Gilliland Alan - Colt Single-Action Revolvers

First published in Great Britain in 2017 by Osprey Publishing,

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ISBN: 978-1-4728-1098-4 (PB)

ISBN: 978-1-4728-1099-1 (ePDF)

ISBN: 978-1-4728-1100-4 (eBook)

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The NRA Museums

Since 1935, the NRA Museum collection has become one of the worlds finest museum collections dedicated to firearms. Now housed in three locations, the NRA Museums offer a glimpse into the firearms that built our nation, helped forge our freedom, and captured our imagination. The National Firearms Museum, located at the NRA Headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia, details and examines the nearly 700-year history of firearms with a special emphasis on firearms, freedom, and the American experience. The National Sporting Arms Museum, at the Bass Pro Shops in Springfield, Missouri, explores and exhibits the historical development of hunting arms in America from the earliest explorers to modern day, with a focus on hunting, conservation, and freedom. The Frank Brownell Museum of the Southwest, at the NRA Whittington Center in Raton, NM, is a jewel box museum with 200 guns that tells the history of the region from the earliest Native American inhabitants through early Spanish exploration, the Civil War, and the Old West. For more information on the NRA Museums and hours, visit www.NRAmuseums.com.

Author

Martin Pegler was for many years the Senior Curator of Firearms at the Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds, UK. Martin has established The Somme Historical Centre (www.martinpegler.com), where visitors can see the technology used in the 191418 trench warfare. He is the author of a number of books including the highly acclaimed Out of Nowhere: A History of the Military Sniper.

Illustrators

Mark Stacey was born in Manchester in 1964 and has been a freelance illustrator since 1987. He has a lifelong interest in all periods of history, particularly military history, and has specialized in this area throughout his career. Mark completed the battlescene illustrations for this book.

Born in Malaya in 1949, Alan Gilliland spent 18 years as the graphics editor of the UKs Daily Telegraph, winning 19 awards in that time. He now writes, illustrates, and publishes fiction (www.ravensquill.com), as well as illustrating for a variety of publishers, architects, and developers (www.alangilliland.com). Alan completed the cutaway illustration for this book.

Acknowledgments

My grateful thanks to Dr. Robert Maze and Dr. Laurie Landau for providing photographs of some of their fine Colt collection and associated ammunition. Also to Roy Jinks, Smith & Wesson historian, for permission to quote from his book, and to Peter Smithurst for his assistance. As always, this work is entirely my responsibility and any technical errors are also mine.

Artists note

Readers may care to note that the original paintings from which the battlescenes in this book were prepared are available for private sale. All reproduction copyright whatsoever is retained by the Publishers. All enquiries should be addressed to:

The Publishers regret that they can enter into no correspondence upon this matter.

Editors note

In this book linear, weight, and volume measurements are given in US customary units of measurement (yards, feet, inches, pounds, ounces, grains). The following data will help when converting between US customary and metric measurements:

1yd = 91.44cm

1ft = 30.48cm

1in = 2.54cm

1lb = 0.45kg

1oz = 28.35g

1 grain = 0.002oz

1 grain = 0.064g

Front cover, above: An Army-issue Colt Single Action Army, in .45 caliber with 7in barrel. These were the revolvers that were used in the bulk of the fighting during the turbulent period of the Indian Wars. (NRA Museums, NRAMuseums.com) Front cover, below: Paul Newman (left) and Robert Redford in a scene from the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. (Bettmann)

Title-page image: Purportedly an image of Jesse and Frank James, with Jesse (at left) holding a Colt Model 1860 Army. Frank, on the right, is holding a Remington Model 1858 Army. (Library of Congress)

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Colt. Even to people with little interest in or knowledge of firearms, the name has a resonance that creates a powerful mental image. Normally it is that of the archetypal cowboy, toting a six-shooter; an indication of just how successful Samuel Colts products were in defining an era. More than any other, the Colt revolver is the most easily identifiable and iconic handgun in the world. Since its introduction in 1847, it has remained in production with one or two slight hiatuses up to the present day, and it has been copied by countless other manufacturers.

Samuel Colt was born in Hartford, Connecticut on July 19, 1814, into a world that had changed little since the first English settlers landed at Cape Henry on April 29, 1607. His father was a dyemaker, with a particularly thorough knowledge of chemical processes. Young Samuel showed some hint of his inherited scientific curiosity at a very early age, making his own pyrotechnics and taking firearms apart to see how they functioned. He developed a curious fascination with nitrous oxide and became something of an expert on the subject, which would stand him in good stead in the future. He also loved manufacturing explosives and began to construct submarine mines, successfully blowing up a raft in a local pond at the age of 15. When an experiment with a torpedo went badly wrong, however, he was forced to leave his school, the Amherst Academy, under something of a cloud. This did not deter him in the least, however, and his interest in firearms continued unabated. He joined a trading ship bound for Calcutta at the age of 16 and it was from this time, he later acknowledged, that his initial idea for a revolving-cylinder firearm originated.