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The Walkers were used by Confederate
cavalrymen from the Southwest during
the Civil War, and some Confederate troops
fled to Mexico through Texas rather than
surrender to Union troops after the defeat of
Robert E. Lee and the bulk of the Confederate
Army in the Spring of 1865. Confederate
generals such as Joseph O. Shelby and Sterling
Price offered to fight for Emperor Maximilian which would have made them Viesca’s enemies. Shelby’s men approached the border at Eagle Pass well-armed and positioned his artillery so that it could
fire across the border at Piedras Negras placing Viesca in a tense situation. The two men negotiated,
and Shelby’s men were allowed to peacefully cross into Mexico, and Viesca worked to get Shelby’s Confederates to join the Republican cause, offering a commission to Shelby and to allow him to remain near the border to recruit for the Republican army, but his men were staunchly opposed and wished
to support Emperor Maximilian. Interestingly, in an interview in 1877 about his “expedition,” Shelby indicated that he had sold “cannon, muskets, ammunition, revolvers, sabres-munitions of war which I
had brought out of Texas in quantities-” to “Gov. Blesca [sic], the Juarez governor of the state of Coahuila.” His men are said to have been paid $16,000 in silver and a promise of the same amount in script (see “Centennial History of Missouri, Vol. II” by Walter B. Stevens and “General Jo Shelby’s March” by Anthony Arthur ). The sale of the arms provided the Confederates much needed funds and lessened resistance to their movement through Mexican territory. Maximilian generally declined to accept the Confederates into his army but encouraged them to settle in colonies in Mexico. With Maximilian’s execution, the Confederates largely fled back to the United States. It is thus possible that Viesca got the revolver from a Confederate soldier in the 1865-1866.