Appealing Civil War-era single-shot percussion ‘boot pistol’ in very good working condition. Both the cylinder and panel are stamped with the same serial number “27.” Generally called ‘boot pistols,’ these guns could not compete with a Colt revolver, but they were simple and fairly robust weapons that could be carried in a belt holster, pocket, or even a boot top for quick access in a mining town. An inexpensive purchase for personal defense, they show up in some daguerreotypes of gold-seekers heading west. These guns were sometimes given by well-intentioned relatives to new recruits heading off to war in 1861 and have been excavated in Civil War camps where they were lost, discarded, or confiscated by officers concerned with careless behavior, and maybe poor adaptation to army discipline.
