eBook coming this summer.
Click HERE to read the Introduction!
George Washington Rains led five very different lives. His fourth, as a Confederate ordnance officer during the Civil War, changed history.
Rains broke apart his wealthy Northern family to travel to Richmond in June of 1861--not hoping for a commission but for a prearranged purpose. The prominent West Point graduate of 1842 could have held out for a colonelcy or even a brigadier’s commission and the glory of action but instead accepted a thankless task in the shadows that would prove to be much more important than the commander of a regiment, brigade, or arguably even an army. His new duty was to locate, plan, build, and manage a central government powder works “of sufficient magnitude to supply the armies in the field and the artillery of the forts and defences.” He did that, and so much more.
In a personal meeting with President Davis (never before recorded), Rains learned the Southern states had almost no gunpowder, that it was very difficult to produce military-grade powder at scale, and that there was not a single mill in the Confederacy capable of doing so. A factory of that magnitude would take most of a year to build, if it could be done at all, but the president assured him he would do all he could to buy him the time and the space he would need. Failure would abruptly end the nation-building experiment. Rains, who felt the weight of this responsibility and would write of it often, requested and received carte blanche to do as he saw fit without outside interference. He was not about to take on this obligation if others could directly control its outcome. He had years of experience enduring the inefficiencies of bureaucrats. With only enough powder to fight perhaps two campaigns, he set off on the journey of a lifetime.
The Indispensable Man is not only a full-life biography of one of the most important characters of the Civil War, but a study of the war's strategy and logistics you have never read about because the discover of key Rains's personal papers, and other archival sources that have never been used, paint a completely different picture of the war's first year than any of us have ever been taught. Rains's story is so incredible, and what he accomplished so impactful, that you will never look at the Civil War the same way again.
Once you close the last page, I think you will agree that this was one of the most remarkable men you have ever read about, and that there was no one else who could have pulled off what he did. He truly was indispensable.
More coming soon. Stay tuned.
