TOP: THE PETTENGILL .44 CALIBER DOUBLE ACTION PERCUSSION ARMY REVOLVER BOTTOM: THE RODGERS AND SPENCER .44 CALIBER SINGLE ACTION PERCUSSION ARMY REVOLVER

     On June 27, 1862, Edgar A. Raymond and Charles Robitaille entered into a contract with the federal government for 2,000 of their somewhat unusual revolver at price of $20.00 each. An earlier contract for 5,000 of them had previously been canceled by the Ordnance Department. It's pepperbox mechanism had been patented by C.S. Pettengill of New Haven, Connecticut on July 22, 1856. It was improved by a patent on July 27, 1858 submitted by Edgar A. Raymond and Charles Robitaille of Brooklyn, New York and by a later patent by Henry F. Rodgers of Willow Vale, New York on November 4, 1862. The revolver was manufactured by Rodgers, Spencer & Company at their Willow Vale facilities. It preceded the Rodgers and Spencer revolver by over two years which utilized the basic frame front, loading lever assembly and barrel design of it's predecessor and sibling, the Pettengill revolver of the type featured in this posting. It was basically a weapon designed by committee and was to suffer the same fate as many items so brought to production. It appears that there were just too many cooks involved in the design and production of this arm.
 

LEFT  & RIGHT SIDE VIEWS OF THE PETTENGILL  .44 CALIBER DOUBLE ACTION PERCUSSION ARMY REVOLVER

LEFT SIDE VIEW OF THE PETTENGILL ARMY REVOLVER WITH THE COMBINATION LOADING LEVER / CYLINDER ARBOR MECHANISM, THUMB SCREW AND CYLINDER REMOVED

"WW" INSPECTOR STAMPINGS - LEFT FLAT OF BARREL, FRAME AND CYLINDER

"W" STAMPING ON SIDE OF COMBO LOADING LEVER / CYLINDER ARBOR	CYLINDER SERIAL NUMBER STAMPING "4307" & "PETTENGILLS PATENT 1856" TOP RIGHT FRAME STAMPING
"PATD JULY 22 1856 & JULY 27 1858"  TOP  LEFT FRAME STAMPING	INCISED "X"  & "PATENTED NOV. 4, 1862"  STAMPING
SERIAL NUMBER STAMPING "4307" - BUTT STRAP	LEFT GRIP CARTOUCHE "CGC"(?)

     There is a brass cone front sight, set on center, 3/8" from the muzzle face. The top of the frame is grooved and provides a "V" rear sighting base. The malleable iron blued frame is rounded behind the cylinder. A slight flaring of the metal provides a rather thin recoil shield on both sides of the frame. A cone shaped loading groove that passes entirely through the frame is wider on the right side than the left. Loosening of the frame screw on the right side allows for removal of the left rear frame plate and access to the "L" shaped hammer concealed therein. A pull of the trigger revolves the cylinder, fires the weapon, and cocks the hammer for the next shot. This unusual weapon was the only American martial revolver of the Civil War made with an internal hammer. Due to the delicate internal mechanism this arm, as previously mentioned, proved a failure in the field and was replaced with more substantial side arms such as the Remington and Starr revolvers. The six-shot blued cylinder is 2-1/4" long. The nipples are recessed in open, separately partitioned, wells. The case-hardened loading lever has a plunger type latch that is held by a catch mortised into the bottom of the barrel 1-1/2" from the muzzle. The large sweeping oval trigger guard is blued as are the grip straps that are integral with the frame.   The black walnut two piece grips are oil finished with the inspector's cartouche being stamped into the left grip.  It should be noted that the arms made for civilian use have varnished grips.
 

FRONT CONE SIGHT

TOP SIGHTING GROOVE

INTERNAL MECHANISM (NOTE SERIAL NUMBER "4307" INSIDE GRIPS)

REAR CYLINDER VIEW

FRONT CYLINDER VIEW

LEFT & RIGHT SIDE VIEWS - BARREL & RAM ROD

SIDE VIEW OF  COMBO RAM ROD & CYLINDER ARBOR

TOP VIEW OF COMBO RAM ROD & CYLINDER ARBOR (NOTE LACK OF SERIAL NUMBER)

THUMB SCREW (ALLOWS REMOVAL OF COMBO RAM ROD & CYLINDER ARBOR)

RIGHT & LEFT GRIP VIEWS

TOP OVERALL VIEW

BOTTOM OVERALL VIEW

     The next posting, Part 2 of 2 of this series, will feature the the Rogers And Spencer .44 Caliber Single Action Percussion Army Revolver, which is a sibling to the Pettengill revolver featured in this posting. The family resemblance is noticeable due to a very similar front end.

