John Lawrence Rapier

In 1860 he was an 18 year old clerk living with his parents and 5 siblings in New Orleans, LA. He enlisted there during the siege of Ft. Pickens on 22 April 1861 as a Private in the First Independent Company (Capt. Henry St. Paul's), Louisiana Foot Rifles. They became Company A of St. Paul's Battalion, later designated the 7th Louisiana Infantry Battalion, and he was appointed their Sergeant Major by June 1862. He was wounded in action near Richmond, VA in late July 1862. Shortly afterward the 7th Battalion was dissolved and his Company was transferred as Company E (Capt. Charles M. Rene) to the First Zouave Battalion, Rapier a Sergeant.

He was with his Company in action at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862.

In August 1863 he was transferred to the CS Marine Corps and commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant to date from 11 July 1863. He was posted to Drewry's Bluff near Richmond, VA to the end of 1863, then at Mobile, AL. He was captured at Fort Gaines on Dauphin Island at the mouth of Mobile Bay on 8 (or 5) August 1864 but escaped from prison in New Orleans, LA on 13 October 1864 and successfully made his way back to Mobile. He was then assigned to gunboat CSS Morgan under Lt. Joseph Fry, CSN, in the Mobile Squadron. He was surrendered with them on 4 May 1865 and paroled on 10 May.

By 1870 he was a bookkeeper in Mobile living with his old Captain and, more recently, father-in-law, Henry St. Paul and his family; St Paul then owner of the Mobile Times. By 1880 he was owner and publisher of the Mobile Register and by 1900 and to his death at age 62 in 1905, was President of the Mobile Register Publishing Company.

His service from his Compiled Service Records,1 online from fold3, and the Register of Officers of the Confederate States Navy, 1861-1865 (USGPO, 1931). His presence at Sharpsburg and personal details from his obituary in the Montgomery (AL) Advertiser of 8 May 1905. Further personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860-1900. His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture from a photograph at the Library of Congress. Thanks to Greyson Beardsley for the pointer to Rapier.

He married Marie Regina St Paul (1847-1866) in March 1866, but she died in November of that year. He married again, Regina Demouy (1851-1932) in January 1871 and they had 4 sons and a daughter.

06/15/1842; Spring Hill, AL

05/07/1905; Mobile, AL; burial in Catholic Cemetery, Mobile, AL