Inspection
The Confederate Kerr Revolver
Last month we discussed the Confederate use of English made Tranter revolvers, this month we turn our attention to the English revolver that was most used by the Confederacy.
The Kerr’s Patent Revolver, as produced by the London Armoury Company, is one of the most distinctive and recognizable of all Civil War era handguns. The side mounted hammer and removable side plate were not common features in large bore handguns of the era and the result is a unique and easily identifiable silhouette. The design also made the revolver easy for gunsmiths and armorers to work on in the field. The Kerr patent revolver was invented by James Kerr, who was awarded two patents for improvements to Roberts Adams earlier revolver design. Kerr had been a founding member of the London Armoury Company, which was established on February 9, 1856, and of which Robert Adams was the Managing Director during the late 1850s. It is interesting to note that Kerr was Adams’ cousin and had previously worked with him at Deane, Adams & Deane during the early days of Adams and Beaumont-Adams revolver production. Initially the London Armoury Company (LAC) had focused on producing Model 1854 Beaumont-Adams patent revolvers with an eye towards obtaining lucrative English military contracts. However, when significant orders were not forthcoming, the company shifted its focus to the manufacture of British Pattern 1853 “Enfield” rifle muskets for both the English government and private sale. This caused a rift within the company management that culminated with the departure of Adams from L.A.C. and the elevation of Kerr to the position of factory superintendent. With the departure of Adams, and the perceived need to continue to offer some
Confederate inspected Kerr revolver serial number 9193, less than 100 number from the lowest numbered Kerr on the Pratt Roll. (All photos Tim Prince) form of revolver for sale, the company purchased the rights to Kerr’s design. Production commenced in the first quarter of 1859, with the first pistol completed in March of that year. The gun was subsequently tested at the Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield Lock on April 25, 1859. The pistol was typical of large bore English percussion handguns of the era, in that it the standard offering was 54-Bore (about .442 caliber), and had a 5-shot cylinder. The gun was manufactured with an octagonal barrel that was nominally about 5 ½" in length. However, based upon examination of numerous extant examples, the barrels appear to have varied slightly lengths from about 5 5/8" to 5 ¾". Although the large majority of the pistols produced were in 54- Bore, a small number of very early and very late production pistols were manufactured in 80-Bore (approximately .387 caliber). The majority of the pistols used a single action mechanism, not a double action mechanism as the trigger position would lead the casual observer to believe. The hammer could only be cocked by pulling it back manually, but pulling the trigger could rotate the cylinder. This was a byproduct of the cylinder locking system, which relied upon a pivoting arm that was actuated by the trigger. This arm locked the cylinder in place when the gun was fired. This was very different from the standard spring-loaded cylinder stop found in the frames of most American made revolvers of the period. This system also eliminated the need to machine stop slots in the side of the cylinder, as the rear face of cylinder was where the arm locked it into position. Only a handful of Kerr revolvers were manufactured as “self-cocking” (double action) revolvers, and they are very rare today. The Kerr also featured a unique, frame mounted cylinder arbor that was removed from the rear of the pistol, much like the arbor pin used on the Colt side hammer (aka “Root” designs). Most revolver designs of the era utilized a fixed cylinder arbor, or an arbor pin that was withdrawn from the front of the frame. The rear mounted arbor pin made the pistol easier and safer to manipulate when the cylinder had to be removed from the pistol. The early production Kerr revolvers had a small setscrew on the left side of the frame, forward of the cylinder that prevented the cylinder arbor pin from being withdrawn from the rear of the frame. The later production revolvers had a frame mounted spring on the lefts side, similar in appearance to the M-1851 Adams patent safety, which retained the arbor pin. Early production revolvers had a wide groove machined in the topstrap, while the later production guns had a flat topstrap without a groove. The early guns also had a loading lever that pivoted on a screw located at the lower front edge of the frame, under the barrel. The later production guns moved this pivot point higher and closer to the cylinder, making it somewhat stronger and allowing more torque to be applied to the lever when loading tight fitting ammunition. Most of these early features are phased out in the upper 2,XXX to middle 3,XXX serial number range, although some of the features appear somewhat randomly through about the middle of revolver production, suggesting that sometimes older parts were used to complete orders when time was of the essence. Standard markings were “Kerr’s Patent” on the lower right side of the frame, followed by a serial number. The same number was engraved on the cylinder as well. Separate assembly numbers (not related to the patent tracking serial number) were usually stamped on the various parts, including the inside of the frame, the rear face of the cylinder, inside the trigger guard, etc. The lock plate was engraved either “LONDON ARMOURY” or “LONDON ARMOURY Co”, with the former being more commonly encountered on guns in the first third of production and the latter more commonly found in the last two-thirds of production. The lower left side of the frame was also stamped with a arched, two line “cartouche” that read “LONDON / ARMORY”. The upper left angled Close up of the right side of the revolver showing the KERR’S PATENT mark and matching serial numbers 9193 on the frame and cylinder.
