This artillery instruction manual, entitled “Instructions for Field Artillery,” is signed by James S. Rains and dated May 15, 1861. The manual has a leather cover with eagle, and was printed by J. E. Lippencott & Co., Philadelphia.
Although often depicted as an ill-disciplined, untrained mob, the officers and men of the Missouri State Guard worked tirelessly to improve their efficiency, using military manuals like this one to learn the standard infantry, cavalry and artillery drills of the time.
Brigadier General James Spencer Rains, commander of the State Guard’s Eighth Division, had a checkered military career. Born in Tennessee in 1817, he moved to the Sarcoxie, Missouri area by 1840. His prewar career included service as a militia general, county judge, state representative, state senator and Indian agent.
He led the Eighth Division at Wilson’s Creek, Lexington and Pea Ridge, and was then given a mixed command of State Guard and regular Confederate forces. Relieved of command by General Thomas Hindman due to incompetence and suspected drunkenness, Rains moved to Texas, but returned to Missouri in 1864 to recruit for the Confederate cause. He died in Texas in 1880.
Image Courtesy Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield; WICR 30037
