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Bernard Armstrong Brooks
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Bernard Armstrong Brooks was born in Lisbon, Michigan to Joseph and Olive M. Brooks in 1856. At the age of 19, he enlisted as a trumpeter in the U. S. Calvary in St. Louis, Missouri on October 20, 1875. He began his training in St. Louis and was subsequently transferred to Fort Klamath, Oregon where he was assigned to the First Cavalry. Not long after his arrival the First Cavalry was dispatched to pursue the Nez Perce Indians. Trumpeter Brooks was a dedicated trooper. A trumpeter was a highly regarded target during the Nez Perce War of 1877 due to his being the communications person. The trumpeter on his trumpet issued commands as they could generally be heard by accompanying troops for some distance and over the din of battle. "On August 20, 1877, in the affair at Camas Meadows, Idaho, while the troops were retreating before a greatly superior force of Nez Perce Indians, who were pursuing the command closely, and keeping it under heavy fire, Trumpeter Brooks, of Captain Jackson's troop B, 1st Calvary, who was riding immediately behind his commanding officer, was shot and killed. Instead of leaving Trumpeter Brooks' body where it fell, Captain Jackson dismounted and with the assistance of a couple of his men carried the body for some distance, and concealed it…" This quote is taken from C.C. C. Carr's request for a Medal of Honor for Major James Jackson. Later the command would recover the body for burial with military honors. 
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