Charles Brouse, Civil War Veteran and Medal of Honor Recipient

Charles Brouse, Civil War Veteran and Medal of Honor Recipient
(December 30, 1839 – October 26, 1904)

Charles Brouse was born in Indiana in 1839 to Rev. John A. and Mary C. Brouse (buried in Section 5, Lot 3). During the American Civil War, Brouse was commissioned as a Captain of Company K, 100th Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry on September 24, 1862, and was discharged due to disability on January 16, 1865. He served alongside his father, the Company’s Chaplain.

In a letter dated January 15, 1863, Charles wrote home from Grand Junction, Tennessee: “This day I have the painful duty of writing to the parents of John Hoag, of my company, who died on the 1st. It will be a hard shock for his aged parents. I would have sent him home, but all communication was cut off at that time. We buried him with the Union soldiers in the graveyard at Holly Springs and marked his grave. John was a good boy, always ready to do his duty. This is the second one of my little band we have buried.”

Captain Brouse’s “little band” was very important to him. Later that year, on November 25, 1863, during the attack on Tunnel Hill at Missionary Ridge, Tennessee, Brouse became a hero. The story of his battlefield bravery followed him throughout his life, and on May 16, 1899, he was awarded the Medal of Honor with the following citation: “The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Captain Charles W. Brouse, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism on 25 November 1863, while serving with Company K, 100th Indiana Infantry, in action at Missionary Ridge, Tennessee. To encourage his men whom he had ordered to lie down while under severe fire, and who were partially protected by slight earthworks, himself refused to lie down, but walked along the top of the works until he fell severely wounded.”

Following his military duty, Brouse returned to Indianapolis. He married Margaret Caroline Thorpe on Christmas Day 1867, and the couple had six children: John, Mary, Louise, Richard, Julia and Helen. To support his family, he became a real estate agent, especially in the suburb of Irvington, for which he had been appointed a trustee in 1873 shortly after its incorporation. Brouse died in 1904 and was buried with full military honors from the Grand Army of the Republic. For the next 74 years, his grave was marked by an ordinary military headstone. But in 1978, a special Medal of Honor headstone was placed and dedicated at the spot where he rests.

Location: Section 7, Lot 41; GPS (39.8209728,-86.1750647)