On January 7, 1863, the bureau requested that Remington ship twenty thousand cartridges for the revolvers recently delivered to the New York yard. Five days later, the bureau sent an addi-tional order for revolvers:
Sir,
In addition to previous orders the Bureau wishes you to send as soon as possible to the Navy Yard at Boston:
300 Beale [sic] Revolvers with percussion caps and 100 cartridges for each revolver.
REMINGTON NAVY REVOLVERS PURCHASED BY THE U.S. NAVY
In sending your bills in future, please quote the order under which you have made and forwarded the arms.36
This order was quite specific in ordering Beals revolvers, but by this time, Remington had disposed of their Beals models and were in the process of developing the New Models. Revolvers, manufactured in the early months of 1863, were going through the transition cited earlier.
Surviving specimens of navy revolvers in the 20,000–22,000 serial number range show evidence of this transition with many specimens having both Elliot and New Model parts.
Remington acknowledged the above order on the fifteenth and shipped the revolvers the next day. On January 23, the bureau forwarded another order:
Sirs,
The Bureau desires you to send with all dispatch to New York, to the care of Rear Admiral H. Paulding, and marked “Navy Ordnance,”
(25) Twenty-five Navy Revolver pistols with (100) One hundred rounds of ammuni-tion for each pistol.37
On February 2, Remington sent a letter of complaint to Dahlgren concerning delinquent payments by the navy agent in New York:
Sir,
We have received from your Department approved bills payable by the Navy Agent at New York, for Pistols and Ammunition delivered by us at the several dates, and of the respective amounts mentioned in the memorandum annexed.
The bills have been sent forward to the Navy Agent in New York, but we have as yet received payment for the first one only ($1670.40).
If you can in any manner expedite the payment of the others or a portion of them, we shall be greatly obliged as we need the funds very much at this time to meet urgent business demands.
This complaint was to be echoed many times during the course of the war; payments by the gov-ernment were often as many as five months in arrears.
CHAPTER SIX
In early February, Dahlgren received the following telegram from Cairo, Illinois:
United States Military Telegraph Received Feb.3 1863 From Cairo Ill.
To Capt. Jno Dahlgren
Please send five hundred (500) boarding pistols with fifty thousand cartridges & one hun-dred thousand (100,000) caps & seven hundred (700) frogs Navy pattern, five hundred (500) cutlasses with belts and frogs, three hundred (300) Colt’s Revolvers with holsters &
thirty thousand Cartridges. The worms, rammers, sponges, scrappers [sic] & ladles for thirty, nine inch guns are much wanted.
J. P. Sanford Ord. Officer39
In this requisition is evidence that the navy was still using smoothbore single-shot per-cussion pistols that had been in service well before the war. On the day he received this req-uisition, Dahlgren forwarded the first of many complaints to Remington concerning defective revolvers:
Sir,
The Bureau encloses for your information copy of a letter from Commodore Missroon in relation to the300 Revolvers recently delivered by you at Boston and requests that you will send seventeen perfect pistols to replace those reported as defective.40
On the fourth, Dahlgren satisfied Sanford’s request of the previous day by executing the bureau’s first combination order for revolvers. The first went to Remington:
Sir,
The Bureau wishes you to send with the utmost dispatch to Cairo, Ill, addressed to Lieut.
Sanford U.S.N., Ordnance Officer, Mississippi Squadron, and marked “Navy Ordnance”
200 Revolvers with 120 rounds of Ammunition for each pistol.41
On the same day, the bureau ordered the remaining one hundred revolvers from Whitney, the first of such orders.
Remington responded to the complaints from the Boston yard on the sixth:
Sir,
We have the honor to acknowledge receipt of yours of the4th inst. containing order for 200 Revolvers and Ammunition, which will be immediately forwarded agreeable to the directions given.
Referring to our letter of yesterday, we beg leave to say that we have this day forwarded to Commodore Missroon seventeen pistols to replace the like number reported defective.
REMINGTON NAVY REVOLVERS PURCHASED BY THE U.S. NAVY
It is proper that we should add, that the compound parts on all the pistols which we have furnished under orders received from the Bureau have been inspected in detail and the pistols have been proved with the Government proof charge. We will have additional care exercised in the inspection of the work hereafter, and trust there will not be any occasion for future complaints.
The report of Commodore Missroon mentions that the charges, (referring we presume to the Cartridges furnished with the pistols) “ . . . seem too heavy,” we believe that they do not exceed the regulation charge. If considered by the Bureau, too heavy, we will have the charge reduced whenever so requested.42
The Washington Ordnance Yard tested two types of revolvers that month. The first were Whitney’s Navies on February 4. Whitney had forwarded six revolvers instead of the usual sin-gle specimen. Unfortunately, only one of these was referred to by its serial number,17,751, which was the prime specimen tested. The report submitted by Lt. Cdr. J. S. Skerret was lengthy and very favorable. This report and the competitive twelve-dollar price no doubt influenced the bureau to also start ordering revolvers from Whitney. This gave the bureau a secondary source for revolvers.
The trial report on the second revolver has not been located, but the following letter is fully explanatory:
A trial has been made at the Ordnance Yard here of the “Joslyn Army Pistol,” and the following is an extract from the report of the examining officers:
“At the6th shot the frame around the barrel was fractured, in consequence of which the trial was discontinued.”
I am Very Respectfully, Your Obedient Servant J. A. Dahlgren, Chief of Bureau43
On February 23, the bureau once again sent a double order to Remington:
Sir,
In addition to previous orders the Bureau wishes you to send as soon as possible to Lieut. Comdr. W. N. Jeffers, Ord. Officer, Navy Yard Phila.
