Civil War Final service rank

I'm assuming your relative was Union, not a rebel.

A Brevet rank was a temporary rank, but he would have worn it on his uniform. George Armstrong Custer was a Brevet Major General during the Civil war, but at the end of the war he reverted to his Regular Army rank, and that was why he died as a Lieutenant Colonel (Brevet Major General) at the Little Bighorn.

By World War I they had done away with Brevet Ranks and instituted Temporary ranks. So in the Korean War, for example, my father was a Temporary Sergeant First Class but a Permanent Corporal.

The Department of Defense did away with Temporary ranks in 1982 under a law they called the Defense Officers Personnel Management Act, but they just reinstituted them about two years ago as a force management tool, only this time they can temporarily promote someone into a position, then when they move out of the position, if they haven't been permanently promoted, they'll be reduced to their permanent grade, with no harm or foul.

So was your ancestor in the Regular Army or a Volunteer Regiment? If he was in a Volunteer Regiment, he probably left service at his Brevet rank. If he was a Regular Army Officer, he may or may not have reverted to his Regular Army rank. Probably, but not necessarily.

If you request his military cards--his service record--from the Archives, you'll get a copy of exactly what you see on Fold3, because Fold3 digitized the Archives' microfilm copies, and they don't access the paper copies unless the microfilm is unreadable--and you have to make a very strong case for that.

IF, however, your ancestor filed for a pension after the war, or his widow did, you want to file for a copy of that, because they're not digitized. And there you'll find a lot more interesting things about his service . . . and possibly an explanation of what rank he was wearing at the end of the war.

I'm assuming your relative was Union, not a rebel.

A Brevet rank was a temporary rank, but he would have worn it on his uniform. George Armstrong Custer was a Brevet Major General during the Civil war, but at the end of the war he reverted to his Regular Army rank, and that was why he died as a Lieutenant Colonel (Brevet Major General) at the Little Bighorn.

By World War I they had done away with Brevet Ranks and instituted Temporary ranks. So in the Korean War, for example, my father was a Temporary Sergeant First Class but a Permanent Corporal.

The Department of Defense did away with Temporary ranks in 1982 under a law they called the Defense Officers Personnel Management Act, but they just reinstituted them about two years ago as a force management tool, only this time they can temporarily promote someone into a position, then when they move out of the position, if they haven't been permanently promoted, they'll be reduced to their permanent grade, with no harm or foul.

So was your ancestor in the Regular Army or a Volunteer Regiment? If he was in a Volunteer Regiment, he probably left service at his Brevet rank. If he was a Regular Army Officer, he may or may not have reverted to his Regular Army rank. Probably, but not necessarily.

If you request his military cards--his service record--from the Archives, you'll get a copy of exactly what you see on Fold3, because Fold3 digitized the Archives' microfilm copies, and they don't access the paper copies unless the microfilm is unreadable--and you have to make a very strong case for that.

IF, however, your ancestor filed for a pension after the war, or his widow did, you want to file for a copy of that, because they're not digitized. And there you'll find a lot more interesting things about his service . . . and possibly an explanation of what rank he was wearing at the end of the war.