Horse Pistols

Among relative rarities are also the few single shot European horse pistols bought by the North in the dark days of 1861. Philip S. Justice delivered 96 on September 4, 1861, and an additional 250 (125 pairs), September 19, at $8 a pair, $4 each. Without confirmation, we think these are the Model 1859 Austrian cavalry pistol, system Lorenz, caliber .54. A standard percussion pistol, these have a special hammer-safe which is raised up in front of the hammer to hold it off the capped nipple. No spur on the guard; you are supposed to hold your finger inside in the charge, and when you cock the gun and set it half-cock, the hammer block will prevent discharging if the gun is accidentally dropped from horseback. The barrel band is steel; lock and band are case hardened; other parts rust blued. A specimen in the author’s collection stamped on top of the barrel pirko is dated “864” on

Perrin revolver is one of War’s rarities; 550 were received by New York ordnance officers from Paris gun seller Alexis Godillot. Center pin removed to poke out fired cartridge cases.

Pirko in Wien made this Ml859 Lorenz horse pistol, shown with Lorenz Jaeger carbine (“Wisconsin Eagles” carbine illustrated elsewhere.) Justice may have sold a few such pistols, and Huse might have obtained some from Vienna Arsenal later in the War. Actual issue is not proved.

Model 1842 Augustin-lock Austrian cavalry pistol is shown with (below) Prussian dragoon pistol having linked rammer and Bavarian horse pistol made at Amberg Arsenal. These arms are preserved in Smithsonian Institution collection as specimens from U.S. Civil War purchases, but very few “horse pistols” were ever imported for either North or South. Proof of use in battle should be demanded with “Civil War gun” offering today from dealer or collector.

the lock, date for Justice but not too late for some state agent in spite of the gradual retirement of foreign guns by 1863-4 and the issue of the new contractmade arms.
A prior model of Austrian pistol also saw limited service: the Ml842 percussion with Augustin primer lock. The front band is a distinctive double band of brass. In the Austrian service, the model before this was the Ml798 Dragoon pistol having a conventional French-type double neck cock flintlock. These arms were transformed to the first percussion Consol system about 1836 and the new model Consol lock, named after General Augustin, was introduced in 1842. By the mid-fifties the Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Cavalry had decided these primer-locks were for the birds and changed over with the 1859 Lorenz pistol to common percussion. The Lorenz Ml859 pistol barrel breech is shaped almost exactly like the Enfield nipple bolster. A sight groove is cut on top of the barrel breech. Rifling is four grooves, slightly wider than the lands. Whether the Ml859 is the only Austrian model to see service is debatable; American museums preserve examples of the Model 1842 Augustin pistol as well, apparendy from Government purchases. It is well these big holster pistols were so sturdily constructed; most were doubdess thrown at the enemy in exasperation as the dandy gray-coated Rebel cavalry, which had taken the precaution to arm itself by frequent telegrams to Colt’s, with the latest in .44 Army revolvers, triumphandy rode over the Yankee horsemen. Not until the revolvers of the later contracts did the Northern cavalry have some parity in equipment with the South cavalry which, though irregularly raised, was by choice equipped with double shotguns, and new revolvers. Fremont’s captain of cavalry Charles Zagonyi, who scorned the revolver and preferred the saber, was an exception in the history of the revolver and pistol as used by the Federals.