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Brothers was a corporal in Company A of the 6th California Infantry Regiment.  During the Civil War most of the regular army troops who had been patrolling the western frontier were called back to serve in the main theater of the war.  The Native Americans, who had been forced off of their ancestral hunting grounds in the years before the war, now found that the military was no longer present to keep them on reservations.  Unfortunately, in most cases settlers (mostly Anglo-American) had moved in and settled on the old hunting grounds.  This led to conflict between the Native Americans and the settlers.  California was the only fully-organized state on the Pacific Coast, and the Federal Government turned to California to raise troops to take the place of the regular soldiers called back east.  Ultimately eight regiments of infantry, two regiments of cavalry, one battalion of "Native Cavarly," and one battalion of mountaineers were recruited in California- some 15,000 men served in these units during the war.  These regiments were posted throughout California and also in Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and even northwestern Texas.  Many of the California Volunteers hoped that they would be sent back east to join the main scene of the Civil War, but the government felt that they were better posted on the frontier. 

The 6th California was formed in early 1863 in Benecia.  Brothers' Company A has the distinction of having been formed as an independent volunteer company on Alcatraz in October of 1862, later becoming Company A of the Sixth California (in the old army hundred-man companies were designated by letter, the first company, lettered "A," was supposed to be the most elite and commanded by the best captain in the regiment).  Until it was mustered out in October of 1865, Company A spent its time in various posts in Northern California, including Alcatraz Island.

According to the muster roll for Company A, 6th California Infantry, Corporal Brothers "Died at Alcatraz Island, Cal., July 21 1864, accident."  Like the other soldiers of the Civil War interred on Angel Island, Brothers was accorded a headstone with a sunken federal shield and raised inscription, a much more technically demanding piece of stonework than the sunk inscriptions found on later markers.