Seated studio view of Rains in dark uniform. Collar insignia is visible (two stars). Image is clear with good contrast but front surface exhibits a light brown discoloration. The mount has been trimmed to just above the head. Period ink identification under the photo, "Gen Jim Rains / C.S.A." Photographer's backmark, Griers & Co., Nashville, Tenn.

James Edwards Rains (April 10, 1833 – December 31, 1862) was a lawyer and colonel in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He was nominated as a brigadier general on November 4, 1862, but his appointment was unconfirmed at the date of his death. He was killed while leading his brigade at the Battle of Stones River (Murfreesboro) on December 31, 1862 before the Confederate States Senate acted on his nomination.

When the Civil War began, despite his personal objections to the concept of secession, Rains enlisted in April 1861 in the Confederate army as a private in the "Hermitage Guards". He was quickly elected first lieutenant, captain and finally appointed colonel of the 11th Tennessee Infantry. He was commissioned May 10, 1861. The greater part of his military service was in eastern Tennessee. During the winter of 1861–62, he commanded the garrison at the Cumberland Gap and successfully repulsed numerous attempts by Union forces to seize the critical gap. It did not fall until June 1862. General Kirby Smith's success in the Kentucky Campaign eventually forced the Union forces to abandon Cumberland Gap.

Rains was rewarded for his contribution at Cumberland Gap by being nominated for the rank of brigadier general on November 4, 1862. At the Battle of Stones River on December 31, 1862, Rains was shot through the heart and killed instantly while leading his brigade forward in an attack against Union artillery.

Rains was initially buried on the battlefield, but Rains's father, wife, Ida, and 3-year-old daughter, met with Union Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans and formally requested General Rains's body. It was transferred through Federal lines and reburied in the Nashville City Cemetery. In 1888, Rains was reinterred in the Confederate section of Mount Olivet Cemetery in Nashville.

This is from the late William Turner collection.  [jet]  [ph:L]

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