daboyleroy
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The poached design—the pistol was still being manufactured by Whitney in New Haven, Conn.—had a 7 5/8”, blued steel, octagonal barrel screwed into the brass frame. A blockade by the Union prevented much needed supplies like steel from getting to the South. Brass had to be substituted for steel because of availability and speed of manufacture. The front sight was a brass pin attached to the barrel just short of the muzzle. Rifling consisted of seven lands and grooves. Its loading lever was held in place by a spring-and-ball latch on the barrel. The rammer passed through the frame, which had an angled clearance flute allowing the insertion of powder and ball. A moon-shaped cut on the right side of the recoil shield provided the space needed for capping the six-shot cylinder. Grip straps were integral with the frame, and the grips were of black walnut. A groove was cut in the top strap serving as a rear sight. To restrain the cylinder axis pin, a thumb-bolt was located on the left side of the frame. Individual screws served as an axis for the hammer, trigger and cylinder-axis pins. While the original Whitney revolver had a cylinder made of steel, the Spiller & Burr iteration utilized iron. To strengthen the iron cylinders, the iron bars from which the cylinders were made were heated and twisted, thus preventing any chamber from being in parallel alignment with a fault line in the bar iron. The nipples are set into threaded holes bored at an angle from each chamber.
Interestingly, the trigger guard is not integral with the frame, but it is of brass. At first the frame was plated in silver, as was the Whitney with their iron frames, but as the war took its toll, plating ceased. The 2½ lb. pistol was just a bit more than 13” long.
Read the whole article at
https://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2017/8/11/a-look-back-at-the-spiller-burr-revolver/
Overall, collector interest is pretty intense—no surprise, since any memorabilia from the “War Between the States” will fetch big bucks. An original Spiller & Burr revolver will command between $4,000 and $20,000 in today’s market. Those who hanker to shoot Confederate pistols or reenact battles can acquire serviceable Italian-made replicas for about $275.