flat of the barrel was stamped with London commercial proof and view marks (a Crown/GP and Crown/V) and usually with the initials of the London Armory Company, L.A.C. London commercial view and proof marks were also stamped on the cylinder between the chambers.
Although the design was reliable and fairly robust, the London Armoury Company did not find any British military contracts forthcoming for their pistol. Between the introduction of the Kerr revolver in early 1859, and the beginning of the American Civil War in 1861, only about 1,000-1,500 of the revolvers were manufactured, and even fewer were sold. Most of these pistols were sold commercially (both in Great Britain and in the U.S.), with about 100 of them being purchased by an English Volunteer unit; The 1st Sussex Artillery Volunteers. With the outbreak of the American Civil War, Caleb Huse (the South’s primary purchasing agent in England) engaged the London Armory Company to produce all of the Kerr’s Patent revolvers that they could for delivery to the Confederacy. It is believed that nearly all of the L.A.C.’s output of Kerr revolvers from April of 1861 through the close of the Civil War were produced under various Confederate contracts, with about 9,000 pistols produced and shipped to the south during that time. It is also estimated that the London Armoury Company produced about 70,000
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Pattern 1853 Enfield Rifle Muskets during the same time frame. The estimate regarding revolver production is based upon the extant examples with Confederate provenance or acceptance marks, which tend to exist primarily in the 1,500 to about the 10,000 serial number range (although a handful of legitimate CS inspected Kerr’s do exist in the 7XX to 1,5XX range). To date, at least three separate Confederate government contracts have been identified for the purchase of Kerr revolvers. Two were army contracts, and one was a 1,000-gun contract for the Confederate Navy. The Naval contract was quite early, as reference to the purchase of Kerr revolvers by Confederate States Navy Commander James D. Bulloch was made in a diary entry by Confederate purchasing agent Major Edward Anderson dated August 6, 1861. Many of the army contract Kerr revolvers were financed through the Charleston, SC based firm of Fraser, Trenholm & Company and delivered by their subsidiary John Fraser & Company. A minimum of 3,160 Kerr revolvers were delivered directly to Confederate arsenals by Fraser. In addition to these three government contracts that have been positively identified, an unknown number of Kerr’s Patent revolvers were acquired speculatively for sale privately and to the Confederate military once they reached the south. This may account for the number of Kerr revolvers that exist today with unquestionable Confederate provenance, but without the JS/ ANCHOR Confederate inspection mark. One of the standard indicators of C.S. importation and usage of a Kerr revolver is the presence of the JS/ANCHOR inspection mark that is found on the front of the wooden grip of the pistols, below the grip frame tang. This is the inspection mark of John Southgate, who acted as a “viewer” (arms inspector) for the Confederate government con
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tracts. However, the absence of this mark is not necessarily an indication that the pistol was not a C.S. purchase. As the information above outlines that the majority of Kerr’s over
serial number 1,500 and probably through the low 10,XXX range were produced for sale to the Confederacy. To date, the lowest numbered Kerr to bear the JS/ANCHOR inspection mark that I am aware of is in the lower third of the 7XX range, and the highest verifiable mark is just under 10,000. Over the years, a number of Kerr’s with spurious JS/ ANCHOR inspection marks have been noted, often found on guns that did not have them when they were
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documentary evidence of how high the Confederate used serial numbers of Kerr revolvers ranged is the Squad Roll of Lt. Julian Pratt, who commanded Company H of the 18th Virginia Cavalry. This document lists the pistols in possession of his squad of cavalry in July of 1864. On the list are seven Kerr revolvers that range between #9240 and #9974. Since the Confederacy would continue to import Kerr pistols throughout the end of the war (the last documented shipment was 8 cases in March of 1865), it is not unreasonable to extrapolate CS purchases into the lower portion of the 10,XXX serial number range. It is interesting to note that two of the Kerr revolvers on the Pratt Roll are known to survive today, and