Gabriel J . Rains Gabriel James Rains ( June 4 , 1803 – September 6 , 1881 ) was a career United States Army officer and a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War . Early life . Gabriel James Rains was born in June 1803 in New Bern , North Carolina to cabinetmaker Gabriel Manigault Rains and Ester Ambrose . His younger brother , George Washington Rains , was also a brigadier general in the Georgia Militia , and the two were known as " the Bomb Brothers " for their creation and use of land mine s , torpedo es , booby trap s , and other explosives . Rains graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point , New York in 1827 , 13th in his class . Among his classmates were Leonidas Polk , Napoleon Bonaparte Buford , and Philip St . George Cooke . Military career . Upon graduation , Rains was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the infantry . Rains served in the Seminole Wars and was promoted to captain on December 25 , 1837 , and brevetted major on April 28 , 1840 , for his service against the Seminoles near Fort King , Florida , where he routed a superior force , and was twice severely wounded . One of his wounds was considered mortal , and several obituary notices of him were published , however he survived the wounds . Rains took part in the Mexican War and was engaged in the defense of Fort Brown in May 1846 . When General Pedro de Ampudia demanded the surrender of the fort , Rains cast the deciding vote against surrender in a council of officers . Following the Battle of Resaca de la Palma he was ordered to the United States on recruiting duty , and organized a large part of the recruits for General Winfield Scott ' s campaign . Rains was promoted to major of regulars on March 9 , 1851 , and from 1853 until the Civil War he served on the Pacific Coast , where he took part in the Indian Wars . In 1855 he was brevetted to brigadier general of Washington Territory volunteers . Rain was the commanding officer of Fort Humboldt from 1856 through 1860 . He was promoted to lieutenant colonel of regulars on June 5 , 1860 , but resigned his commission on July 31 , 1861 , and joined the Confederate States Army , in which he was commissioned a brigadier general . Civil War . Rains led a division at the Battle of Wilson ' s Creek , and fought at the battles of Shiloh and Perryville . Rains was wounded during the Battle of Seven Pines , and was singled out by Maj . Gen . Daniel Harvey Hill for a successful flanking maneuver that turned the tide of battle in favor of the Confederates . Rains was then placed in command of the conscription and torpedo bureaus at Richmond . He organized the system of torpedoes and mines that protected the harbors of Charleston , Savannah , Mobile and other port cities , and invented an early land mine that was successfully used in battle . Land mines . The development of the first modern mechanically fused high explosive anti - personnel land mine s was attributed to Rains during the Battle of Yorktown in 1862 . ( As a Captain , Rains had earlier employed explosive booby traps during the Seminole Wars in Florida in 1840 . ) Both mechanically and electrically fused " land torpedoes " were employed , although by the end of the war , mechanical fuses had been found to be generally more reliable . Many of these designs were improvised in the field , especially from explosive shells , but by the end of the civil war , nearly 2 , 000 standard pattern " Rains mines " had been deployed . Post - War and death . Following the end of the war , Rains resided for some time at Augusta , Georgia , but later moved to Charleston , South Carolina where he worked as a civilian clerk in the US Army Quartermaster Department . He died in Aiken , South Carolina from wounds suffered in the Seminole Wars .