     Reference material for this posting came from "U.S. Military Small Arms 1816-1865" by Robert M. Reilly, "Civil War Small Arms", an American Rifleman Reprint - Articles "Civil War Revolvers Part 1 & 2 of 2" by C. Meade Patterson & Cuddy De Marco, Jr. and Norm Flayderman's "Flayderman's Guide To Antique American Firearms.....And Their Values".

     The photographs are all originals of mine as are any assumptions or errors in this posting.  The ace webmaster is Reed Radcliffe, my son, who puts this all together for your viewing.

GOD BLESS AMERICA!!
 Dave Radcliffe
==============================================
Permission to reprint this article given by
Antique and Collectable Firearms and Militaria Headquarters
Serving Collectors and Students of Firearms and Military History

If you have been around Cowboy Action Shooting for a while, you've probably seen some roll crimped shells, especially if you know someone who shoots black powder.  Some modern factory shells, usually slug loads, also use roll crimps.  As the name implies, instead of the standard star crimp, the edges of the shell have been rolled over to hold in place a small cardboard piece called an overshot card  that holds the shot in.  Here is a picture of a star crimped and rolled crimped shell side by side for comparison.
 

Star and Roll crimped shells.  Note the overshot card in the roll crimped shell.

Now, you may be asking, why in the world would you want to do this?  Well, if you are into historical accuracy, this was the way shotgun shells were originally crimped.  The star crimp was developed for ease of manufacture by automatic equipment.  A more practical reason is that less shell length is needed for a roll crimp, so you will have more volume available for loading. This is especially good for black powder, since black powder takes up more space than smokeless.  I do it on my black powder loads, even when I don't need the extra volume, because then I can quickly identify which of my shells are black powder (roll crimped) and which are smokeless  (star crimped).   A roll crimp is also handy to use if you have to cut your shells down for an old gun that requires shorter shells (I have a 10 gauge like that). 

Making a roll crimp isn't hard.  The first order of business is to get some overshot cards.  They are thin (0.030 inch) , round pieces of cardboard, not expensive, 7 or 8 bucks for a thousand. Most any supplier of shotshell reloading supplies will have them or can get them.  Many people use these even in a star crimped shell, because it keeps the shot from falling out of the little hole you get if, like me, you can't make perfect crimps.  Load the shell as usual, and after you drop the shot place the overshot wad on top of the shot column. 

In the old days there were special tools for roll crimping that looked kind of like a large pencil sharpener.  You put the shell in one end, turned a crank, and you got a roll crimp.  I'm told that these can sometimes be found at antique stores or yard sales.  What I use is the modern version of this, which is a tool made to be used with a power drill.  Here is a picture of mine, I have them in 10, 16 and 20 gauge. 
 

Old style roll crimper.

Roll crimper for power drill

They are available for all gauges, from 410 thru 8 gauge. They run around $25 or $30.  You can use them in either a drill press or a power hand drill.  Chuck the tool into the drill, spin it up, and apply to the end of the shell.  It takes a little practice to get an idea of how long and how hard to push.  It doesn't take a lot of pressure, and only a few seconds.   I find that after a few plastic shells I need to let the tool cool down, or I start melting the plastic.   The tool will also work on paper shells.

For holding the shells there are tools called hull vises, if you already have one you can use it.  You don't really need a special tool, just a way to hold the shell so it won't rotate. The method I use is a pair of vise grips adjusted so they have just enough pressure to hold the shell, but not enough to put teeth marks in the plastic.  You don't need to hold them very tight, I've actually done it using my bare hand, but I don't recommend that, your hand gets tired real fast. 

Ready to roll - grips and drill with crimper

It is only fair to mention that there are a couple of disadvantages to roll crimping.  The most obvious is that it is more time consuming than using your loader's star crimper.  Also, while I haven't done any experiments to prove this, I'm convinced that you get fewer loads before the hull is worn out.   The roll crimping seems to work the plastic harder than a star crimp. 

Here are two suppliers that I know sell roll crimping tools.  I'm sure there are others.

Precision Reloading - web site www.precisionreloading.com
Ballistic Products - web site www.ballisticproducts.com

END.