George Washington Rains

George Washington Rains (1817 – March 21, 1898) was a United States Army and later Confederate States Army officer. A skilled engineer and inventor; he was instrumental in providing the Confederacy with much-needed gunpowder throughout the American Civil War. He also was the younger brother of fellow Confederate general Gabriel J. Rains.

Life and career Rains was born in Craven County, North Carolina in 1817. He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1842, third out of a class of 56; he was then commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers. In the next year, he transferred to the 4th U.S. Artillery Regiment, and then became an assistant professor of chemistry, mineralogy, and geology back at West Point.

Rains participated in the Mexican–American War. He was the first American to enter Vera Cruz (to exchange prisoners on behalf of General Winfield Scott) and was assigned as a staff officer to Gideon Pillow's brigade. He fought at Vera Cruz, Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Churubusco, Molino del Rey and Chapultepec. During his time fighting in the war, he served under General Scott. For his services, he was promoted to 1st Lieutenant and brevetted Captain.

Over the next years he frequently changed stations and often served on recruiting duty. His permanent promotion to Captain came in February 1856 when he was stationed in New York, but he married that year into one of America's wealthiest families (the Ramsdells, of Newburgh, NY), resigned his commission that October, and moved to upstate New York.

Rains became a proprietor of the large Washington & Highland Iron Works in Newburgh, New York, where he gained extensive experience managing a factory, hiring employees, and organizing shipping and logisitics. He held patents for steam boilers. His wife, Frances Josephine Ramsell (1838–1919), gave him a daughter, Fanny Powell Rains, in 1858.

During the Civil War When the American Civil War began, Rains joined the Confederate Army. He became a major in the Ordnance Department and was personally tasked by President Jefferson Davis in July 1861 with supplying the entire Confederacy with gunpowder by locating a location and building a centralized military-grade gunpowder mill. He built the Confederate Powder works in Augusta, Georgia, while simultaneously developing Tennessee's ordnance network and supporting Gen. Albert S. Johnston's Western army.

Rains also helped expand and modernize at the Augusta Arsenal. At its peak the powder works regularly produced about a day, more than throughout the war, making it the second-largest gunpowder factory in the world at that time. Rains also directed the switch from holding gunpowder in barrels to holding it in boxes he specially designed for this purpose, with dimensions of 1 x 1 x 2.5 feet. Though not working together, the brothers were collectively known as the Bomb Brothers, while George Rains on his own had been called the Chief Chemist of the Confederacy.

After the war After the war Rains stayed in Augusta and chose an academic life; he lectured as professor of chemistry at the Medical College of Georgia. Also becoming its dean, he retired in 1894 and returned to Newburgh. He died there on March 21, 1898, and was buried at Saint George's Cemetery.

Selected works by George W. Rains

Savas (2026) The Indispensable Man: George Washington Rains, the Confederate Powder Works, and the Civil War You Never Knew Savas Beatie LLC Savas (2007) Never for Want of Powder: The Confederate Powder Works in Augusta, Georgia, with co-authors C. L. Bragg, Gordon A. Blaker, Charles D. Ross, and Stephanie A. T. Jacobe US Patent No. 28.011 (Re-issue No. 1016); Improved Feed-Water Apparatus for Steam Boilers; 1860 US Patent No. 32.204; Improvement in Steam-Boilers; 1861 US Patent No. 32.532; Improved Safety Apparatus for Steam Boilers; 1861