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Texas Portal |
Edwin R. Rainwater (1813-? ) was a soldier in the Texas Army during the Texas Revolution, noted for a daring action during the Battle of San Jacinto that helped seal the decisive Texian victory.
Rainwater came to Texas at the age of 22, sometime between May 2, 1835 and March 2, 1836. He enlisted in the Texas army and was a member of Captain Henry Wax Karnes' Company of Cavalry and was one of the men who assisted in destroying Vince's Bridge. The others who were with him on that mission were Deaf Smith, John Coker, Denmore W. Reaves, Young Perry Alsbury, John T. Garner and Moses Lapham. He evidently left Texas soon after the Mexican-American War. He did not apply for the Bounty and Donation land due him for his services in the army and he assigned his land rights to Samuel Fuller on January 25, 1848. He served in Company A, Captain Benjamin Hill's Company, Texas Mounted Volunteers during the Mexican-American War and he served from April 14, 1847 to June 16, 1847.
He became an early citizen of Rio Grande City, TX in Starr county, where he was involved in organizing the county government in the fall of 1848 to address the increasing influence of outlaws in this border town at the termination of the Mexican-American war. His disappearance from Texas records at this point suggest he either joined one of the parties of Starr County citizens who left Texas for the California gold rush, or that he died in the cholera epidemic in the spring of 1849, that killed a significant portion of the early residents of Rio Grande City.