CONFEDERATE DISCHARGE SIGNED BY GENERAL JAMES S. RAINS OF THE MISSOURI STATE GUARD

Confederate Certificate of Discharge. Partly printed document completed in manuscript. Signed by Major General James Spencer Rains. [Place], 13 December 1861. 2 pages, 4to. Details of service on the verso.

A soldier’s certificate of discharge printed for the Army of Missouri. Completed for Private John P. Lucas of Company A, 1st Battalion, 12th Regiment of Cavalry, 8th Division, the document records his release from service “by reason of Expiration of Term of Service.” Lucas enlisted on 23 August 1861 and served for three months and twenty days. The certificate further notes that, during his service, he had been issued various articles of clothing by the state, for which he was thereafter charged.

The document is signed by General James Spencer Rains (1817–1880), who was commissioned by Missouri governor Claiborne Jackson to command the 8th Division on 18 May 1861. His tenure, however, proved troubled and controversial. Most notably, after the Confederate retreat from Pea Ridge, Rains was reported to have denounced Confederate army commander Major General Earl Van Dorn (1820–1863), in his presence, as having been “whipped.” Van Dorn responded by placing Rains under arrest and withholding his reinstatement for three weeks. Rains was later cited twice more: first in connection with an incident involving an ambulance crash, and again when he was formally removed from command by Thomas C. Hindman (1828–1868) following an accusation of drunkenness on 22 October 1862.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs]