Savage 1861 Navy | |
---|---|
Type | Revolver |
Place of origin | United States |
Service history | |
In service | 1861-1865 |
Used by | United States, Confederate States |
Wars | American Civil War |
Production history | |
Designer | Savage Revolving Firearms Company |
Designed | 1860 |
Produced | 1861-1862 |
No. built | 20,000 |
Specifications | |
Mass | 3 pounds, 6 ounces |
Length | 14-1/2" |
Cartridge | .36 Ball |
Caliber | .36 |
Action | double-action |
Feed system | 6-shot Cylinder |
The Savage 1861 Navy was a cap and ball revolver manufactured by the Savage Revolving Firearms Company from 1861 to 1862. This company is unrelated to the later Savage Arms Company. It was used by both sides during the American Civil War.
The Savage 1861 Navy is quite unique in appearance and is only comparable to its predecessor, the Savage 1859 Figure Eight. Both guns are recognized by its use of a kind of "proto double-action" with a second trigger underneath the first. When this trigger is pulled it rotates the cylinder and cocks the hammer.
Designed in 1860 by Henry S. North and Edward Savage, production began in Middletown, Connecticut in 1861 and ended in 1862 with a total of 20,000 units produced. An initial order of 5,500 units was placed in 1861 but was later extended to 12,000 units. The first units were delivered late 1861. The remaining units were sold to civilians and several ended up being used by the Confederates.
The Savage 1861 Navy was officially used by the following United States army regiments: 1st Wisconsin U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, 2nd Wisconsin U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, 5th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry, and the 7th New York Cavalry
Confederate States Army regiments: 34th Battalion of Virginia Cavalry, 35th Battalion of Virginia Cavalry, 11th Texas Cavalry, 7th Virginia Cavalry and the 7th Missouri Cavalry
The United States Navy also used the revolver in small numbers, but it was never widely adopted due to a lack of consistency and low quality production material/ machines. This amounted to a pistol that was more of a concept, being one of the only double triggered pistols in existence. The Savage Navy just couldn't compare to other models like the Colt Army 1860, and quickly became a high demand collectors item over an army pistol.
Even though the gun was offered to the soldiers when the war ended, only 17 units were reported being bought.
The American Civil War saw extensive use of horse-mounted soldiers on both sides of the conflict. They were vital to both the Union Army and Confederate Army for conducting reconnaissance missions to locate the enemy and determine their strength and movement, and for screening friendly units from being discovered by the enemy's reconnaissance efforts. Other missions carried out by cavalry included raiding behind enemy lines, escorting senior officers, and carrying messages.
California's involvement in the American Civil War included sending gold east to support the war effort, recruiting volunteer combat units to replace regular U.S. Army units sent east, in the area west of the Rocky Mountains, maintaining and building numerous camps and fortifications, suppressing secessionist activity and securing the New Mexico Territory against the Confederacy. The State of California did not send its units east, but many citizens traveled east and joined the Union Army there, some of whom became famous.
James Dearing was a Confederate States Army officer during the American Civil War who served in the artillery and cavalry. Dearing entered West Point in 1858 and resigned on April 22, 1861, when Virginia seceded from the Union. Dearing was mortally wounded at the Battle of High Bridge during the Appomattox Campaign of 1865, making him one of the last officers to die in the war. Despite serving as a commander of a cavalry brigade and using the grade of brigadier general after he was nominated to that grade by Confederate President Jefferson Davis, Dearing did not officially achieve the grade of brigadier general because the Confederate Senate did not approve his nomination. His actual permanent grade was colonel.
Galvanized Yankees was a term from the American Civil War denoting former Confederate prisoners of war who swore allegiance to the United States and joined the Union Army. Approximately 5,600 former Confederate soldiers enlisted in the United States Volunteers, organized into six regiments of infantry between January 1864 and November 1866. Of those, more than 250 had begun their service as Union soldiers, were captured in battle, then enlisted in prison to join a regiment of the Confederate States Army. They surrendered to Union forces in December 1864 and were held by the United States as deserters, but were saved from prosecution by being enlisted in the 5th and 6th U.S. Volunteers. An additional 800 former Confederates served in volunteer regiments raised by the states, forming ten companies. Four of those companies saw combat in the Western Theater against the Confederate Army, two served on the western frontier, and one became an independent company of U.S. Volunteers, serving in Minnesota.
The Missouri State Militia was a federally funded state militia organization of Missouri conceived in 1861 and beginning service in 1862 during the American Civil War. It was a full-time force whose primary purpose was to conduct offensive operations against Confederate guerrillas and recruiters as well as oppose raids by regular Confederate forces. The militia at one time numbered more than 13,000 soldiers, but this force was reduced to 10,000 soldiers, by the United States government.
