“I captured a splendid revolver, our Col. says we can keep all our booty.”– R. Wallace Mitchell, 16th Penn. Cavalry, wrote in a letter home to his brother George, March 19, 1863. Mitchell later wrote, “I am going to send my revolver home if I ever get a chance. I have all the arms I want to carry without it. There would be no trouble in sending it if I can find anyone going, for it is not like the government arms (Colt’s Revolvers) we can’t send any of the gov’t arms home.” In another letter, he continued by saying, “I sent my rebel revolver home today on to Erie. I mean I will inclose (sic) an order that George can get it. I sent it just as I found it, loaded. I found it when I was fighting dismounted. We had driven the rebels back and some of them dropped the revolver in the skedatle (sic).” In a follow-up letter, Mitchell inquired: “Have you get that reb revolver yet – I sent it to Erie, I sent an order in my last letter. You must be careful when you get it for it
The story of the Adams Patent Revolvers, as produced by the Massachusetts Arms Company, is a very interesting one. Robert Adams’ “self-cocking” or “double action” revolver was originally patented in England in 1851, with the primary patent covering his one piece, solid frame and barrel forging. The frame was considerably stronger than the open top, two-piece, wedge retained frame and barrel system used by Colt. Adams instantly found success selling his guns in England, and in 1854 Lieutenant Frederick E.B. Beaumont of the Royal Engineers developed an improvement to the lock work, which allowed the pistol to operate in both conventional single action and double action modes. It was this variation of the Adams revolver (the M1854 or “Beaumont-Adams”) that was produced under license by the Massachusetts Arms Company of Chicopee Falls, Mass. The firm produced two versions of the handgun, a .31 caliber “pocket” revolver and a larger, “belt” sized revolver in .36 caliber.
In 1857, Massachusetts Arms entered into an agreement to provide 500 of the “belt” sized Beaumont-Adams Patent revolvers to the U.S. Ordnance Department. The head of the Ordnance Department, Col. H.K. Craig, had purchased 100 of the English made Beaumont- Adams revolvers the previous year, in .36 caliber, since it was the caliber of the Colt M1851 “Navy” revolvers then in use by some of the U.S. military at that time. After issue and use in the field during 1856, Craig wrote to the Secretary of War “I think very favourably (sic) of the arm….as being well adapted to Military use, and as the price is considerably less than….the Colt Pistol, to which it is quite equal and, in some respects, in my opinion superior.” Craig was no doubt referring to the robust solid frame of the guns, when calling them “superior” to the Colt.
On July 24, 1858, The Massachusetts Arms Company delivered the first 250 of the Beaumont-Adams patent revolvers to the Ordnance Department. They delivered another 150 on Aug. 17, and the last 100 on Sept. 4, of the same year. Massachusetts Arms saw only limited civilian sales of the revolvers during this period, and it is believed that the highest serial number delivered to the U.S. Ordnance Department was 609, indicating that 100 or so were manufactured for private sale, or rejected by the Ordnance Department during that period.
The revolvers delivered by the Mass. Arms Company had 6" octagonal barrels and five shot cylinders, and used the Kerr’s patent loading lever attached to the left side of the frame. They were blued with checkered onepiece walnut grips pierced in the center for the attachment of a lanyard. Standard markings were PATENT / JUNE 3, 1856 on the lower right side of the frame in two horizontal lines and ADAMS, PATENT / MAY 3, 1853 on the lower left side of the frame in two lines. The topstrap was marked in three lines: MANUFACTURED BY / MASS. ARMS CO. / CHICOPEE FALLS. The loading levers were marked in two lines: KERR’S. PATENT / APRIL 14, 1857. Later production guns were numbered on the loading lever, but this was not a serial number to match the balance of the gun, but rather a patent tracking number, counting the levers that were made in order to pay the correct amount of royalties to James Kerr.
Those guns accepted for U.S. government service were marked Overall view of the obverse of Mass. Arms Adams #554, sent home by Cpl. Wallace after capturing the gun from Virginia cavalry at Kelly’s Ford.
