Cogley's History, Chapter 4, Page 113 states, in discussing the Battle of Brices' Cross Roads. " In this mode of fighting, the navy revolvers, of the 7th Indiana Cavalry, proved formidable weapons."
While that is a somewhat vague statement, but I'm sure it was well understood by his intended readers. Lacking further details
it might be reasonable for us to assume that this means they carried Colt .36 Caliber Revolvers vs the .45 Remingtons.
Thanks to Mr. John Kudlik, It has been established that the 7th in fact were issued Model 1851 Colt .36 Navy Revolvers. Specifically Serial Number 138122 was issued to Pvt Marcus Stoner of Company H.
A quick look at SRS's Datebase for the revolvers seems to parallel the Company information that was given for the Carbines below.
Merrill Carbines -- Serial Numbers 11971 thru 13191, and 13801
Information from the National Archives links approximatley 538 of the weapons in the listed block as being issued to various companies of the 7th. Specifically Companies A,B,C,D,G,H & M. Some of the information contained in the Archives is highly suspect, the data list Companies A,B & C as being issued in 1862. This is not possible since the regiment was not authorized untill 1863. No information is given for Companies E,F,I,K or L.
The way the weapons were issued to companies seems completely random. For example 11971, the first in the lot was issued to Company M, as was the last, 13191. There is also no pattern to the misssing numbers. The only distinct pattern is in the issue dates. For A,B & C it is given as '62, For G,H & M it is given as '63, and for D as 10/29/63, a highly believable date.
Speculation and Assumptions
Between the first and last serial number there are 1220 weapons, the 7th at Muster had 1213 enlisted men. Those number corrolate very well. It is my speculation that the weapons in this block were all issued to the 7th. The weapons were randomly issued to companies, and recorded by a clerk within each company or at the least a limited number of clerks, maybe three or four, based on the dates. Records for E,F,I,K & L have been lost.
For information on specific weapons, or other Military Arms visit, Springfield Research Service.
As with any information about the 7th, If you have additional information, stories or own one of the weapons listed, please share it with us. I would like thank to Mr. John Gross for providing the information for this page.