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LOT 3152
Highly Desirable “C.L. DRAGOONS.” Marked
Colt Third Model Dragoon Percussion Revolver
Attributed to the Confederate Crocheron Light Dragoons - Serial no. 18511, 44 cal., 8 inch part round
bbl., blue/casehardened finish, walnut grips. This incredibly rare Third Model Dragoon revolver was manufactured in 1860 on the eve of the Civil
War while Samuel Colt was still actively supplying arms to the Southern states, but it most likely did not ship until the war was already underway. The barrel has the very scarce “C.L. DRAGOONS.” marking stamped on the
upper left flat at the breech. The barrel also has a German silver blade front sight and is marked “ADDRESS SAML COLT NEW-YORK CITY” on top. The frame has a small “COLTS/PATENT” marking on the left. The cylinder has
the Ranger and Indian fight scene. The left side of the trigger guard has
Wednesday December 12, 1860, under the heading “From the N.Y.
Journal of Commerce. Arms for the South” that “Cooper & Pond of
this city [New York] receive from twenty to fifty orders daily from
South Carolina, Alabama, and Georgia - and people who suppose
the South is not a paying customer, may be astonished to know that
their business transactions in this line are strictly on a case basis...
Most of the orders are for rifles and navy revolvers, though Cooper & Pond supply an immense number of flint lock muskets...” Other newspapers included very similar reports in the fall and winter of 1860. The articles also indicated the firm supplied gun carriages to Georgia and “have done a brisk business in all kinds of small arms and ammunition with all the principal Southern States.” Cooper & Pond are also mentioned in
the Western Sentinel of Winston, North Carolina, on May 3, 1861, as having ten gun carriages on board the George M. Smith which was forced to dock at Hampton Roads and then captured by the U.S. Navy as the gun carriages were “articles
a faint letter on the front left, and a “G” is on the left rear shoulder. Matching serial number are the loading lever arm, wedge, cylinder, barrel, frame, trigger guard, and backstrap and the arbor pin has “0511.” The first digit of the arbor pin is most likely a factory error as it otherwise matches.
These revolvers were discussed in the article “C.L. Dragoons” by Walter L. Anderson in “The Gun Report” Volume 36, Number 8 from January 1991 which lists this revolver on page 18 (scanned copy included). Although this revolver and the other “C.L. DRAGOONS” were manufactured prior to the Civil War, they have been attributed
as run through the Union blockade that encircled the South once the war began under General Winfield Scott’s Anaconda Plan and then used to army the Crocheron Light Dragoons. This theory is supported by the fact that another of these revolvers, 16577, letters as one of sixteen shipped to Cooper & Pond in New York on December 15, 1861. Anderson also indicates six other C.L. Dragoons revolvers originally shipped to Cooper & Pond and concluded that the dealer had run the arms through the blockade in part because Colt Dragoons were more desirable in the South than the North. Less than 20 of these “C.L. DRAGOONS.” inscribed 3rd Model Dragoon revolvers are known today plus three Colt Model 1851 Navies with the same marking as an inscription, but there may have been over 100 of these revolvers originally. Interestingly, we have found that The West Alabamian on
contraband of war.” Aside from these articles, there is little to no mention of “Cooper & Pond” in newspapers from 1858- 1865. There are other records of the firm corresponding with Confederate General Paul Jones Semmes in December 1860 concerning Enfield rifles being in high demand, and during the war they also sold to the Union. Period records indicate the firm was run by Albert Cooper & Charles H. Pond. Their address in 1859 was 177 Broadway in New York where they were listed as selling guns. After the war, Charles H. Pond
is listed as an agent for Colt and Winchester in 1871 in the
“Annual Report of the American Institute of the City of New
York” and as receiving “first premium” for the “Gatling cannon” and “for the best repeating fire arms” for Winchesters.
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