George Washington Rains

author

George Washington Rains

1817–1898

An engineer, inventor, and army officer, he is best remembered for building the Confederate Powder Works in Augusta, Georgia, one of the South’s most important wartime industrial sites. His career also ranged through teaching at West Point, service in the Mexican-American War, and later writing about the powder works he directed.

1 Audiobook

History of the Confederate Powder Works

History of the Confederate Powder Works

by George Washington Rains

About the author

Born in Craven County, North Carolina, in 1817, George Washington Rains studied at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and went on to serve as an officer and engineer. He later taught chemistry, mineralogy, and geology at West Point, showing the technical skills that would shape the rest of his career.

Rains fought in the Mexican-American War and eventually left the U.S. Army in the 1850s to lead a New York manufacturing company. During the Civil War, he joined the Confederacy and became the driving force behind the Confederate Powder Works in Augusta, Georgia, a huge operation that produced gunpowder on a scale the South badly needed.

After the war, Rains lived for many years in Newburgh, New York, and wrote about the history of the powder works, leaving behind an account of the industrial effort he had managed. He died in 1898 and remains a notable figure in the history of military engineering and Civil War manufacturing.