Gabriel J. Rains
Nickname(s)	The Bomb Brothers (with his brother George Washington Rains)
Born	(1803-06-04)June 4, 1803 New Bern, North Carolina, US
Died	August 6, 1881(1881-08-06) (aged 78) Aiken, South Carolina, US
Place of burial	Saint Thaddeus Cemetery Aiken, South Carolina
Allegiance	United States Confederate States of America
Service/ branch	United States Army Confederate States Army
Years of service	1827–61 (USA) 1861–65 (CSA)
Rank	Lieutenant Colonel (USA) Brigadier General (CSA)
Battles / wars	Seminole Wars Mexican War Siege of Fort Texas Battle of Resaca de la Palma Mexico City Campaign Yakima War Battle of Union Gap American Civil War Battle of Wilson's Creek Battle of Shiloh Battle of Perryville Battle of Seven Pines

Gabriel James Rains (June 4, 1803 – September 6, 1881) was a careerUnited States Army officer and abrigadier general in theConfederate States Army during theAmerican Civil War.

Gabriel James Rains was born in June 1803 inNew Bern, North Carolina, tocabinetmaker Gabriel Manigault Rains and Ester Ambrose. His younger brother,George Washington Rains, was also a brigadier general in the Georgia Militia, and the two were known as "the Bomb Brothers" for their creation and use ofland mines,torpedoes,booby traps, and otherexplosives. Rains graduated from theUnited States Military Academy atWest Point, New York, in 1827, 13th in his class. Among his classmates wereLeonidas Polk,Napoleon Bonaparte Buford, andPhilip St. George Cooke.^[1]

Upon graduation, Rains was commissioned as asecond lieutenant in the infantry. Rains served in theSeminole Wars and was promoted tocaptain on December 25, 1837, andbrevettedmajor on April 28, 1840, for his service against theSeminoles nearFort King, Florida, where he routed a superior force, and was twice severely wounded. One of his wounds was considered mortal, and several obituary notices of him were published, however he survived the wounds. Rains took part in theMexican War and was engaged in the defense ofFort Brown in May 1846. When GeneralPedro de Ampudia demanded thesurrender of the fort, Rains cast the deciding vote against surrender in a council of officers. Following theBattle of Resaca de la Palma he was ordered to the United States on recruiting duty, and organized a large part of the recruits for GeneralWinfield Scott's campaign. Rains was promoted to major of regulars on March 9, 1851, and from 1853 until the Civil War he served on thePacific Coast, where he took part in the Indian Wars. In 1855 he was brevetted to brigadier general ofWashington Territory volunteers. Rains was the commanding officer ofFort Humboldt from 1856 through 1860. He was promoted tolieutenant colonel of regulars on June 5, 1860, but resigned his commission on July 31, 1861, and joined the Confederate States Army, in which he was commissioned abrigadier general and got command of a brigade in the Richmond area.^[1]

Rains was wounded during theBattle of Seven Pines, and was singled out byMaj. Gen.Daniel Harvey Hill for a successfulflanking maneuver that turned the tide of battle in favor of the Confederates. Rains, who turned 59 a few days after the battle, was one of the oldest officers in the Confederate army, and it was decided to reassign him to a less physically demanding job. After recovering from his wounds, he was then placed in command of theconscription and torpedo bureaus atRichmond. He organized the system of torpedoes and mines that protected the harbors ofCharleston,Savannah,Mobile and other port cities, and invented an early land mine that was successfully used in battle.^[1]

The development of the first modern mechanically fused high explosiveanti-personnelland mines was attributed to Rains during theBattle of Yorktown in 1862.^[2][3] (As a Captain, Rains had earlier employed explosive booby traps during theSeminole Wars in Florida in 1840.^[4]) Both mechanically and electrically fused "land torpedoes" were employed, although by the end of the war, mechanical fuses had been found to be generally more reliable. Many of these designs were improvised in the field, especially from explosive shells, but by the end of the Civil War, nearly 2,000 standard pattern "Rains mines" had been deployed.

Following the end of the war, Rains worked as a chemist inAugusta, Georgia, but later moved toCharleston, South Carolina, where he worked as a civilian clerk in theUS Army Quartermaster Department. He died inAiken, South Carolina, on August 6, 1881, and was buried in St. Thaddeus Cemetery.^[1][5]

• List of American Civil War generals (Confederate)

• Photographs of Rains at theWayback Machine (archived February 8, 2008).
• Civil War Interactive website biography of Gabriel J. Rains accessed November 11, 2011.
• Eicher, John H., andDavid J. Eicher,Civil War High Commands. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001.ISBN 978-0-8047-3641-1.
• Peggy Robbins, The Confederacy’s Bomb Brothers, Journal of Mine Action, Issue 6.1, April 2002, Article on Gabriel and George Rains first appeared in Civil War Times, 1998, website accessed, Friday, November 11, 2011.
• Kyle Martin,Gunpowder mill was built to curb shortage,The Augusta Chronicle, Friday, November 11, 2011 accessed November 11, 2011. Article on Gabriel Rains' brother, George Washington Rains role in providing the gunpowder for the Confederate Army.
• Service Profile
• Sifakis, Stewart.Who Was Who in the Civil War. New York: Facts On File, 1988.ISBN 978-0-8160-1055-4.
• Warner, Ezra J.Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959.ISBN 978-0-8071-0823-9.

• Bald Hills War
• People of North Carolina in the American Civil War
• United States Military Academy alumni
• United States Army colonels
• Confederate States Army brigadier generals
• People from New Bern, North Carolina
• Military personnel from Charleston, South Carolina
• 1881 deaths
• 1803 births

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• Short description matches Wikidata