Pvt. Thomas W. Stivers, 7th Cavalry, having completed almost five years of service, was discharged.
What's unusual about this?
Well, he's later be awarded the Medal of Honor for his service at Little Bighorn.
Voluntarily brought water to the wounded under fire.
And he was discharged in the field, at the mouth of the Rosebud. He was from Kentucky, and returned home, somehow.
And he was dead by the time he was awarded the medal.
He was from Kentucky, and went back there, where he died at age 26 the next year.
Oddly, he was almost the exact same age as William M. Harris who was also from Kentucky and also returned home, although I don't know when he was discharged.. He'd die at age 34 in 1885.
Harris also won the Medal of Honor for the battle.
Typical frontier soldiers life. Five years, still a private, discharged in the field to make his way home. HE seems to have never married, and was given a notable headstone. Harris' was basically lost.
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