This image features a waist-up view of General Gabriel Rains. The photograph measures approximately 4 inches wide by 5 ½ inches long.

Overall, the condition of this photograph is good. The image is unmounted and remains strong. There is minor rippling of the image overall.

The reverse of the image shows dirt and staining throughout. There is a pencil identification: “Rains” and “(Cook),” as well as the number “456.”

Brigadier General Gabriel J. Rains resigned his U.S. Army commission at the start of the Civil War to serve the Confederacy. He was quickly promoted to brigadier general and led a division in General John Magruder's army, later serving under General D. H. Hill. Rains became known for his innovation in land and water mines ("torpedoes"), which he used defensively at Yorktown and along the York River. His use of mines drew harsh criticism from Union leaders and controversy within the Confederate command. Despite objections, Rains continued to advocate for and develop explosive devices, eventually being appointed head of the Confederate Torpedo Bureau. Under his supervision, mines and torpedoes were widely deployed, sinking Union ships and damaging supply lines, most notably causing massive destruction at City Point, Virginia.

After the war, Rains lived in Atlanta and then South Carolina along with his wife, Mary Jane McClellan and their six children, working as a clerk for the U.S. Army before his death in Aiken, South Carolina.

The Cook studio was owned by George S. Cook whose two sons, George LaGrange Cook and Heustis Cook, also worked as photographers. The father, George S. Cook, is famously known for taking the first combat images of ironclads firing on Ft. Moultrie in 1863. George S. was born in 1819 in Connecticut and moved south to Louisiana in 1839. From there, he moved several times (always remaining in the South), making money as a merchant and studying photography until he eventually wound up in Richmond in 1880, where he bought Anderson’s photography studio. This is where many of the original glass plate negatives came from to reproduce his photographs. The Cook studio also purchased other collections of negatives as well.   [cla][ph:cla]

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