Colt Model 1851 Navy Revolver issued to and carried by Private Jesse L. Vance while serving in Company G, 6th Kansas Cavalry. The revolver bears serial number 121593, was manufactured in 1862, and retains matching numbers throughout, including on the wedge and loading lever. The action and mechanism are functional.

This lot is accompanied by a Springfield Research Service letter issued in 1995, documenting the revolver as having been used in Company G, 6th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry. Company records show that it was issued in 1862 to a Private Vance. However, because three Vance brothers served in Company G, and because Springfield Research did not then have full access to all relevant National Archives records, it could not determine with certainty which brother had received the revolver.

Accordingly, a more thorough examination of each soldier’s records was undertaken, and the relevant muster rolls and service records were obtained from the National Archives. On the basis of enlistment dates, illness, death, and periods of absence from the regiment, two of the three Vance brothers were excluded as viable candidates, leaving Jesse L. Vance as the clear and most convincing identification.

Private Jesse L. Vance enlisted on 25 November 1861 and transferred to Company G on 1 June 1862. He is shown in early 1863 as deserting the regiment with his brother and was court-martialed, though he does not appear to have served time in confinement. Vance must have returned to the regiment, as his service record continues after the court-martial. Interestingly, his muster sheets for September, October, November, and December 1864 record that he owed the United States government for one “C.A.” revolver. This likely is the Colt Army revolver offered in this lot.

The 6th Kansas Cavalry was one of the hard-used western Union regiments of the Civil War, organized at Fort Scott in 1861 for service along the volatile Kansas–Missouri border and later active across Missouri, Arkansas, and Indian Territory. Serving in the Army of the Frontier and related western commands, the regiment participated in numerous important engagements, including Newtonia, Old Fort Wayne, Prairie Grove, Honey Springs, and the Camden Expedition. Its service often entailed the grueling and dangerous demands of frontier warfare, including long marches, scouting, anti-guerrilla operations, and constant exposure in a vast and contested theater. The regiment remained in service until August 1865 and suffered substantial losses in the course of its wartime duty. 

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Guns, Firearms, Revolvers, Rifles, Longarms, Handguns, Arms & Armor]