BM by Lape NYC.  ""Thomas Benton Brooks was a Union army officer and aide-de-camp to Major-General Quincy Adams Gillmore. Brooks joined the army on August 9, 1861 as a First Lieutenant in the 1st New York Engineers. He advanced to captain on January 21, 1862 and to major and aide-de-camp on August 17, 1863. Brooks received the brevet rank of lieutenant-colonel for meritorious service at the siege of Fort Pulaski in Georgia, and the brevet rank of full colonel for service during the siege of Charleston, South Carolina.In 1864, Brooks went to Fernandina, Florida, to aid in a major Union expedition to establish a loyal Florida government and to interdict Confederate supplies in Jacksonville. He oversaw operations to procure lumber on the Nassau and St. Mary's Rivers in support of that expedition, which ultimately failed with the Union loss at the Battle of Olustee on February 20, 1864.Brooks resigned from the military on October 6, 1864 and returned to civilian life.