A historical character, "Old Ossawotomie," Brown is, in narrator Sir Harry Flashman's words, "a sincere, worthy, autocratic, good-natured, terrible, dangerous old zealot, hard as nails, iron-willed, brave beyond belief, and possessed of all the muscular Christian virtues which I can't stand" (pg. 207). Flashy in the guise of Beauchamp Millward Comber signs on to be Brown's military advisor and receives the code name Joshua—Brown himself being the Moses figure. Although Brown nearly gets him killed, Flashman likes him and at a crucial moment saves his life, even though he knows that Brown will be hanged. Flashy considers Brown the only pest in his long life whom he is willing to bless.