Comments:

Somers was a private in Company F of the 9th United States Infantry Regiment.  The 9th Infantry was organized when the army expanded in 1855 (three earlier 9th Infantries had been organized in disbanded previously by the government).  Upon its organization, the regiment was dispatched to the Pacific Coast where it saw action against the Native American tribes of the Pacific Northwest.  During the 1850's and early 1860's the army was hard pressed to keep the units stationed on the Pacific Coast to there authorized strength of troops.  The economic opportunities offered by this new land made desertion a constant problem and new recruits hard to find.  In 1861, with the Civil War gearing up on the East Coast, the 9th Infantry's Company E was sent back to join the forces gathering to fight the Confederacy and, in 1862, all of the 9th's enlisted men except the NCO's were transfered to the 4th Infantry, which was headed for the main theater of the war as well.

After recruiting a sufficient number of new privates, the 9th resumed its frontier duties all along the pacific seaboard until the mid 1870's when it transferred to the Great Plains area.  After fighting in Cuba during the Spanish-American War, it was sent to the Philippines to supress the Insurrection there.

Somers' Company F was stationed on Alcatraz at the time of his death.  It is interesting to note that the Civil War era headstones such as Somers' exhibit a high degree of skill and effort with their sunken federal shield backgrounds and raised inscriptions, compared to the later markers which have inscriptions in sunk relief only.