Virginia Military Institute - Bomb Yearbook (Lexington, VA)

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Colonel 3ohn M. Brooke. S Sr CTCH. JOHN AIERCER BROOKE was bom near Tampa, Florida, December i8th, 1826. His father was General George M. Brooke, of Virginia, brevetted for gallantry and distinguished services in the War of 181 2. General Brooke entered the army in 1808; was major of Twenty- Third Infantry at the battle of Niagara or Lundy ' s Lane. Major McFarland being killed, the command of that regiment devolved upon Major Brooke, an officer of no less intrepidity and valor, ' ' says Thom- son, in his Histor}- of the ' ar of 1812, and War with Mexico. Major Brooke was brevetted Lieutenant-Colonel of Fourth Infantry for gallant conduct in the defense of Fort Erie, the fifteenth of August, 1814, and Colonel for distinguished and meritorious con- duct in the sortie from Fort Erie, ' the seventeenth of September, 1814. He was made brigadier-general by brevet on the seventeenth of Sep- tember, 1824, and later attained the rank of major-general. Fort Brooke in Florida was named after him. A letter of Larkin Smith, himself a distinguished officer of the United States Army, dated the thirty-first of January, 1851, mentions an incident in the defense of Fort Erie, in which General Brooke fig- ured conspicuously. Brooke suggested hanging a lantern within the enemy ' s lines near a British battery in the line of fire, so that our gunners might direct their fire at night as well as in the day. This was effected by Brooke, with the help of a drummer boy. These two crawled within the enemy ' s lines at night and hung a lantern in a tree. Smith says : With personal hazard he reached the enemy ' s lines, hung a lantern in a tree upon the line of fire and the batteries were

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COLONEL JOHN M, BROOKE,

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THE BOMB. 7 demolished, with great loss to the enemy. ' Who hung the lantern? ' was a pass-word in the Army after that period. General Brooke married Miss Lucy Thomas, of Duxbury, Massa- chusetts, a beauty, whose face framed in a window of some house in Boston, had attracted the attention of the general as he passed along the street. Making inquiries, he obtained an introduction and the acquain- tance ripened into love. He, finally, was successful in his courtship and married his sweetheart when she was hardly sixteen. John Mercer Brooke, a son of this marriage, was sent to a school preparatory to Kenyon College, at Gambler, Ohio. If tradition be true, he did not stay long. In fact, rumor has it, that the little fellow ran away twice. He was afterwards sent to a school that had attained considerable reputation under Professor Gum- mere, in BurlingtorL, New Jersey, but which, falling into the hands of a less able teacher, declined in fame and usefulness. Here Brooke met with many persons of various religious denom- inations — among others, with Congregationalists, Quakers and Churchmen. For the latter, he seemed to have had a boyish regard being attracted more strongly by the magnetic personality of Bishop Mcllwaine. The Episcopal Church became eventually the church of his choice. Brooke ' s mother died when he was twelve years old. He was appointed midshipman in the United States Navy in March, 1841, and reported to Captain Farragut on the Delaware ship of the line with a crew of eight hundred men. As the fifteen-year-old lad ciimljed up the side of the Delaware, two things made an impression on him — the buzz of eight hundred men at supper and the appearance of their commander, the now celebrated commodore. Amid all the changes and differences of political opin- ions and fortunes, Brooke has always had a high regard and friendship for his first commander. Brooke was transferred from the Delaware and made his first cruise in the sloop-of-war Cyane. This was for three years. After doubling Cape Horn, he returned to the United States and entered the