Colt SAA Spanish American War

[SmokeEaterPilot]

Disclaimer this is not mine, but I had a blast researching it for a client. It was a really interesting case. The owner gave me permission to share it.

The revolver itself is an SRS hit, but the actual paperwork associated with the hit was far more interesting.

It was found in the regimental books of the 3rd Company of the U.S.V. Signal Corps. These ledger books are massive and my scanner usually hates them. So I had to zoom in and you can see how small the writing is for the SN of the revolver.

It was issued to John Milton Turrell who was born in 1861 and enlisted twice. He first enlisted with the 14th Company U.S.V. Signal Corps from June 1898 to April 1899. When that enlistment expired, he enlisted the same day with the 3rd Company U.S.V. Signal Corps. Apparently he was a telegraph operator. IIRC he stayed in Cuba until 1901 to help with their telegraph lines. Unfortunately, couldn't find any pictures on him, but it has a description down to he color of his eyes. He's buried in Arlington Cemetery. I don't think he ever married or had kids (best I can find).
I'm enjoying this side of things. I can see cool stuff and I don't have to spend any money lol.

Thought it was worth sharing.

 

[chilipeppermaniac]

Nothing like History.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Ngrovcam]

Nice…I know little about those handguns…as I recall, the government had hone to .38 revolvers that were underpowered for the fights our troops were in at that time…they took a bunch of the old ‘73’s, cut ‘em down a coupla inches and refinished the parts…shook ‘em up so the non-matching numbers are to be expected, and handed them out…I think they are called “the artillery model”, today…

I was in Walter Reed in the spring of ‘72…we had an old retired major on the ward, well into his 90’s…he had fought against the Moro’s in the Philippines, and told me similar history, first hand…I can still hear him telling me, “Them Moro’s! They were bad fellas!”

 

[hodgepodge]

Well, that's a little bit interesting!

 

[mawkie]

Another neat piece of history! The Spanish American war was so interesting, coming at a tipping point of time where black powder arm were still in service as smokeless arms were being issued. You had so many Trapdoors being fielded against state of the art small ring Mausers rifles.
I don't think I would feel outgunned with this SAA in close quarters. As Ngrovcam mentioned, they got dusted off and put back into use when issue 1895 Colts in .38 didn't do such a good job of stopping Moros in the PI.

 

[Ngrovcam]

Another neat piece of history! The Spanish American war was so interesting, coming at a tipping point of time where black powder arm were still in service as smokeless arms were being issued. You had so many Trapdoors being fielded against state of the art small ring Mausers rifles.
I don't think I would feel outgunned with this SAA in close quarters. As Ngrovcam mentioned, they got dusted off and put back into use when issue 1895 Colts in .38 didn't do such a good job of stopping Moros in the PI.

Just to add a coupla more stories from the old major (Now at Arlington…), he said the Krag bullets wouldn’t penetrate the hard wood chest armor the Moro’s wore, so the guys pulled the 30-40 bullets, and put them back in the cases backwards…which worked better and would knock down the bad guys so they could be bayoneted. Might just have been an old soldier’s story…but, to me who was then 18, it was cool as heck to listen to it…

 

[babalou]

I could read stuff like this all day long. Thank you all for your interesting posts.