James Edwards Rains 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 appointed and 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 . Early life . Rains was born on April 10 , 1833 in Nashville , Tennessee , the son of Methodist minister Rev . John and Lucinda Cartwright Rains . He spent his youth making tack in his father ' s small saddlery . A benefactor lent him $ 400 to attend Yale , where he graduated second in the Class of 1854 at Yale Law School . He served as headmaster at the Millwood Institute in newly formed Cheatham County . He was associate editor of the " Daily Republican Banner , " serving under a future fellow Confederate general , Felix Zollicoffer . Rains was an active member of the Whig Party , and was initially opposed to secession . He was elected the Nashville city attorney in 1858 . He married Ida Yeatman later that year , and their only child , a daughter named Laura , was born in 1859 . Rains was attorney general for his judicial district of Davidson , Williamson and Sumner Counties in 1860 . Civil War . 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 " , a local company . He was quickly elected first lieutenant , captain and finally appointed colonel of the 11th Tennessee Infantry , succeeding George E . Maney . 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 when Federals finally outflanked his position . His defense of the gap proved vital , as east Tennessee would have been completely lost to the Confederates much earlier in 1862 . But the forces that Maj . Gen . Edmund Kirby Smith had gathered about Knoxville , in addition to those in the neighborhood of Cumberland Gap , made the Union occupation of that post almost a barren victory . In August , Smith advanced into Kentucky , leaving Maj . Gen . Carter L . Stevenson with a strong division to operate against the Union general Morgan , who was holding the gap with about 9 , 000 men . Col . Rains commanded a brigade in Stevenson ' s division . Kirby Smith ' s success in the Kentucky Campaign eventually forced the Union forces to abandon Cumberland Gap and retreat through eastern Kentucky to the Ohio River . Rains was rewarded for his contribution at Cumberland Gap by being appointed to and nominated for the rank of brigadier general on November 4 , 1862 . When Gen . Braxton Bragg was concentrating his army at Murfreesboro , Tennessee , that same month , Rains ' s brigade of troops from North Carolina , Alabama , and Tennessee traveled to Murfreesboro and was assigned to the division of Maj . Gen . John P . McCown in Hardee ' s Corps . 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 . His last words were " Forward my brave boys , forward ! " The Confederate States Senate had not acted to confirm Rains ' s nomination as brigadier general on the date of his death . Rains was initially buried on the battlefield , but Rains ' s father , 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 . Honors . After the war , surviving members of the 11th Tennessee from Dickson County named their camp of the veterans group , the Association of Confederate Soldiers Tennessee Division , in honor of James E . Rains . http : / / upload . wikimedia . org / wikipedia / commons / c / c4 / Cotton _ States _ International _ Exposition _ Articles . pdf See also . http : / / upload . wikimedia . org / wikipedia / commons / d / d5 / JER _ BisCard . jpg