Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the George Washington Rains Papers, #1510-z, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Alternate Form of Material

Partial microfilm copy available.

Acquisitions Information

Gift 1951

Additional Descriptive Resources

A copy of the original finding aid for this collection is filed in folder 1.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: SHC Staff

Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007

Updated by: Kathryn Michaelis, February 2011

This collection was processed with support from the sponsorship of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Office of Preservation, Washington, D.C., 1990-1993.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Augusta (Ga.)--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• Charleston (S.C.)--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• Confederate States of America. Army--Officers--Correspondence.
• Confederate States of America. Army--Ordnance and ordnance stores.
• Gorgas, Josiah, 1818-1883.
• Hammond, James Henry, 1807-1864.
• Huger, Benjamin, 1805-1877.
• Rains family.
• Rains, George Washington, 1817-1898.
• United States. Army--Officers--Correspondence.

George Washington Rains was a United States and Confederate army officer, educator, inventor, and author, of Craven County, N.C.

The collection contains papers, chiefly 1843-1864, of Rains in the United States and Confederate armies, written from Virginia, Texas, Mexico, and Georgia, and pertaining to the War with Mexico and to Confederate ordnance. There are references to the defense of Augusta, Ga., and Charleston, S.C., to rifles and powder, and to the general progress of the war. The Civil War letters include two from James Henry Hammond (1807-1864), nine from Confederate Chief of Ordnance Josiah Gorgas (1818-1883), and one from Confederate General Benjamin Huger. Beginning in 1893, there are miscellaneous family papers, some written from New York. Also included is a biographical sketch of Rains.

• Pictures (PF-1510/1)
• Microfilm (M-1510/1)