The 12th Virginia Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment mostly raised in Petersburg, Virginia, for service in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War, but with units from the cities of Norfolk and Richmond, and Greensville and Brunswick counties in southeastern Virginia. It fought mostly with the Army of Northern Virginia.
The 64th Virginia Mounted Infantry Regiment was formed from troops raised in Lee, Scott, Wise and Buchanan counties in Virginia for service in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. It served as an infantry regiment, a cavalry regiment, and a mounted infantry (dragoon) unit, and had a mixed reputation.
The 10th Virginia Cavalry Regiment was a cavalry regiment raised in Virginia for service in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. It fought mostly with the Army of Northern Virginia.
The 13th Virginia Cavalry Regiment was a cavalry regiment raised in Virginia for service in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. It fought mostly with the Army of Northern Virginia.
Hispanics in the American Civil War fought on both the Union and Confederate sides of the conflict. Not all the Hispanics who fought in the American Civil War were "Hispanic-Americans", in other words citizens of the United States. Many of them were Spanish subjects or nationals from countries in the Caribbean, Central and South America. Some were born in a US Territory and therefore did not have the right to US Citizenship. It is estimated that approximately 20,000 Hispanics, mostly Mexican-Americans, Puerto Ricans and Cubans living in the United States joined the war: 2,500 for the Confederacy and 1,000 for the Union. This number increased to 10,000 by the end of the war.
James Adams Cunningham was a volunteer officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
The following list is a bibliography of American Civil War Confederate military unit histories and are generally available through inter-library loan. More details on each book are available at WorldCat. For an overall national view, see Bibliography of the American Civil War. For histories of the Union, see Bibliography of American Civil War Union military unit histories. For a guide to web sources see: Carter, Alice E.; Jensen, Richard. The Civil War on the Web: A Guide to the Very Best Sites—Completely Revised and Updated (2003).
In 1854, Frenchman Eugene Lefaucheux introduced the Lefaucheux Model 1854, notable as being the first revolver to use self-contained metallic cartridges rather than loose powder, pistol ball, and percussion caps. The M1854 model was a single-action, pinfire revolver holding six rounds. It was a French military revolver chambered for the 12 mm pinfire cartridge, based on a design by Casimir Lefaucheux. The M1854 revolver spawned numerous variants, some of which were produced under license in other countries. It was widely exported during the 1860s and sold as both a military and civilian sidearm with either a short or long barrel. Most military models were produced only as single-action weapons, whereas civilian models were made primarily as double-action weapons.
7th Missouri Cavalry Regiment was a cavalry unit from Missouri that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The regiment was formed on 20 February 1862 by merging Bishop's Cavalry Battalion with some unattached cavalry companies. The regiment fought at Independence, Lone Jack, Prairie Grove and Van Buren in 1862. The unit participated in Frederick Steele's expedition to Little Rock in 1863, fighting at Brownsville, Ashley's Mills, and Bayou Fourche. In 1864, the regiment went on the Camden Expedition and fought at Mount Elba and Marks' Mills. The remaining soldiers were consolidated with the 1st Missouri Volunteer Cavalry Regiment on 22 February 1865.
The 623rd Field Artillery Regiment (Morgan's Men) is a single-battalion unit of the Kentucky Army National Guard. The unit draws its lineage from cavalry and infantry units of the Kentucky Militia formed in 1846 for service in the Mexican–American War. Its antecedents include units that served on both sides of the American Civil War as well as those that fought for the United States in the Spanish–American War, World War One and World War Two. The unit was first designated as the 623rd Field Artillery Battalion in 1947, serving under that name in the Korean War. It was part of the 138th Artillery Regiment in the 1960s before becoming the 623rd Artillery Regiment in 1969 and the 623rd Field Artillery Regiment in 1972. The unit served in the Gulf War as a self-propelled artillery unit; it is now equipped with the M142 HIMARS system.
The 13th Texas Infantry Regiment was a unit of volunteers recruited in Texas that fought in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. The regiment organized between September 1861 and January 1862, and was originally called the 4th Texas Volunteer Regiment. It spent its entire existence patrolling the Texas Gulf Coast between Matagorda and Galveston. The unit was actually made up of infantry, cavalry, and artillery units, but was not designated a legion. In April 1862, four infantry companies transferred to the 15th Texas Infantry Regiment, while three cavalry and one artillery company transferred to Reuben R. Brown's 12th Texas Cavalry Battalion. In fall 1863, three additional infantry companies of the 13th Texas Infantry were added when the 12th Cavalry Battalion consolidated with Lee C. Rountree's Cavalry Battalion to form the 35th (Brown's) Texas Cavalry Regiment. The regiment's soldiers suffered from poor morale due to the lack of military action, disease, monotony, and lack of food. The troops were only involved in a few skirmishes with the United States Navy. The formal surrender date was in June 1865, but by that time most of the soldiers had returned home.