British troops that "Every position must be held to the last man...With our backs to the wall...each one of us must fight on to the end". Last stand A last stand is a military situation in which a body of troops holds a defensive position in the face of overwhelming odds.