Page 66 - 4093-BOOK1

LOT 41
Highly Desirable, Documented, Ainsworth Sub-Inspected, Historic Lot Five 7th
Cavalry Custer Battle Era U.S. Colt Cavalry Model Single Action Army Revolver
with John Kopec Letter - Serial no. 5337, 45 Long Colt cal., 7 1/ 2 inch round bbl., blue/
casehardened finish, walnut grips. In terms of the American Indian Wars in the late 19th
century, no battle is as famous as the Battle of the Little Bighorn on June 25-26, 1876, during
the Great Sioux War of 1876 (aka the Black Hills War). The “Battle of the Greasy Grass” as it was
known to Native Americans, was one of the greatest battlefield victories in Native American history
and one of the worst defeats in U.S. history. In the battle, the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho fought off an attack and
then pursued and defeated the 7th Cavalry, including destroying Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer’s immediate
command. Like St. Clair’s Defeat during the Northwest Indian War almost a century earlier, the impressive Native American
victory did little to slow the tide of western expansion, but it did make legends out of many of the warriors and chiefs that fought
that day. By the time the corpses of Custer and his men laid strewn across the plains, Custer was already a very well-known
military leader, but his death fighting alongside his command against a superior number of native warriors secured his place in
history and has made “Custer’s Last Stand” one of the most iconic legends of the American West. As a result, Custer became the
most famous U.S. cavalry officer of the Indian Wars, and he and his men have been memorialized in countless works of art and
literature. Their defeat shocked the nation. Over the decades, the story of Custer’s defeat has been told over and over with varying
degrees of accuracy. Much of what happened has been lost to time given no one fighting alongside Custer lived to tell the tale.
Instead we have oral histories passed down from Native American warriors who defeated him, reports from surviving members
of the 7th Cavalry and the U.S. allied Crow and Arikara scouts that fought elsewhere during the battle, and evidence collected
from the battlefield. The basic story is clear. Custer led the 7th Cavalry in an attack on a large combined village of Lakota, Northern
Cheyenne, and Arapahoes on the Little Bighorn River. He believed the village was smaller and contained at most 800 warriors,
but instead, they found it contained around 8,000 Native Americans and as many as 1,800 warriors. The 7th Cavalry had 600 men,
and 125 men were with the pack train. Custer took command of five companies (210 men) while two other detachments were
led by Captain Frederick Benteen and Major Marcus Reno. After the initial attack, Reno’s men retreated, and Custer’s command
remained separated and was encircled by the Native American warriors. Instead of one last stand as is often depicted, there were
multiple attempts by groups of his men to fight. Around 40 of the 210 fighting under Custer died surrounded by hundreds of
warriors on the hill where a stone monument stands today. Reno’s detachment, supported by Benteen’s men, fought on to the
south through the night and learned of Custer’s death the following day. The whole nation was soon shocked by the news of
“Custer’s Last Stand.” As a result, the military committed additional resources to the effort to “pacify” the “hostile Indians” on the
plains, and most were defeated and confined to reservations within a year. Colt Single Action Army revolvers are among the most
iconic, collectible, and valuable firearms in American history. They are certainly among the top “blue chips” of gun collecting. Thus,
it comes as no surprise that when it comes to the classic U.S. contract “Cavalry Model” Colt Single Action Army revolvers, none are
more desirable than those used by the U.S. 7th Cavalry under the command of Custer at the historic battle discussed above. Our
current revolver falls within the “prime lot” of Colt Single Action Army revolvers issued to Custer’s men prior to that fateful day: the
Lot Five revolvers, serial numbers 4500-5504.
This historic revolver was examined by noted Colt historian and author John Kopec and he has recorded his observations in an
accompanying letter of authentication. Kopec identified the O.W. Ainsworth sub-inspected revolver as falling within Lot Five. As
Kopec explained, “Lot Five was one of the ‘prime’ lots from which those revolvers which had been issued to the Seventh Cavalry
were drawn. These new ‘strap-pistols’ were issued to the Seventh Cavalry just prior to their departure into the Black Hills on July
2, 1874.” Per Kopec the revolver (no. 5337) falls between nos. 5147, a known revolver issued to Troop L, 7th Cavalry as of March
14, 1888 and 5360, a known revolver issued to Troop G, 3rd Cavalry as of September 14, 1886. Kopec noted that nos. 5349, 5367,
and 5395 were returned for refurbishing in 1895 and therefore “indicating that these revolvers had served with a cavalry unit
during the Indian Wars.” The cylinder is a mixed component with no. “4870,” and Kopec concluded “this cylinder was a ‘field mixed’
component and therefore could act as a distinct clue as to where our subject revolver may have served during the Indian Wars.
64