Remington was one of the principal cavalry sidearms of the Civil War and the dominant one in U.S. purchases starting in 1864. This Remington New Model Army .44 Caliber Revolver is serial numbered 101599, dating it (approximately) to the beginning of October 1864, to which Ware assigns a range of 101361 to 107410. The pistol rates Very Good for condition, showing mostly gray metal with some darker gray age stains and some faded blue-turned-thin brown on the frame and cylinder, with some shallow freckling on the top strap and lower, forward frame, but some blue on screw heads on the left frame. There are a very few, small light dings on the barrel edges and cylinder. It has all original parts, clear barrel address and serial number, decent grips with good edges and fit to the metal, good color and surface, and a visible O.W. Ainsworth inspector’s cartouche on the left grip.

The serial number is sharp on the underside of the barrel and the barrel address on top is correct and crisp: “PATENTED SEPT. 14, 1858 / E. REMINGTON & SONS, ILION, NEW YORK, U.S.A. / NEW-MODEL.” Small, single letter factory inspection marks are visible on parts. The grips fit the metal well. The backstrap is mostly brown, with gray along the edges from handling. The wood has pleasing, medium brown tones, a few light handling marks and scratches, with just very slight rounding the edges of the butt cap. The left grip has a visible inspector’s cartouche that has some shallow scratches through it at the upper left, but is clearly the “O.W.A.” stamp of Orville Wood Ainsworth, well known as an ordnance sub-inspector who had worked at Springfield before the war and apparently came out of retirement at the beginning of the war to act as a sub-inspector of contract arms, working on Colts, Providence Tool Company arms, Sharps rifles and others, as well as Remingtons. As is correct, his is the only inspection stamp on the pistol and correctly placed on the left grip. For the fine points on these revolvers see Ware, and for their inspection marks see Ware and also Daum and Pate.

We note a name lightly scratched in script on the buttstrap: “JE Diehl.” Of Union soldiers listed in CWData with those initials, none were in the cavalry. Another 18 are eliminated by having other middle initials. Of the remaining fifty or so with no middle initial listed, we find soldiers in 19^th and 20^th PA Cavalry, the 1^st Michigan and the 4^th Missouri as potential candidates if their middle initials could be determined. Given that we cannot guarantee the inscription is wartime, however, we have not pursued it further.

This pistol was made in time for use in some of the final, climactic campaigns of the war and would be a nice addition to a cavalry display. Remington became the dominant supplier of pistols to the army in 1864. His guns were robust and respected. Public relations dictated that Colt blame a factory fire for falling behind Remington in supplying the army, but the company had always played fast, loose, and aggressively in pricing and by 1864 the U.S. Ordnance Department was happy to give their money to someone else for a while, mainly Starr and Remington by that point.  [sr][ph:m]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THIS ITEM, AS WITH ALL OTHER ITEMS AVAILABLE ON OUR WEB SITE,

MAY BE PURCHASED THROUGH OUR LAYAWAY PROGRAM.

CLICK HERE FOR OUR POLICIES AND TERMS.

THANK YOU!