John L. Rapier

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John L. Rapier
Second Lieutenant (CSMC)
Unit1st Battalion Zouaves
Battles/warsAmerican Civil War
Other workOwned the Mobile Press-Register

John Lawrence Rapier (June 15, 1842 – May 7, 1905) was an

second lieutenant in the Confederate States Marine Corps. He was captured at Fort Gaines, Mobile Bay, Alabama, August 5, 1864, and paroled at Nanna Hubba Bluff, Alabama
, May 10, 1865.

After the war, he became the owner of the

Mobile Register
, and served as postmaster of Mobile.

Family and early life

Rapier was born in

Stephen R. Mallory. In 1857 he worked as a clerk in New Orleans until the outbreak of the American Civil War.[1]

Confederate States service

Rapier was enlisted from Louisiana as a private in Captain Henri St. Paul's Company (Second Company) of the Louisiana Foot Rifles on April 22, 1861. This was later folded into Company A, 7th Battalion, Louisiana Infantry. Their first assignment was Pensacola, Florida, where they arrived on April 28 and stayed until mid-September. They were then transferred to Richmond, Virginia, where they encamped for several months in the vicinity of Centerville. The battalion was then assigned to Brigadier General Richard H. Anderson's Brigade on the Virginia Peninsula in May 1862.[1]

Rapier was promoted to Sergeant-Major of the battalion, in which capacity he fought in the

Confederate Marine Corps, but Rapier did not initially accept it. However, several weeks later he took the examination, passed and was commissioned as a second lieutenant, dated July 11, 1863.[1]

On August 1, he was ordered to report to Secretary Mallory, where he was then assigned to the Marine Camp at

Dauphin Island, Mobile Bay, Alabama, during which time he was made Major W. R. Browne's adjutant.[1] Thus he participated in the Battle of Mobile Bay. When the commanding officer of the fort, Colonel Charles D. Anderson, held a council with his officers on August 6, he revealed a document he wished them to sign, surrendering the fort. Rapier and one other marine, were some of the very few that refused to sign.[3] Rapier was captured on August 8, 1864.[2] He later escaped from prison in New Orleans on October 13, 1864, by making his way through the swamps and bayous until he reached Mobile on November 10.[1] He met up with Captain Fry, a relative, who gave him command of two 32-pounder guns on the gunboat Morgan. He participated in the Battle of Spanish Fort and the Battle of Fort Blakely in April 1865.[1] He was on this boat until he surrendered on May 4, 1865. He was paroled May 10, 1865, at Nanna Hubba Bluff, Alabama.[2]

After the war

After the war, he married the daughter of a former commander, Regina St. Paul, in 1866, and after her death, he married Regina Demouy.

In 1866, Rapier took a position at the Mobile Times with his father-in-law Major St. Paul. The Times was later consolidated into the

John Forsyth, and upon the death of the latter, became the sole owner in 1877.[1]

In December 1894, President Grover Cleveland appointed him Postmaster of Mobile, which position he held until March 1897.[1] He was a member of the Catholic Knights of America, and for many years a member of the Striker's Independent Society and the Mobile Mardi Gras Society Order of Myths.

Rapier died on May 7, 1905, in Mobile, and was buried in the

Catholic Cemetery.[1]

See

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Donnelly, Biographical Sketches, 163-165.
  2. ^ a b c Register of Officers of the Confederate States Navy, 160
  3. ^ Sullivan, 66

References

External links
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