Gen. Rains developed Civil War land mines

It is the birthday of Brigadier General Gabriel J. Rains (1803), who is credited, along with his brother George, with creating land mines, booby traps, and torpedoes during the Civil War. A West Point graduate, he served in the Seminole Wars and was brevetted major after defeating the Seminoles near Fort King. He also served in the Mexican War and out west in the Indian Wars but when the Civil War came, he sided with the Confederacy and became a brigadier general. Rains had used explosive booby traps in 1940 during the Seminole War but historians say he developed the first modern mechanically fused land mines during the Battle of Yorktown in 1862.

Happy birthday, Gen. George Custer

It is the birthday of General George A. Custer (1839), whose reputation as an aggressive and fearless military leader during the Civil War was overshadowed by his defeat and death at the hands of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes at the Battle of the Little Big Horn in 1876. Custer was a brash and colorful figure who cultivated publicity and dressed in flamboyant uniforms. Historians still debate the causes of Custer's Last Stand, but by all accounts Custer's troops were vastly outnumbered. Custer wrote about the Indian wars in My Life on the Plains (1874). After his death, Custer's  wife published several books about her husband, including Boots and Saddles, Life with General Custer in Dakota (1885), Tenting on the Plains (1887), and Following the Guidon (1891).