200 Revolvers with the usual amount of ammunition, and:
100 Revolvers with the usual amount of ammunition to New York addressed to Commander Nicholson, the Ordnance Officer at the Navy Yard there.44
Remington did not acknowledge this order until March 4:
CHAPTER SIX
Sir,
We have the honor to acknowledge receipt (on yesterday) of your letter of23d ult., con-taining order for Revolvers and Ammunition which will be sent forward today, in accor-dance with the directions given.
The pistols will be charged at the usual price ($12.), although the cost of manufacturing has been materially enhanced since we proposed to furnish them at that rate, in consequence of the great advance in price of stock and labor. We also have to pay3 per ct. national tax on the arms, which we did not take into account at the time we made our proposition.
We hope therefore that the Bureau may be willing under the existing circumstances to allow us to add ($1.00) one Dollar, to the price of the pistols, hereafter.45
Remington’s delay in acknowledging this order may have had some bearing on Dahlgren’s February 28 request to the Army Ordnance Department. Please note that two of the orders were to be delivered to the same navy yards as specified in the order to Remington on February 23:
Sir,
The Bureau has the honor to request that you will cause to be delivered, for the use of the Navy,400 Army pistols, as follows.
200 to Lieut. J. P. Sanford at Cairo, Illinois.
100 to Commander Nicholson, Ordnance Officer, Navy Yard, New York and 100 to Lieut. Commander Jeffers, Ordnance Officer, Navy Yard, Philadelphia.46
The bureau had, on previous occasions, ordered army revolvers from the Army Ordnance Department. I have verified that at least one of these orders was filled with Colt Army Revolvers. It has also been established that the bureau had previously ordered army revolvers from Colt. These procurement practices by the bureau could have resulted in some unusual revolvers, that is, inspected by army inspectors when first delivered and reinspected by the navy after the war. I have had diffi-culty in establishing whether the army pistols ordered on February 28 were revolvers or single-shot pistols, as the term “pistol” was used frequently in correspondence when referring to revolvers.
The bureau had not yet received Remington’s letter requesting an advance in the price for revolvers when they forwarded the next order on March 6:
Sir,
In addition to previous orders, the Bureau wishes you to send, as soon as possible to the New York Navy Yard:
100 Beale [sic] Revolvers with 20,000 Cartridges and Caps.
Please mark the boxes with the letters “N.O.” and inform the Bureau when you for-ward them.47
On the following day, Dahlgren received Remington’s letter of the fourth requesting a price increase. Remington’s timing was very inopportune, as the bureau was now purchasing Whitney Navy Revolvers for twelve dollars. On March 7, Dahlgren sent this curt response:
REMINGTON NAVY REVOLVERS PURCHASED BY THE U.S. NAVY
Sirs,
Referring to your letter of the4th Inst.
The Bureau declines to allow the advance of $1. asked for in the price of the Pistols ordered from you.48
Remington delivered the order of the sixth at the original price of twelve dollars and on the twenty-eighth, having received no further orders, sent the following to the bureau:
Sir,
We have the honor to acknowledge receipt of approved triplicate bills for Revolvers, Cartridges &c, amounting to Two thousand nine hundred and seventy eight dollars and fourteen cents. ($2978.14)
Any further orders that the Bureau may have occasion to send us, will receive our prompt attention and will be filled at the same price as heretofore; although the cost of manufacturing is now very much increased by the advance in price of material and labor.49
On April 9, the bureau received another request for revolvers from the ordnance officer at Cairo, Illinois:
Office of U.S. Military Telegraph
The following Telegram received at Washington, April9th, 1863
The time the last light draught boat is finished. Can anything be supplied instead of boarding pistols? Have not more than enough revolvers to meet light issues to the new boats.
J. Sanford, Ord. Officer Miss. Squadron50 CHAPTER SIX
Figure 80
Last variation Remington New Model Navy Revolver, serial number 33,775. (Author’s collection)
In response to Sanford’s request, Wise forwarded the following order to Remington on that same day:
Sir,
In addition to previous orders the Bureau desires you to send to Cairo, Illinois, addressed to the Senior Naval Officer there;
100 Beale [sic] Revolvers with 120 cartridges for each Revolver. They are wanted immediately.51
Once again, the bureau specified Beals revolvers, but by this time, Remington was delivering New Models (figure 80). Remington acknowledged receipt of this order on the fifteenth and simultaneously shipped the revolvers.
The bureau continued ordering revolvers from Remington on the twenty-third:
Sirs,
The Bureau wishes you to send to Commodore Dornin, Commanding, Naval Station, Baltimore.
Twenty Revolvers, with120 cartridges for each pistol. Please mark for “Young River.”52
An acknowledgment for this order has not been located, but Remington forwarded the invoice and receipts to the bureau on May 2.
On May 1, Dahlgren ordered revolvers for another vessel:
Sir,
In addition to previous orders, the Bureau wishes you to send as soon as possible to the Ordnance Officer at the New York Yard, marked “Vermont,”
30 Revolvers and 120 cartridges and Percussion caps for each.53
Remington acknowledged receipt of this order and shipped the revolvers on the fifth.
Three days later the bureau sent another order:
Sir,
The Bureau wishes you to send as soon as possible to St. Louis, Mo. for the “U.S. Gun Boat Ozark”
14 Revolvers.54
Remington shipped the revolvers on May 12:
Received Saint Louis Mo. May18th 1863 of E. Remington & Sons, Fourteen Navy Pistols for:
U.S. Gun Boat “Ozark” as per their invoice of12th May, 1863.
14 Remington Army Pistols $168.00.
Albert Badger
Clerk in charge of Ordnance55
REMINGTON NAVY REVOLVERS PURCHASED BY THE U.S. NAVY