Close up of the obverse of #554, showing frame markings and carved initials in the grip, likely of the C.S. trooper the gun was captured from. Note the lack of a U.S. military inspection cartouche. The inset photo shows a weak WAT inspection cartouche as found on obverse grip of U.S. martial Mass. Arms Adams revolvers.
with the sub-inspector’s cartouche on the left side of the grip and with the WAT cartouche of William Anderson Thornton, the accepting Ordnance Officer, on the right side of the grip. The existence of a handful with only the sub-inspection cartouche and no accepting officer’s cartouche suggests that some may have been passed by the initial inspector but were subsequently rejected by the accepting officer.
It has long been believed that the state of Virginia also acquired 1,000 of these revolvers via the Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Mass., in a May 1860 arms order, which was delivered during the summer and fall of that year. While period documents refer to the revolvers as being “1,000 Deane & Adams’ Pistols,” a somewhat more accurate period description comes from Harper’s Ferry
master armorer Phillip Burkhart (who went on to superintend the Confederate arsenal in Fayetteville, N.C.) as “….pistols (Army Size)…by Dean & Adams Chicopee Falls Massachusetts.” While Burkhart implied the incorrect caliber, “Army” usually meant “.44” during the period, the Massachusetts Arms Company “belt model” .36 caliber (“Navy” in period parlance) revolver was built on the same sized frame the 54-bore (.443 caliber) English made M1854 Adams Revolver used. According to Chamberlain & Taylerson in Adams’ Revolvers, the guns were delivered from stock on hand in Sept. 1860, and were supplied to Virginia along with 1,000 cavalry sabers and 200 light artillery sabers. It must be remembered that, for all practical purposes, the Massachusetts Arms Company was a subsidiary of the Ames Manufactory Weak example of the JT sub-inspection cartouche found on the reverse grip of most U.S. martial Mass. Arms Adams revolvers. (both were located in Chicopee, Mass.), was largely financed by the Ames family, and controlled by Ames family members on its board of directors. While references like Flayderman’s Guide to Antique American Firearms list approximately 1,000 as the total number of large frame “Navy” model Adams revolvers produced by Mass. Arms, the reality is that at least 1,500 had to have been manufactured to fill both the 500-gun order for the U.S. military and the additional 1,000-gun order for Virginia. At least some of these Mass. Arms Adams revolvers had been issued by the state of Virginia as of Nov. 1860, since an article in the Nov. 26, 1860, Springfield Daily Republican noted that, “There is a company of men about organizing at Richmond, to be armed with double-barreled guns, five shooters and bowie knives, to be ready for the call of the governor at a minute’s warning, to defend the rights of Virginia.” The reference to “five shooters” strongly suggests the five-shot Mass. Arms Adams revolvers. Period documents indicate that portions of the 1st and 5th Virginia Cavalry regiments were definitely armed with Adams revolvers (likely the Mass. Arms guns), and no doubt a number of other early regiments saw at least a handful of the guns in service as well.
The gun that Corporal Mitchell sent home was a Mass. Arms Adams revolver, serial number 554. This places the gun just above the initial order of 500 that appears to have been delivered for the U.S. military contract. The gun is devoid of any U.S. military inspection marks. Mitchell acquired the pistol at the Battle of Kelly’s Ford on March 17, 1863, two days before he wrote the letter home quoted at the beginning of this article. One of Mitchell’s letters refers to the battle as a “big thing for a cavalry fight.” While histories of the battle are available elsewhere, it is worth noting that once the 2nd Va. Cav. was driven from the field during the initial Union advance, the 3rd & 5th Virginia Cav. counterattacked, only to be repulsed by the sustained and accurate carbine fire of the 16th Penn. Cav. As Wallace notes in his letter, “the squadron I was in dismounted, every fourth man held horses, we went out on the double quick and pluged (sic) away at the retreating rebs, I suppose you think I was excited, scared or something, not a bit. I took just as good aim as though I was hunting squirrels. I couldn’t tell whether I hit any of them or not, I saw a horse stagger where I took aim…” No doubt Wallace picked up his loaded, “reb” revolver during the latter part of the engagement as the Confederates were retreating. This gun, retrieved from a Virginia cavalryman, and documented in Wallace’s letters home, provides concrete evidence of the use of these guns in combat by Virginia cavalry during the America Civil War.
Tim Prince is a full-time dealer in fine & collectible military arms from the Colonial Period through WWII. He operates College Hill Arsenal, a web-based antique arms retail site. 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.