Comments:

Kraemer was a bugler in Company B of the 2nd Artillery Regiment.  The 2nd Artillery had been organized in 1821 and saw service in campaigns against the Native Americans as well as in the Mexican War prior to the Civil War.  The 2nd saw heavy action during the Civil War and was dispatched to California in the summer of 1865.  The 2nd Artillery's batteries were rotated around the west (including service in Alaska) until 1876 when it was recalled to Washington.  Kraemer's Company B was posted at Alcatraz at the time of his death, however notes taken from the National Archives suggest that Kraemer was on Angel Island at the time of his death.  Buglers were very important in the old army as before the invention of the telephone and radio the bugle was one of the only means to send fast messages on the battlefield.