Vern Humphrey
Member
It might be germane to mention that the finest cavalry in American history - the horse soldiers of the Confederate army - favored the .36 caliber revolver.
Hmmmm.................?
That's kind of like saying the Texas Rangers favored the Colt Patterson. They "favored" it because it was all they could get (the Texas Navy managed to buy a couple of hundred, and when the Navy was disbanded, the revolvers went to the Rangers.) But when a former Texas Ranger (Captain Samuel Walker) got a chance to design a revolver for mounted combat, he didn't say, "Just duplicate the Patterson!"
In the late '40s, Colt produced a series of Dragoon revolvers -- somewhat smaller than Walker's design, but still quite large. Colt also produced pocket revolvers (the M1848 and M1849) in .31 caliber. The latter were quite popular with civilians.
In 1851, Colt produced the M1851 "Navy" revolver -- bigger than the pocket revolvers, and smaller than the Dragoons. It became highly popular, and a lot of people in the South bought them.
In 1860, Colt produced the ultimate cap-and-ball military Colt, the 1860 Army. Obviously, the Confederates weren't going to get many of those!
So the Confederates made a virtue out of necessity, and used the plentiful M1851s extensively.