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EXTREMELY RARE and HISTORIC RELIC CUSTER LITTLE BIG HORN BATTLEFIELD COLT .45 REVOLVER

Currency:USD Category:Antiques / Firearms & Armory Start Price:5,000.00 USD Estimated At:10,000.00 - 20,000.00 USD
EXTREMELY RARE and HISTORIC RELIC CUSTER LITTLE BIG HORN BATTLEFIELD COLT .45 REVOLVER
SOLD
33,000.00USDto w********e+ buyer's premium (7,590.00)
This item SOLD at 2016 May 14 @ 11:07UTC-7 : PDT/MST
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EXTREMELY RARE and HISTORIC RELIC CUSTER LITTLE BIG HORN BATTLEFIELD COLT .45 REVOLVER SERIAL No. 7047 Carried by Custer’s Troops June 25th 1876, Found on the Battlefield in 1933


Serial No. 7047. .45 caliber, 7 ½-inch barrel, frozen in the half cock position, with the ejector rod and ejector rod housing assembly missing, as well as the grips, and lower portions of the backstrap and triggerguard strap. The serial number determined on the left side of the cylinder in line with the lower flute, and read aided by forensic examination. The revolver is empty, without cartridges, or empty cartridge casings.

Details on No. 7047 appear on page 259 of John A. Kopec and H. Sterling Fenn, Colt Cavalry & Artillery Revolvers (1994). To quote:

"Serial numbers 7047 and 7119 also are of great interest to our study, as they are both documented and have direct Seventh Cavalry, or battlefield, association. According to records found in the National Archives, number 7047 was recovered on the Custer Battlefield in 1933. Unfortunately, the documentation is vague and
no other information exists. The present whereabouts of number 7047 is unknown to the authors, but this revolver is extant and has been recorded in our survey of Cavalry and Artillery revolvers . . . . Both of these revolvers are from Lot Seven, and could represent late issues to Company K or to other Seventh Cavalry
companies."

Researching various sources for other battlefield relic Custer Little Big Horn Colt Single Action Army revolvers has located only the following:

Serial No. 5100 from the Glenwood J. Swanson Collection, as pictured and detailed on page 280 of his landmark book, G.A. Custer His Life and Times (2004).

Colt relic Cavalry Single Action Army No. 6298, found in the 1890s or 1900, near the Little Big Horn battlefield site. Item was in the October 24, 2012 rare firearms auction of James D. Julia, Inc., lot 1376 - Identified by John Kopec in a 2-page letter: “Our records show that the subject revolver #6298 was found by a rancher some 10-20 miles south of the Little Big Horn in the ruins of a burnt-out wagon on the Cheyenne reservation.” Manufactured in 1874, part of Lot 6, and within prime serial range of Cavalry revolvers issued to Custer regiment. Further stated in the Julia description was the following: “. . . . revolver #6269 was excavated at the site of Sitting Bull’s camp in Saskatchewan, Canada, which is the nearest known Custer range gun. Mr. Zimmer [previous owner of 6298] . . . states that he had remembered seeing an ejector head pictured in an archeology book about Little Big Horn artifacts and when comparing the photograph with the broken area of his gun’s ejector rod he states that it was ‘an exact match’ . . . .” Further details on this revolver enclosed within
folder on #7047.

The 308-page detailed source, Archaeological Perspectives on the Battle of the Little Bighorn, by Douglas D. Scott, Richard A. Fox, Jr., Melissa A. Connor and Dick Harman (1989) provides exhaustive details on the dig at the site, following the fire of 1983, and the subsequent archaeological studies of that year, 1984 and 1985. Colt Single Action revolver parts noted in that title are as follows:

On page 94 the authors state: “The archaeological evidence for [soldiers’] equipment is limited in number but diverse. Only six firearm parts were found. Three screws (fig. 29) are associated with the carbines used by
the command, and a backstrap and a ejector-rod button (fig. 30) are from two of the command’s Colt revolvers. The other two parts represent Indian firearms. One is the loading lever (fig. 31) from a Model 1858 New Model Army Remington percussion revolver, and the other is a trigger from a shotgun . . . .

Quoting from page 95, Figure 30. “The backstrap and ejector rod button from a Model 1873 Colt revolver. The lines indicate where the artifacts fitted on the revolver.” No serial number was noted for the backstrap, and none would have been marked on the ejector rod button.

Note: Although a Colt Dragoon revolver relic from the Little Bighorn Battlefield site is illustrated in John S. duMont, Custer Battle Guns, 1974 edition (1977 printing; p. 65), no relic Single Action Army Little Big Horn revolvers are pictured in that publication. A special section in that title, “Relics of the Battlefield” (pages 87-94) noted (p. 92): “Captain Benteen declared Colt revolvers #5743, 5773 and 6559 as being rendered unserviceable in the battle of the Little Big Horn in 1877 . . . .” The present whereabouts of those three revolvers are unknown to the cataloguer.

Another source, the 410-page highly detailed Archaeology, History and Custer’s Last Battle, by Richard Allan Fox, Jr. (1993), provides considerable detail on the battle, based on archaeological studies, but does not present a detailed list or images of particular Colt firearms, relic or otherwise.

In the appendix of the newly published (2015) Documenting the Weapons Used at the Little Big Horn, author Wendell Grangaard presents a detailed listing entitled “Colt 45 Single Action Revolvers [of the Little Bighorn]” (pages 148-153), which lists by serial number all of the above-noted Single Action Army revolvers – including 7047 - with the exception of No. 6298 – that sold by James Julia Auctions, in 2012.

The most famous battle in American history, “Custer’s Last Stand” has been thoroughly documented over the years, and remains a uniquely popular theme in books, magazine articles, television programming and the movies – and most thoroughly in the public’s imagination.

Among the most visited historic sites and museums in the West are the National Park Service’s Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, and the nearby Custer Battlefield Museum (several acres on the LBH Battlefield site), founded by antiquarian and historian Christopher Kortlander and in Garryowen, Montana.

Custer Battlefield Relic Serial No. 7047 Colt Cavalry Single Action Army Revolver, with its date of discovery in 1933, is a particularly significant Custer and Frontier Indian Wars artifact, well worthy of the most distinguished private or museum collection related to the American West and the legendary George Armstrong Custer and his fearless and victorious Indian adversaries.

Description by R.L. Wilson

ID# 37964
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