Museum question

[glw]

Today I was in the old customs house museum in Charleston, SC and saw a Remington revolver in a case just like the one I bought recently.

It was labeled "Remington Old Army Revolver" and mentioned that it went into service in 1862. I thought it was the Remington NEW Army.

I asked the docent - nobody knew.

 

[zimmerstutzen]

As much as some folks attempt to be accurate, misinformation does creep in. It is indeed the New Model Army. Some body may have been asked about it and had the Ruger Old Army on the mind when answering. I have seen some fairly incredible misstatements in things. My daughters American History book said that Virginia Dare was the first child born of English parents in the New World in 1587, and on the next page said that the first English women came to the new world in 1605 to Jamestown. So what does that say about Virginia Dare's mother? The teacher was quite perturbed over the kids questioning the book's mistakes.

My local historical society has numerous mistakes in their displays. They do investigate and correct such things when questioned tactfully.

I see things on TV by so called
experts" all the time which I know from years of muzzle loading are incorrect.

 

[swathdiver]

There was an Old Army Remington. The barrel threads are not as exposed as on the New Model Army and there were other differences with the cylinder pin and such. Around '62, many guns had both new and old features. I believe the Old Army was an 1861 model. Earlier than that they were the Beals patent but don't remember much about them.

 

[Coot]

My daughters American History book said that Virginia Dare was the first child born of English parents in the New World in 1587, and on the next page said that the first English women came to the new world in 1605 to Jamestown.
.

For what it's worth, Virginia Dare is the first child born of English parents in the Americas - Roanoke Colony in present day North Carolina Aug. 18, 1587. Her mother was one of 17 women in the colony - which had disappeared by the time of Virginia's grandfather return in 1590. The fate of the members remains unknown - hence the name "Lost Colony". So the text is correct on Virginia Dare. It is incorrect on the women at Jamestown whose arrival was in 1608, not 1605. (The Jamestown Colony was not founded until 1607 so only the NAs were there in 1605.) Not much excuse to get things wrong in the text :shake:

PS - you are correct about museums & historical societies often lacking the in house knowledge to correctly id everything & that errors need to be mentioned very tactfully - they are often operating on very small budgets.

 

[Zonie]

swathdiver is basically correct.

Remingtons first army size revolver was the "Remington-Beals Army model", produced in 1861.

It's frame extended back so it almost touched the front of the cylinder and covered the barrel threads.
This led to the pistol locking up because of fouling after a few shots were fired.
The cylinder also does not have safety notches.

The Army wasn't impressed because of these two things so Remington designed the "Remington 1861 Army Revolver", also known as the "Old Model Army"** These were made in 1862.

These had a modified frame which was relieved to clear the front of the cylinder, leaving the barrel threads exposed. The sharp threads rubbed off the fouling on the front of the cylinder, thereby fixing the Army's biggest complaint.
Many of these had the safety notches on the cylinder added to please the Army.

This model also had a new idea incorporated into its loading lever.
Rather than blocking the cylinder pin when the loading lever was up, the lever cleared the cylinder pin making its removal easy for rapid reloading.

Too easy. It didn't take long for the Army to notice that a holstered gun could drop the cylinder pin causing the cylinder to drop out or fail to turn when the gun was cocked.

Remington fixed most of these by adding a small Fillister head screw to the top of the loading lever to retain the cylinder pin.
An estimated 6000 of these were made.**

The Remington New Model Army revolver was first made in 1863. It is the model that most (but not all) Italian reproductions represent.

All of these Remington pistols were built based on Beals 1858 Patent so although none of them were made before 1861 most people call them a 1858.


** Flayderman's Guide

 

[Rick Son]

I used to have a very old Virginia Dare wine bottle,gave it to a collector friend.Heck of story.