She probably thinks these have the same meaning as the ones awarded today.
She doesn’t mind lying about being an American Indian when it furthered her goals. Shouldn’t she at least pay for all of her education that she obtained by lying
You are correct. At the time of the Civil War, the Medal of Honor was the only medal of any type awarded to soldiers for acts of valor. They were primarily for enlisted men to receive, often for seizing and retaining an enemy regiment’s colors. Officers were generally given a brevet (temporary) promotion for acts of valor or successful combat actions. George Armstrong Custer was breveted several times, while his younger brother received two medals of honor for seizing Confederate regimental colors. Look at the officers of the 7th Calvary (not Calvary, that is where Jesus was cruxified) at the time of the Little Big Horn, close to half of them had higher brevet ranks they received during the Civil War than they held as Regular Army ranks at the time of the 1876 battle. Custer LTC vs MG, Reno and Benteen were MAJ vs LTC.