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| Like many stamp collectors, I also have an interest in
other things besides stamps and covers and have formed some small
collections in other areas. As a serious Civil War History Buff who for
as long as I can remember has been reading everything I could on the
conflict, I thought that it would be interesting to begin collecting
some artifacts related to this period of history.
One of the things I thought would be fun would be to acquire some reproductions of the firearms used during that war just for demonstration purposes. But my friend and partner, Connie Bush, soon talked me out of the notion of reproductions and pointed me in the direction of acquiring the genuine article. It was then in 1982 that I acquired my first piece, a Colt Model 1851 Navy Revolver. Because the firearms used during the Civil War were many and varied, I decided to limit my collection only to Percussion (Cap and Ball) Revolvers that were in use during the Civil War period. The cartridge revolvers that are most commonly associated with the Old West of the 19th century were not prevalent until the early 1870's well after the war had ended. The common revolvers in use in the early 1860's were black powder cap and ball pieces based on Colt's original patents. The revolver handgun names most commonly heard with regard to the Civil War period are Colt and Remington. But Colt's major percussion patents expired in 1857 thus opening the door for many other companies to start manufacturing percussion revolvers. Therefore, such names as Manhattan, Bacon, Allen & Wheelock, Eli Whitney, Starr to name but a few are also encountered beginning in 1857-1858. Many of these companies were very short-lived and were gone by the late 1860's and early 1870's when the demand for percussion firearms was replaced by the newer and more modern cartridge pieces. But some of these companies did make the conversion to cartridge and survived into the next century. Colt and Remington are of course still with us today. Like most collectors, I enjoy showing my collections and talking about them. Therefore, I have posted here on my website for demonstration purposes only my small collection of Civil War period percussion revolvers. These items are NOT FOR SALE. But I hope that the visitors to this website will enjoy the demonstration. |
| This demonstration consists of 23 pages. Twenty-one pages show Civil War period percussion revolvers while the two final pages show flintlock pistols of an earlier period. To view the demonstration, either cycle through the pages in order by hitting the "Next Page" button at the bottom of each page eventually returning to this page. Or pick and choose which page to visit by using the demonstration Table of Contents below. |
Begin
the Cycle with the First Page The flintlock system was in use for centuries before being replaced gradually by the percussion (cap and ball) system beginning in the late 1830's and the 1840's. By the time of the Civil War, the flintlock system was still in limited use (flintlock muskets and pistols still remained in some of the armories and were in fact issued to some CSA soldiers at the beginning of the war) but was definitely well on its way out. Many flintlock pieces were converted to percussion locks during the years preceding the war and into the early years of the war. The few flintlock pieces in my collection are not associated with the Civil War as they are much earlier and also are European in origin. But they are certainly very interesting historical artifacts.
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