1885 Rebellion Canadian Militia revolver

[RattlesnakeJack]

Here are a couple of photos of the.45 caliber Colt Model 1878 Double Action I recently acquired, believed to be one of 1,001 revolvers of this configuration purchased by the Canadian Department of Militia & Defence at the outbreak of the North West Rebellion in 1885 .....

(Click to enlarge.)
   

The majority of the revolvers acquired by Canada were never marked in any distinctive way, and no complete record of serial numbers is known, so it is not possible to definitively confirm Canadian military provenance for most of them.  However, based on the serial numbers of the thirty or so known examples of these revolvers which eventually got stamped with an "M.D." mark, it is known that they were all manufactured in 1883, 1884 or early 1885.  Mine was made in early 1884, is the correct configuration for a Canadian Militia revolver, and was located in Canada, so it "fits".  I am awaiting a Colt Factory Letter which will hopefully confirm that it was shipped to Hartley & Graham, the New York outfitter that supplied them to the Militia Department.

For anyone who might be interested in additional information, here are scans of the entire chapter on the Canadian Militia revolvers from "Colt's Double Action Revolver, Model 1878", by Don Wilkerson:

         
         

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

WOW!

[Sgt Sourdough]

That is one sharp lookin shootin iron

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[RattlesnakeJack]

Today the Colt factory letters for my M1878 Double Action and M1911 arrived ... and I am pleased to report that they do seem to confirm my understanding and belief that both handguns were acquired by the Canadian Department of Militia and Defence for military service ....



As expected, the letter regarding my M1878 shows no direct connection to Canada, but it does confirm that the revolver was one of 25 in a shipment to Hartley & Graham in New York on September 5, 1883.  Interestingly, it gives the finish as "blue" .... but the fact that the revolver bears a high quality and apparently old nickel plating would actually tend to confirm my belief that it was one of the revolvers sold by H & G in 1885 to the Canadian Government, since that order specified that the revolvers were to be nickel plated.

As noted by Don Wilkerson on page 251 in his chapter on the Canadian North West Rebellion revolvers (scans in above post) it seems clear that Hartley & Graham partially filled the Canadian order for 1,001 revolvers with left-over stock from a large number of .45 cal. Model 1878's with 7 1/2 inch barrels they purchased in 1883 (probably in response to inquiries from the Canadian Government that year about this model of revolver which hadn't resulted in a contract at that time.)  Even if they still had all 266 nickeled revolvers of that configuration in stock from their 1883 purchases, and if all of the large quantity (640) of nickeled revolvers of that configuration acquired from Colt in April of 1885 also went to fill the Canadian order, they would still have been short of the total order by nearly 100 revolvers.  Wilkerson notes that three specimens in his survey of Canadian-purchase M1878 revolvers were nickel-plated (as specified by the Canadian order) but had been acquired blued by H&G in 1883, leading to the inescapable conclusion that the company must have had a number of blued revolvers in inventory nickel plated to complete the order.  It seems likely that my revolver is one of those .....

As for my 1914-production M1911, the letter confirms that it was sold to the Government of Canada, and was included in a shipment of 1000 pistols on October 31, 1914, to H.W. Brown of Quebec, Canada, the government purchasing agent for its acquisition of a total of 5000 pistols in 1914 for WWI service ......  As is common with these pistols, mine bears no Canadian Government inspection or ownership marks - because many (if not most) of the total were re-sold to commissioned officers.  As previously reported, my pistol is documented as the personal sidearm of Major. W.A. Mitchell of the Canadian Army Service Corps, who served on the Front, ultimately as Officer Commanding No. 5 Company, Divisional Train of the 2nd Division, Canadian Expeditionary Force .....