The Whitney Navy .36

The welter of assorted and sordid revolvers which burst upon the Ordnance Department’s attention must have palled upon General Ripley after a time. Though contracts with Colt, with Remington, and others were going well, he still needed good, solid revolvers. One make that his field inspector-buyer officers had been picking up from the large jobbers was the Whitney Navy .36. A Beals’-designed solid frame six-shooter, it resembled the Remington and was a well-made and sturdy pistol. From Schuyler, Hartley & Graham, for example, on August 7, August 15, and August 26, his men in New York had bought a total of 360 Whitney Navys at $17. Time rolled on; why not go to the source?
On May 15, 1862, Ordnance bought by purchase most of the on-hand stock of finished revolvers at Whitneyville, 600 of them at the modest price of S15.03 each. June 9, 1862, Whitney and General Ripley closed the deal and drew up the contract for 6.000 Whitney Navy Revolvers at “$10 for each musket complete.” Whether the typesetter made the error or whether it was a quirk of the contract form in that the word “musket” was not erased and “revolver” substituted, is not known. Nor is it explained why Whitney for the first 1,000 delivered June 27, 1862, was paid $12 each, $2 over the contract price.

Concluding on February 28, 1863, Whitney in all delivered 7,002 to the Ordnance Department on this contract. In addition many thousands were bought by state troops, though how the Whitneys marked “NJ” for New Jersey are tabulated is not known. According to the usage of the day, state troops mustered into Federal service had the value of their equipments reimbursed to the state authorities, and their guns were carried on the books as bought by the United States. Possibly, but not definitely known, the 600 purchased were for some special purpose for New Jersey, and the large order led to Ripley’s issuing the formal contract. A popular arm, about 30,000 Whitney Navy revolvers were made.
Early examples have a curious cylinder stamping scene, of a coat of arms made from half the British and half the American arms, flanked by a lion and an eagle. This is stamped twice on the cylinder in early arms; later guns have one coat of arms substituted with a naval scene. The meaning of this cannot even be guessed at. In the Colt Museum there is a Colt-made pistol, Navy size, unique in having twopiece wood grips. The cylinder is grooved where the bolt drags and scars the surface. And upon the cylinder, stamped by machine, is a similar heraldic scene, the British and American arms halved; while to the left is a Federal eagle and on the right, paws crossed, a Trafalgar lion. No Colt mark appears on this pistol, and the serial numbers are all stamped upside down.
Whether Colt and Whitney vied for some odd contract, and the Whitney was preferred, is the only hint of the meaning of this odd cylinder decoration. The Whitney Navy pistols are stamped on the top barrel flat with the noncommittal E. whitney/n. haven. Some were finished in tin, a hot-dip finish, it is believed, akin to galvanizing. Certain of these bear a Navy anchor stamped on the top barrel flat forward of the frame. With Ames brass cup-hilted cutlasses at one side the men of the Western Flotilla or damning the torpedoes in a hundred water engagements wore their Whitneys in the short-ended Navy holster on their right hip.

Pocket pistol used bullet with gas-seal tallow groove, and special mould cast bullet in that shape. This specimen is about new, an extremely rare sidetrack down the path of arms development in America. Photo of gun from Shore collection.

Navy .36 of Eli Whitney’s was solid, reliable arm combining features of Colt and Remington-Beals designs. Cylinder had eagle-lion engraving scene. Pistols taken by Navy have anchor stamped on barrel top fiat at frame.