The Eli Whitney Black Powder Revolver
One of the fascinating items at the Marshall County Museum is an unusual gun from the Civil War era.
When people hear the name Eli Whitney, his cotton gin or the many other agricultural inventions he designed come to mind. Less well known are the firearms the inventor and his son built at their factory in New Haven, CT.
After Samuel Colt’s revolving cylinder firearms patent expired in 1857, a slew of competitors swooped in to claim their fair share of the civilian pistol market. The timing could not have been better for firearms manufacturers, as the United States was poised to enter into a four-year Civil War.
The Whitney Model 1861 Navy black powder pistol was a product of the period, standing as a percussion cap revolver of largely conventional design. The Whitney family established their firearms business around 1798 and the company went on to manufacture several revolvers and rifles of “outside origin,” meaning they were sold outside of the US.
By the time of the American Civil War, Whitney’s son, Eli Whitney Jr., had taken over their arms business. The company received considerable experience when manufacturing Samuel Colt’s .44 caliber revolver during 1847, a time when Colt lacked its own manufacturing capabilities. From this exposure was born an in-house revolver design, the Whitney Model 1861 Navy. Since “Army” models were generally .44 caliber, “Navy” was used to designate a .36 caliber revolver. As such, the Navy name did not mean they were sold only to the naval powers of the day. Manufacture of Whitney guns was under the Whitneyville Armory label of New Haven, CT and this new pistol was developed to compete with the popular Colt Navy revolvers.
The gun proved to be one of the first early notable attempts at a solid frame revolver, a structural design popularly associated with Remington revolvers of the day. The model 1861 was a no-frills revolver design, featuring a sixshot revolving cylinder held in a centralized position. Unlike their Colt counterparts, and more like the competing Remington, the Whitney design utilized a “bridged” frame, a structure running over the cylinder to join the front and rear sections of the pistol to promote rigidity and make it a more robust product. The hammer was exposed, and the hammer
spur was within easy reach of the primary hand. Walnut grips were set along either side of the grip for basic comfort when holding and firing. A loading lever was set under the barrel and used to ram the chamber contents rearward during loading. Loading required the primer and shot to be set within each individual chamber and then rammed home. Percussion caps were set on awaiting nipples on the rear cylinder edges. As a single action revolver, the operator was required to manually cock the hammer for each shot, the trigger pull releasing the hammer on to the percussion cap. The cap provided the ignition to the primer and the resultant pressure sent the bullet down and out of the barrel.
The barrel measured 7.5 inches in length and was an octagonal design with rifling to add accuracy. Iron sights were provided, rear notch and front post type as external accuracy assistants, though as with all revolvers, they were truly short-range weapons.
Approximately 35,500 Whitney revolvers were manufactured, including about 1,500 of what was termed the First Model and approximately 34,000 of the Second Model. Whitney used a unique cylinder scene that included a Shield, half of it was the Stars and Stripes and half was the English Coat of Arms. Facing the shield on either side were an American Eagle and England’s Trafalgar Lion. This scene covered one side of the cylinder and was duplicated on the other side. Later, one side of the cylinder was replaced with a Naval scene with an American shield with a ribbon across the shield. On the ribbon is written “Whitneyville.”
Whitney obtained a contract with the U.S. Army in 1862 and provided about 7,602 revolvers through 1863. The Army also obtained Whitney revolvers through other private vendors as well, resulting in over 10,000 Whitney Navy Revolvers being used by the Army. Overall length of these revolvers was 13 inches with a weight of 2 lbs. 7 ounces.
Note: All firearms owned by the Historical Society are kept in a locked safe. None of them are for sale.