Grant Grant's firearm

I can't recall ever seeing General Grant depicted with a firearm...or sword, for that matter. I'm sure he owned one, but probably didn't bother wearing it, at least later in the war.
 
He carried one but I sure don't know what kind! All his war stuff was sold off - wonder where his guns went? I've never heard he had occasion to use it, though. Grant probably carried his gun like Lee did - in a saddle holster but not on his person.
 
Lee owned several sidearms, apparantly a Colt Navy, and I think a Colt Root, but wore neither; they were probably safely stashed in their boxes in a trunk somewhere in the headquarters baggage wagon. Though photographed with a sword and famously wearing the English sword brought through the blockade and presented to him in 1862 "by the patriotic ladies of Baltimore" at Appomattox, he probably seldom wore those either. At Appomattox, Grant definitely was without sidearms, and it's likely he routinely neglected them also. He was photographed in 1861 holding one of the then-new M.1860 Staff-and-Field officers' swords, but I don't think he was ever subsequently photographed with it or another one.
 
Unless you're Nathan Bedford Forrest, John Hunt Morgan, John Singleton Mosby, George Armstrong Custer, or the like: a cavalryman or raider-type, a leader didn't NEED a pistol or "personal firearm"; his army or command WAS his personal weapon. Swords might be different, since they were seen as badges of office or rank. But if you were Grant or Lee everybody ( at least anybody who MATTERED ) was likely to already know that, so THEY didn't need them!
 
I have a calendar on my office door at work. Weapons of the civil war. This months featered weapon is Grant's 1851. It is a cased set. It has some engraving but nothing real fancy. Kinda the way I see Grant himself.
 
Lee owned several sidearms, apparantly a Colt Navy, and I think a Colt Root, but wore neither; they were probably safely stashed in their boxes in a trunk somewhere in the headquarters baggage wagon. Though photographed with a sword and famously wearing the English sword brought through the blockade and presented to him in 1862 "by the patriotic ladies of Baltimore" at Appomattox, he probably seldom wore those either. At Appomattox, Grant definitely was without sidearms, and it's likely he routinely neglected them also. He was photographed in 1861 holding one of the then-new M.1860 Staff-and-Field officers' swords, but I don't think he was ever subsequently photographed with it or another one.

Lee's Colt Root was given to him by the Military Academy (West Point) when he left after his term as Superintendent-it was cased and now resides at Arlington House.
 
Lee's gun
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1851 Colt Navy .36
 
I have a calendar on my office door at work. Weapons of the civil war. This months featered weapon is Grant's 1851. It is a cased set. It has some engraving but nothing real fancy. Kinda the way I see Grant himself.

I reckon he had a number of firearms. Funny story about him. Some friends took him turkey hunting and when the turkeys took off and the others shot, Grant just watched the birds! He never liked hunting.

With Lee, there's a picture of him on Traveller riding through Petersburg and there's a saddle holster there. Read somewhere he had the revolver on one side and ammunition on the other. Never heard of him using any of it, though!

A previous poster mentioned about cavalrymen and pistols - Forrest always had at least two stuck in his belt and sometimes as many as six. (He usually needed them all, too!) All the generals had their escorts, and the escorts provided plenty of protection but sometimes circumstances prevented them doing their job - Forrest, at Selma, was so hemmed in by Union soldiers his escort was effectively cut off from him. Lee and Grant almost never got into such a predicament, it's true, but it must have struck them as a good idea to have at least one pistol with them.
 
I'm guessing that prominent generals received elaborate gifts, including revolvers, from admirers. I've not read or heard of Grant ever firing a rifle or pistol (maybe in the Mexican war?). Nor Lee for that matter. If either of them carried, it was in saddle holsters.
 
Sam Colt was a merchant seaman in his youth. Story has it that he whittled his revolver design while at sea.
 
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