The recent post on the "Perfect" Smith & Wesson (here: S&W ) inspired me to share one other historic revolver - one that is "bottom break", the Smith & Wesson No 2 "Old Army" Revolver.

This pistol was one of the most popular metallic cartridge revolvers of the American Civil War period. This is a six shot, .32 caliber single action revolver that fired a .32 caliber rimfire cartridge.

The revolver was introduced in 1861 and remained in production until 1874. During that time some 77,155 of the revolvers were manufactured. Those pistols under serial number 35,731 were produced prior to May 1, 1865 and are considered revolvers that may have seen Civil War use.

The pistol used Smith & Wesson’s “tip up” action design that they introduced with the .22 caliber No 1 Revolver. To load or unload the pistol the release at the bottom of the frame was pushed, allowing the barrel to be tipped up and the cylinder removed. Pushing the chambers over the fixed ejector rod under the barrel removed the empty cartridges, allowing fresh cartridges to be dropped into the chambers.

These guns were very popular personal side arms for soldiers and officers on both sides during the conflict. Smith & Wesson No 2 pistols were known to be owned and used by such diverse and historic figures such as Brevet General George Armstrong Custer and the infamous lawman “Wild Bill” Hickok who was carrying his No. 2 the night he was killed playing poker in August, 1874.

Period images regularly show soldiers with an “Old Army” revolver stuck in their belt. Charles Scarett of the 16th Kentucky volunteers wrote that his pistol had killed two rebels. From Decatur, Alabama, N.B. Peterson of the 10th Indiana Cavalry reported that, "S&W revolvers are in great demand in this place." Corp. J.O. Sherwin wanted a dozen for his company in the 83rd Illinois and William H. Golder sought six for friends in the 8th Iowa Infantry. Within a single month in 1864, requests for price lists came from the 126th Illinois at Pine Bluff, Arkansas, the 3rd Wisconsin Veteran Volunteers at Atlanta, and the 115th Ohio at Murfreesboro. As for being the officer's favorite, Capt. Frederick Livermore, Massachusetts Volunteers wrote, "Most of our officers have your make." Capt. H I. Wheat, 11th Missouri Cavalry, considered the Model Two the "best belt revolver I have seen," as did Major D.Frazar, 13th New York Cavalry.

From the standpoint of size, weight and cartridge power, the Smith & Wesson No 2 was probably one of the most practical pistols for company grade officers to carry in the field. It was lighter and easier to deal with than a Colt Navy or Colt Army percussion revolver and was more powerful than the popular .22 rimfire pocket pistols of the era.

This Smith & Wesson No 2 is serial number 5417, which I estimate to be a late 1861 or early 1862 production. This gun has a 6” ribbed barrel. Pistols produced with 5” barrels are the most common, and the 6” guns are the second most often encountered. What I also find interesting about this particular pistol is that it has the name John Roy and the year 1876 scratched into the left side. So despite it's early Civil War production date, it was still being used some 15 years later.

This gun represented the first truly successful, mass-produced American cartridge pistol that was chambered in a reliable caliber that could actually be called an “effective” combat or self-defense cartridge. All previously successful metallic American cartridge revolvers had been chambered in the anemic .22 RF short or in some strange patent cartridge that was expensive, unreliable and difficult to obtain. The Smith & Wesson No 2 was a breakthrough revolver in these respects and paved the way for many other successful S&W models.

Very nice. Interesting that later "break" revolvers, the Schofield and Webley, broke downward. Perhaps more convenient for cavalry soldiers to reload in the saddle? In any case I'm enjoying learning about your Civil War collection.

What a great piece of history.

Man if she could only talk.

I agree. I think I'm safe to assume it was used in the Civil War as they were very popular personal sidearms, and with the early production date I'd hedge it was used in the war in some manner.

What I'd really like to know is who was John Roy (the name scratched into the left side) and what was he using it for in 1876?