Also in the Civil war a lot of officers were Brevetted with higher ranks. Meaning a Captain may take over a Regiment thus becoming a Brevet Major or Colonel, he would have the title and function of a Regimental Commander but being a haste or temporary promotion would return to Captain (or possible promotion) after the War/Battle/Conflict was over.
I seem to recall Custer was a general by the end of the Civil war but in the Indian wars was returned to Lt. Colonel.
You are in error about the nature of brevet ranks.
A junior officer can take over command of a regiment in the absence of his senior officers (killed, wounded, sick, on leave, on some other assignment, etc.) without being promoted or having any special type of rank such as a brevet rank.
The United states regular army was always very small in the 19th century. The highest it ever got in that period was probably about 50,000 men from 1866 to 1869. In the War of 1812 (1812-1815) the Mexican War (1846-1848), the Civil War (1861-1865) and the Spanish American War (1898) the states and territories would raise units of volunteers who would then be mustered into the Federal government service. Since the volunteer armies were many times as large as the regular army and needed experienced officers, many regular army officers took leave of absence from the regular army to serve in the United States Volunteers at much higher ranks.
Those officers had ranks in both the regular army, known as the United States Army or U.S.A., and the United States Volunteers or U.S.V., at the same time. For example, George Armstrong Custer was a newly commissioned second lieutenant in the regular army in 1861 and was a captain in the Fifth United States Cavalry in 1865, very rapid promotion for the regular army. Custer was also promoted to brigadier general U.S.V. in 1863 and major general U.S.V. 1n 1865, but when the volunteer army was disbanded his commission was terminated. Then in 1866 when the regular army was enlarged Custer was appointed lieutenant colonel of the Seventh US Cavalry.
The states and territories also had their militias, ancestors of the National Guard of today, which also had their generals. For example, George Cadwallader (1806-1879) was brigadier general of the First Brigade, First Division of the Pennsylvania Militia from 1832, a brigadier general in the regular army in 1847-1848, a major general of Pennsylvania Volunteers in 1861-1962, and a major general of United States Volunteers from 1862-1865.
These ranks in the regular army or United States Army, the United States Volunteers, and the state and territorial militias were what is called substantive ranks or grades. Officers had authority to command in those ranks and were paid the salaries for those ranks (at least in the regular army and the volunteers, perhaps also in the militia).
Brevet ranks were different from substantive ranks in the United States Army, the United States Volunteers, and the state and territorial militias. Brevet ranks were mostly (but not totally) honorary. Many officers in the Civil War - including those who had substantive ranks in both the United States Army and the United States Volunteers - were awarded brevet ranks in either the United States Army or the United States Volunteers or both.
Brevet ranks are not the same thing as ranks in the United States Volunteers. Officers in the United States Volunteers (as well as officers in the United States Army) could have both substantive and brevet ranks at the same time. And the majority of officers in the United States Volunteers were never awarded brevet ranks.
George Armstrong Custer had commissions as brevet brigadier general and brevet major general in the United States Army while he was lieutenant colonel of the Seventh US Cavalry. Thus he was both a lieutenant colonel and a major general at the same time, even though his brevet generalships had a very weak and unsatisfying status compared to substantive generalships.
So Custer was often called General Custer. And likewise he is quoted as calling Captain Frederick Benteen "Colonel Benteen" when ordering him to make his scout at the Little Big Horn, because Captain Benteen was a brevet colonel.
If you look at the biographies of officers in
Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army Francis R. Heitman
https://archive.org/stream/historicalregis03heitgoog#page/n5/mode/2up you will see that many of them had substantive ranks in both the United States Army and the United States Volunteers, as well as brevet ranks in both the United States Army and the United States Volunteers. This shows that volunteer rank and brevet rank were different things.
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