Gabriel James Rains (4 June 1803-6 September 1881) was a Confederate States Army Brigadier-General who served in the American Civil War.
Biography[]
Gabriel James Rains was born in New Bern, North Carolina on 4 June 1803, the older brother of George Washington Rains. He graduated from West Point in 1827, and he served in the US Army during the Second Seminole War. Rains was so severely wounded in the war with the Seminoles that one of his wounds was falsely believed to have been mortal and he was featured in an obituary. Rains also served in the Mexican-American War and recruited reinforcements after the Battle of Resaca de la Palma, and he was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1860. At the start of the American Civil War, he was commissioned as a Brigadier-General in the Confederate States Army. Rains was wounded at the Battle of Seven Pines, and he resigned due to his wounds and his old age; he was 59, making him one of the oldest officers in the Confederate military. Rains was placed in charge of conscription in Richmond and with mining the Confederacy's major harbors; he also invented an early landmine. After the war, Rains worked as a chemist in Augusta, Georgia, and he later worked as a clerk in Charleston, South Carolina and died in 1881 at the age of 78.