1858 New Model Army - Serial Number Tracking info?

[billt]

Hello Amish,
Your Great Uncle’s Revolver was manufactured in December of 1864. The letter D is an inspection mark, which was applied to the part on which it is stamped after the part was deemed to have conformed to specifications. Marks are usually found on the barrel, frame and trigger guard. They are less frequently found on the bottom of the grips and the loading lever. These marks can be the same on one or more parts if the same inspector inspected multiple parts. Once all of the parts were deemed acceptable the Principal sub-Inspector stamped his cartouche on the outside of the left grip. The existence of a cartouche indicates the revolver was accepted by the Ordinance Department and not necessarily that is was issued during the Civil War. The Ordinance Department had some 75,000 revolvers of all types at the end of the Civil War, which were not issued to troops. Since your Great Uncle’s revolver was among the last 35,000 Remington Revolvers accepted it might not have been issued.


Hope this helps,

Bill

[billt]

You should be able to get those parts from Dixie Gun Works.

[billt]

That revolver was delivered to the Ordinance Department. If it was issued to a trooper and the Company Clerk recorded it in the Company records it may reside in the National Archives.

[drm2m]

The serial number on this Remington is very close to the S/n on your gun.
Yours is 121014----mine is 107274.

'D' inspector's initial on a 63 NMA on the trigger guard and on the bottom of the grips. Nice clear 'OWA' cartouche on the left grip.







S/n 107274.

[PatG]

Hallo, my friends! Happy to be part of this group!
I’m an Italian collector of handguns and rifles, expecially milsurplus.

Recently I bought a Remington New Model Army revolver .44 caliber that I like very much. You can see it here:



On the left grip there are the letters “GP”, that I know being the initials forming the acceptance stamp of Giles Porter , inspector of Remington handguns for the U.S. Government.



The original serial numbers (matching) are impressed on the left grip frame (under the left grip), on the trigger guard lug and on the bottom of the barrel. As this number is 85778, I think that my gun has been manufactered in July, 1864, and sell to the Army of U.S. Can you confirm my hypothesis?







On the bottom of the barrel there is another number (21901), but I have no idea of what its meaning coud be. Any suggestion?




Many thanks in advance for your comments and your help

Pat

[billt]

Hello Pat,
You are correct about the date your revolver was manufactured, July 1864.
I know that Don Ware in his book “Remington Army and Navy Revolvers 1861- 1888” identified the GP cartouche as that of Giles Porter. However, in a book published in 2016 “U.S. Military Arms Inspector Marks” by Daum and Pate, that cartouche has been identified as that of George Palmer. They go on to state that the GP cartouche was erroneously credited to Giles Porter who was a career army officer who graduated from West Point and spent his entire career in the Artillery Corps. As far as the 21901 stamped on the bottom of the barrel it most likely was done post manufacture but I have no idea why.

Enjoy your revolver,

Bill

[171evergreenfkl]

I do not wish to throw cold h20 on your enthusiasm for tracking the issuance of this revolver , but having spent time researching at the National Archives , you may be in for an exercise of humility and futility. Unless the system has changed radically, the archive does not maintain any records on individual firearms. As such, you will need to plan a trip to the Archives. To enter you must go to the rear entrance and register as a researcher. Once you gain access to the inner sanctum you will need to posses some vital information such as the regiment this revolver was issued to. From that point you can locate the record group you wish to research. You will then need to file a written request to have those pulled from the repository. That may take weeks to months. If you get a negative response, that does not mean the records do not exist, but they may have been requested by another researcher. You may have a better chance of success if you contact Springfield Research, but you will need to be a subscriber to access their data base. Good luck and if you do get info back from your initial request please let me know. Thanks

[vr1967]

Frank Mallory did extensive research at the archives recording serial numbers and was the original owner of Springfield Research Services until his passing. And he provided his research for free. Not sure who has it now.
I know someone who has the 1995 versions of Frank’s books. Will see if I can gain access to them, but I believe there are a few later books too with updates.

[PatG]

Hallo Bill, 171evergreenfkl and vr1967!

Many thanks for your information! They were very useful.

If I will have any news, I'll let you know.

Have a nice day

Pat