"Ironclads are said to master the world, but torpedoes master the ironclads." Gabriel J. Rains was a Confederate Brigadier General who was more than a military officer--he was a scientist. His Civil War appointment gave him an opportunity to develop explosives. He invented three mines: the "subterra shell" (land mine), the keg torpedo, and the submarine mortar battery (both naval mines). After the Battle of Seven Pines in 1862, he served the Confederacy in two ways, Superintendent of Conscription and Commander of the Torpedo Bureau. He and his men mined the roads around Jackson and the...