JB was the oldest of the Brown's children, he was the one who became a doctor and carried on for Doctors Kat and John House. He was of the age where he could have avoided serving in the Civil War but he served as a doctor in the 115th Regiment which was a regiment raised from their area. JB's mother, Hope, told him a lot about the war and the terrible carnage so he of all men knew what the war would be like. What the war was really about and what the men thought it was about where two different things entirely but it accomplished what it needed to do. Hence, the tail that wagged the dog.