Many men took privately owned, civilian pattern pin fire revolvers into the field. However, the use of pin fire revolvers by the North and South was not limited to the 12mm military guns. Period documentation indicates that pinfire revolvers saw significant use by Confederate soldiers as, and many deep south arsenals maintained inventories pin fire cartridges and even offered the pistols for sale to officers. Other importers who provided pinfire revolvers to the US government included Herman Boker, Schuyler, Hartley & Graham, George Raphael (who provided the Raphael revolvers to the US), Alexis Godillot of Paris (who provided the Perrin revolvers to the US) and even Tiffany & Company.
The Ordnance Department did not appear to differentiate between the French and Belgian made versions, much like they often lumped French and Belgian made muskets together without any distinction at all. However, extant examples with American Civil War provenance indicate that many Belgian licensed copies were also imported during the war.
Most of Schuyler’s purchases appear to have been made directly from Lefaucheux in Paris. The primary importer of M-1854 revolvers was George Schuyler who purchased 10,000 Lefaucheux revolvers for the US government. Although US government purchases only record about 13,000 M-1854 Lefaucheux patent pin fire revolvers as being officially purchased (along with over 2.2 million cartridges), surviving examples and regimental records indicate that far more than that were imported. Thousands of these pinfire revolvers were imported for use by US troops, and at least a few hundred saw service with Confederate troops as well. In many ways the large bore marital pinfire revolver, based upon the patents of Casimir and Eugene Lefaucheux was one of the most modern and advanced military handguns to see use on the battlefield during the American Civil War. The serial number 34003 is within the range of numbers of the revolvers imported to the USA during the Civil War (25,000-37,000). Large frame, single action Model 1854 Lefaucheux pinfire revolver.
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