Brigadier General Gabriel James Rains

CSA Today

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Honored Fallen Comrade
Joined
Dec 3, 2011
Location
Laurinburg NC
Expired Image Removed

"General Gabriel James Rains. Born in New Bern, North Carolina, a graduate from West Point, did not resign the U.S. Army as many of North Carolina's General's did immediately after the secession of his State. He did however resign his commission and offer his services to the Confederacy after the first battle of Manassas.

Rains became more famous for his work with explosives than a battlefield commander. In May 1864, Rains was summoned to Richmond to help protect the Confederate capital from capture. In August two of his subordinates managed to smuggle a time bomb onto a Federal ammunition barge at City Point, Virginia. When ignited, it set off explosions of thousands of rounds of artillery and small-arms ammunition. The barge and a large part of the wharf were demolished, 43 to 58 Federal soldiers were killed, and between 40 and 126 were wounded. Property damage totaled $4 million. Even Federal General Grant, who was holding an officers meeting near the wharf, was showered with debris.

In October Rains is reported to have placed 660 land mines around the Richmond fortifications, adding more daily. After the war, Rains continued his interest in explosive weapons. He would write:

...could a piece of ordnance be made to sweep a battlefield in a moment in time, there soon would be no battlefield, or could a blast of wind loaded with deadly mephitic malaria in one night [be] sent like the destroying angel in Sanacherib's army, or the earth be made to open in a thousand places with fire and death...then and then only may we beat the sword into plowshares, the spear into the pruning hook, and nations learn war no more."
 
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