Planning a Trip to South Dakota & Wyoming

SDcampowneroperator wrote:
Demoted lt. col. Custer not Gen. ( for his attack on non belligerents) against Gen. staff orders attacked the native encampment on little big horn river in Montana, June 25-26 1876.
(snip) I am a student of the land I Iive on and ( wrongly? ) own.

Actually, if you want to be accurate, the info is not correct about Custer. Custer never held the official rank of General. Custer's rank of general (LtGen and Major General) during the Civil War was a brevet rank. Brevet ranks were very common back then. They are not permanent ranks but temporary appointments to be held for the duration of a certain period. A lot of officers during the Civil War were appointed to brevet ranks. A person appointed to a brevet rank knows it is not permanent and they will lose the brevet rank at the end of the period. A brevet rank cannot be made permanent. His permanent rank all during the Civil War remained Captain. After the Civil War basically was a reduction in force of active military units. Since the brevet rank was a temporary appointment for the duration of the war Custer went back to his permanent rank of Captain. He was later promoted to LTC which is the rank he held at the time of his death. Custer was never demoted because he never held the permanent rank and could not keep the brevet rank after the war.
Just a bit of military trivia. For those never in the military or who never studied such things it sounds a bit confusing since they don't understand officer rank structure, particularly as it was handled back then.