Thomas Custer Henry Harrington actually led Company C during the battle. George and Thomas' younger brother, Boston Custer, also died in the fighting, as did other Custer relatives and friends. It was widely rumored that Rain-in-the-Face, who had escaped from captivity and participated at the Little Bighorn, cut out Tom Custer's heart after the battle. The chief denied it later during an interview. Custer's body was so badly mutilated the remains were identified only by a recognizable tattoo of his initials on his arm. Tom Custer was first buried on the battlefield. He was exhumed with other soldiers the next year and
Battle of the Little Bighorn break back to the south where Reno and Benteen could have provided assistance. Two men from the 7th Cavalry, the young Crow scout "Ashishishe" (known in English as Curley) and the trooper Peter Thompson, claimed to have seen Custer engage the Indians. The accuracy of their recollections remains controversial; accounts by battle participants and assessments by historians almost universally discredit Thompson's claim. Archaeological evidence and reassessment of Indian testimony has led to a new interpretation of the battle. In the 1920s, battlefield investigators discovered hundreds of .45–55 shell cases along the ridge line known today as Nye-Cartwright Ridge, between South