Cap and Ball takes a look at the Pepperbox revolver. It’s generic term for a pistol that revolves the entire barrel assembly rather than just the cylinder, and was quite popular in the 1850s. At least a few were probably used in the Civil War, and they were certainly in use then by civilians.
As you will see, it had its limitations.
Popular Mechanics surveys the sidearms used by the U.S. Army from its earliest days to the present, beginning with single shot flintlocks through the Colt and Remington revolvers of the Civil War era to the high tech multishot plastic marvels of today.
My favorite remains the venerable Colt 1911 in .45 ACP, which I carried in Vietnam.
Leave a Reply