revolver #9974 does not have a JS/ANCHOR mark, suggesting it was a speculative or state purchase rather than a Confederate central government purchase. While very scarce today, a number of Kerr revolvers were imported with a complete set of accouterments and accessories that would have been included in a cased set. According to The Payne Ledger, some 900 Kerr revolvers arrived at the port of Wilmington, N.C. on October 31, 1864 (more than 3 months after Lt. Pratt’s guns were logged in his roll). These guns also had the following accessories: “Spare Nipples & Cloth Bags, 900 Powder Flasks, 900 Cleaning Rods, 450 Steel Nipple Keys, 180 Bullet Moulds, 180 Mainsprings, 180 Trigger Springs, 90,000 Skin Cartridges, 108,000 Percussion Caps”. The guns were delivered by the blockade-runner Hope, and were part of the consignment purchased through John Fraser & Company. Five hundred of the guns and their associated accouterments were subsequently delivered the Selma Arsenal, and the other four hundred and their accessories were delivered to the Richmond Arsenal. The presence of accessories like cleaning rods, powder flasks, cloth bags (used for percussion caps in the cased sets) and the combination gun tools (“steel nipple keys”), suggest that the guns were purchased as cased sets, and were subsequently repacked into the standard 20 guns per box lead lined cases that most Kerr revolvers were delivered to the Confederacy in. The powder flasks and cloth bags were certainly of limited utility for guns that were designed to be used with pre-made paper or skin cartridges. Bullet molds were typically delivered to the Confederacy at a ratio of 1 for every 20 long arms, but in this case they were delivered at the ratio of 1 for every 5 pistols. The cleaning rods would certainly have been useful in the field, but this is the only report I can find of cleaning rods being purchased by the Confederacy for use with revolvers. All of this suggests that these accessories originated in cased Kerr revolver sets. It seems quite likely that additional cased sets were acquired on a speculative basis for delivery to the south as well. Today all of these accessories are extremely rare, most especially the special Kerr revolver combination gun tool & cone (nipple) wrench. With the conclusion of the American Civil War, the London Armoury Company quickly succumbed to the loss of its largest major customer. The company closed exactly one year after the end of the American Civil War, in April of 1866, and it believed that the remaining factory assets and machinery were sold to a gun making company in Spain the following year. The Spanish had been producing an unlicensed copy of the Kerr since 1862, primarily assembling the guns from Belgian made parts. This had proved a somewhat unreliable system of production and made it difficult to obtain parts for repairs. By obtaining the actual machinery, it was possible to keep Kerr patent revolvers in Spanish service through the Spanish American War period (primarily as cartridge altered guns). James Kerr himself did remain in business for some time after this, and assembled and sold Kerr revolvers from the existing stock of parts. This accounts for the guns in the late 10,XXX and low 11,XXX serial number ranges that are occasionally encountered, sometimes in relatively fine condition. With approximately 9,000 Kerr revolvers purchased by the Confederacy, the Kerr certainly qualifies as the most produced “Confederate” revolver of the war. While thousands of Colts and many other types of handguns were used in the South, no other revolver was produced in this quantity specifically for Confederate service. In fact, using the most generous production estimates, the total number of Confederate manufactured revolvers of all types is only about 9,000 and most likely that number is high. The most successful of the Confederate makers, Griswold & Gunnison is only credited with producing about 3,700 guns, less than half the number of Confederate purchased Kerr’s. As a result, the Kerr revolver is the most widely available and obtainable of all “Confederate” handguns, and the one that a collector of Civil War arms is most likely to have the opportunity and ability to purchase. Next month, we will look at the Confederate purchase of James Kerr’s other major firearms invention, the Kerr Patent Rifle.
A long time collector & researcher, Tim has been a contributing author to two major book projects about Civil War era arms including The English Connection and an upcoming book on southern retailer marked and Confederate used shotguns. Tim is also a featured Arms & Militaria appraiser on the PBS Series Antiques Roadshow.