Full name George Armstrong Custer. As for rank, he started as a 2nd Lieutenant at the start of the Civil War, having passed out last in his class at West Point. During the war, he gained rapid promotion, as in time of war the army expands on a temporary basis, creating a large number of temporary or brevet ranks. Custer made it to General, but when the war ended and the army shrank back to its peacetime complement, all temporary promotions were cancelled and officers who remained in the army reverted to their substantive rank. At the time of the Little Bighorn, Custer was substantively a Colonel, but as a high profile character the media continued to refer to him as General Custer, and he did little to discourage them from doing so.