Information Sheet

 

 

R         Rainwater family.

227                  Rainwater and Fowler families, papers, 1863-1939.

                                    Two folders, photocopies.

 

 

 

These are Civil War letters of Maj. Charles C. Rainwater, a Confederate officer, to his wife, Sarah Fowler Rainwater, at Cole Camp in Benton County, Missouri.  The letters mention fight­ing at Hartville and Cape Girardeau, and Rainwater’s disabilities from wounds.  There are also genea­logical data on Samuel Fowler and his family, and biographical sketches of Sarah Fowler Rain­water.

 

A general merchant in Cole Camp, Missouri, when the Civil War began, Charles Cicero Rain­water (1837-1902) joined the secessionist Missouri State Guard as a second lieutenant of the “Warsaw Guards.”  He subsequently served in the Confederate 5th Missouri Infantry as a captain and major.  Rainwater was appointed ordnance officer on the staff of Gen. John S. Marmaduke in 1863.  He was described as a cheerful, brave, and unselfish comrade, though prone to being wounded.  Rainwater’s third and most serious wound was sustained on 6 June 1864 at Ditch Bayou, Arkansas, and disabled him for further combat service.  He served on Gen. Jo Shelby’s staff until the end of the war as an agent of a scheme to export Confederate cotton through Mex­ico.

 

Rainwater took a position with a hat manufacturing firm in St. Louis immediately following the war.  He was later the president and manager of the St. Louis Times, was a member of the part­nership which built Merchant’s Bridge over the Mississippi River, and was president of the St. Louis Street Cleaning Company.  He was very active in fraternal, business, and Confederate veter­ans’ circles, and was founder of the Rainwater Rifles, a marching drill team.  Rainwater died on 10 November 1902 at his home in St. Louis and is buried in Belfon­taine Cemetery.

 

Sarah Hannah Fowler (1839-1937) was born in Calvert County, Maryland.  Her father, Sam­uel Fowler (1814-1871), also a native of Maryland, brought his family to Benton County, Mis­souri, in the spring of 1840.  Sarah was educated at Boonville’s Tracy School and Payne Col­lege in Fayette.  She was teaching school in Cole Camp when she met Rainwater.  The two mar­ried in September 1858.  She returned to live with her father when her husband joined the South­ern forces.  Threats against secessionists in 1863 caused the family to remove to Maryland.  Sarah made an arduous journey through Union lines in 1864 upon learning that her husband had been se­riously wounded.  She took him to Clarksville, Texas, for his recovery and remained there until the end of the war.  The Rainwaters moved to St. Louis in late 1865.  Sarah Fowler Rain­water was promi­nently identified with several charitable organizations in the city, particu­larly the Women’s Christian Association, with which she was involved from 1872 until her death in 1939.  She is buried next to her husband in Belfontaine Cemetery.

 

 

 

 

Shelf List for this collection
Index cards for this collection
Questions? Use our Researcher Registration Form
Return to WHMC-Rolla's home page.