Battles & Wars › Revolutions & Napoleon › The gun: arquebus and musket
Revolver (Colt)
1836 (Samuel Colt's patent)· Invention or discovery· Weapons, armor & warships
Well documentedSolid records, physical evidence or scientific consensus.
A handgun with a rotating cylinder of chambers that fires several shots without reloading, made practical by Samuel Colt in 1836.
See it on the Battles & Wars map →What happened
Earlier multi-shot pistols existed, but Colt's patent linked cocking the hammer to turning the cylinder, lining up each loaded chamber with a single barrel. Five or six shots could be fired in seconds. His first company, in Paterson, New Jersey, failed in 1842, but Texas Rangers used his pistols against Comanche horsemen. A US Army order for the heavy Walker Colt during the Mexican–American War, in 1847, revived him. Metal cartridges from the 1850s–70s made reloading fast.
Why it matters
One rider could outshoot several opponents with single-shot guns, changing cavalry fighting, frontier violence and policing. Revolvers stayed the standard sidearm until semi-automatic pistols took over.
How we know
Colt's patents, company records and serial numbers, surviving guns, and accounts by Texas Rangers and Army officers of the 1840s.
Still debated
Colt's tireless self-promotion makes it hard to separate his own engineering from the work of his machinists and the claims of his advertising.
Connections (3)
▸Revolver (Colt) was carried by cavalry in the American Civil WarWell documented
The connection
By 1861 Colt and rivals such as Remington made reliable six-shot revolvers. Cavalry on both sides carried them, and Confederate raiders such as John Mosby's rangers often carried two or more, preferring them to sabers. The Union bought hundreds of thousands of revolvers, though infantry rifles still did most of the killing.
When and how
Across the war, 1861–65; Colt's 1860 Army and 1851 Navy models and the Remington 1858 were the most common.
How we know
Ordnance Department purchase records, surviving guns with serial numbers, and soldiers' letters and memoirs describe their use.
Debates and open questions
How effective revolvers were in mounted combat, compared with carbines and sabers, is debated; much of their reputation comes from postwar memoirs.
▸Revolver (Colt) was bought by British officers for the Crimean WarMostly agreed
The connection
Colt opened a London factory in 1853 and promoted his revolvers to the British military. When war came, British officers, who bought their own sidearms, purchased many, and the government ordered thousands, mostly for the navy. Many officers preferred the British Adams revolver, which fired with a single trigger pull.
When and how
London and the Crimea, 1853–56; Colt's Pimlico factory, the British Board of Ordnance, and officers at battles such as Inkerman, 1854.
How sure are we?
Government orders, factory records and officers' letters praising or criticizing their revolvers survive; numbers actually carried in combat are uncertain.
Debates and open questions
Whether Colt or Adams performed better was argued at the time and still is; Colt's London factory closed in 1856 as British orders faded.
▸Colt's Hartford armory mass-produced the Revolver (Colt)Well documented
The connection
Colt's patent created the revolver; his Hartford armory made it a mass-produced product. Machines built by Elisha Root forged, cut and shaped parts in large batches, letting Colt sell revolvers by the hundreds of thousands to armies, police and civilians at home and abroad. His sales pitch stressed machine-made uniformity.
When and how
Hartford, Connecticut, from 1855; Samuel Colt, Elisha K. Root, and Colt's widow Elizabeth, who held control of the company after 1862.
How we know
Serial numbers on surviving revolvers allow production counts; company records and visitors' descriptions document the machine methods.
Debates and open questions
Historians debate how much hand fitting remained; Colt advertised full interchangeability, but surviving guns suggest it came gradually.