-- Frederick Douglass, regarding the Emancipation Proclamation.
Southern States Secede
Secession fever hit the South after Abraham Lincoln was elected president. The South considered Lincoln's Republican party victory in the 1860 presidential election as a sign that the North was now going to end the "peculiar institution" of slavery. For the South, the time of talk and compromise had ended. In December, 1860 South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union. Secession of the rest of the states that would make up the Confederate States of America occurred in two waves.
|
Colt Model 1860 Army Revolver
1860 Colt Model Army Model
The 1860 Colt Model Army Revolver was a commonly used sidearm weapon in the Civil War. It was used by cavalry, artillery, and infantry. This pistol was a percussion weapon and was made by the Colt’s Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company, in Hartford, Connecticut. Although there were varied pistols used in the Civil War, the 1860 Colt Model Army Revolver was the official United States Army pistol.
Colt Model 1860 Army Revolver
Over 200,000 of the 1860 Colt Model Army Revolvers were made from 1860 through 1873. From January 4, 1861 through November 10, 1863 the War Department furnished over 107,156 1860 Colt Model Army Revolvers. They became known as the New Model Army pistol and the previous 1848 version of the pistol was then called the Old Army Model.
The 1860 Colt Model Army Revolver was a cap and ball, single-shot revolver that fired a .44 caliber cartridge with a round lead ball or a conical projectile, from an eight-inch barrel using a six-shot revolving cylinder with hammer. A rammer in front of the cylinder was used to load the sidearm. A brass percussion cap was struck by the hammer to ignite a 30 grain black powder charge. This pistol was made of iron or steel and had a bronze trigger guard and front strap. It weighed 44oz.
Get a Colt Model 1860 Army Revolver Replica
Colt Model 1860 Army Revolver Replica
The revolver’s fixed sights were usually set at 75 to 100 yards at manufacture, this being the accuracy range of the gun. Sometimes, this pistol would be adapted with a rifle-like shoulder stock, in order to improve steadiness of aiming and accuracy at further distances. At firing, the projectiles of the 1860 Colt Model Army Revolver achieved a muzzle velocity of approximately 750 feet per second.
The 1860 Colt Model Army Revolver was the most used pistol by Union troops in the Civil War, and was regarded as very reliable. It was popular with all troops in the Civil War, but was a favorite weapon of officers, cavalrymen, and artillerymen. The Confederacy recognized the capability of the 1860 Colt Model Army Revolver and produced its own knock-off version of the pistol.
The 1860 Colt Model Army Revolver’s main rival as a weapon of choice in the Civil War was the Remington Arms 1861 Remington .44 percussion revolver. The Remington looked very similar to the Colt, but it had a shorter barrel and the revolving cylinder of the Remington was enclosed.
Colt Model 1860 Army Revolver Demonstration
Suggested Posts to Learn More...
- Slavery
- Robert Smalls
- Seeing the Elephant
- Acoustic Shadow
- General John Buford’s Spencer Carbine Rifles
- Swamp Angel
- Artillery
- Civil War Veterans
Abraham Lincoln Quotes
Quotes of Abraham Lincoln.
“I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.”
– Abraham Lincoln, from a speech made June 16, 1858.
President Abraham Lincoln
“Let us have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us dare to do our duty as we understand it.”
– Abraham Lincoln, from an address made in New York City on February 21, 1859.
“In giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free, –honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve.”
– Abraham Lincoln, from his Second Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862.
“That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
– Abraham Lincoln, from the Gettysburg Address which was given at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on November 19, 1863.
“With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right.”
– Abraham Lincoln, from his Second Inaugural Address, made on March 4, 1865.
“All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not, by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.”
– Abraham Lincoln, 1837.
“At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”
– Abraham Lincoln, 1837.
Abraham Lincoln Memorial
“The fight must go on. The cause of civil liberty must not be surrendered at the end of one or even one hundred defeats.”
– Abraham Lincoln, letter to Henry Ashbury, 1858.
“If we do not make common cause to save the good old ship of the Union on this voyage, nobody will have a chance to pilot her on another voyage.”
– Abraham Lincoln, from a speech made in Cleveland, Ohio on February 15, 1861.
“In your hands my dissatisfied fellow-country-men, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you.”
– Abraham Lincoln, from his first inaugural address, March 4, 1861.
“My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving the others alone, I would also do that.”
– Abraham Lincoln, from a letter to Horace Greely of August 22, 1862. (The Emancipation Proclamation had been written but not yet released.)
“I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free.”– Abraham Lincoln, from a letter to Horace Greely, August 22, 1862.
Barnes&Noble: Abraham Lincoln: Quotes, Quips, and Speeches |
“Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this Administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation.” “Only those generals who gain successes can set up dictators. What I ask of you now is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship. …Beware of rashness, but with energy and sleepless vigilance go forward and give us victories.” |
“Tell me the brand of Whiskey that Grant drinks. I would like to send a barrel of it to my other generals.”
– Abraham Lincoln, in response to news about General Grant’s drinking, November 26, 1863.
Suggested Posts to Learn More...
- Andrew Johnson Drunk at Lincoln's Second Inaugural
- Civil War Army Organization and Order of Rank
- The Anaconda Plan
- Ball's Bluff
- Abraham Lincoln Attends a Play
- Abraham Lincoln Now Belongs to the Ages
- Virginia Ordinance of Secession
- Clara Barton
