Remington Army and Navy Revolvers 1861-1888

Remington revolvers constituted the second most widely used handguns among Union forces in the Civil War. Yet until now there has been very limited detailed information about their design, production, government testing and procurement, and use by both the Union army and navy as compared with extensive data available on Colt military handguns of the same era. Don Ware's book remedies this, following a quarter century of research in largely original source materials, primarily from the National Archives. The text is supported with hundreds of drawings and photos including detailed closeups of inspectors' marks and such minute variations as found in loading levers and cylinder pins. Data on alterations of these percussion revolvers to fire metallic cartridges following the Civil War adds to the usefulness of this work, for the navy continued to use altered Remingtons as late as 1889. A lengthy chapter "Identifying Remington Army and Navy Revolvers" guides collectors through the evolutionary process from the early Beals model revolvers to the New Model Army and Navy. Perhaps the author could have included a brief discussion of the government's test and rejection of the Model 1875 Remington revolver, but his stated purpose was to concentrate on the percussion Army and Navy models and alterations thereof. If one had to find any fault with this book, it would be the publisher's choice of a soft paper which to a modest degree detracts from photo reproduction. All in all this book represents a ground breaking effort.