Question regarding ranks and side arms

[lincolnsguard]

Those instances are great if you out on the plains or up in Minnesota!

[harley_davis]

Those instances are great if you out on the plains or up in Minnesota!

Very true. Photos of 5th MN officers throughout the war are sans sidearms and I have not seen another references to the use of revolvers of any sort at least in Company C. Ordnance Sgt Jones who is often created with saving Fort Ridgley during the Great Sioux Uprising, was known to have carried a small revolver following the uprising. He resigned from Ordnance Dept in 1863 to accept a Captain's commission in the 3rd MN Light Artillery and so, his service was on the frontier fighting the Dakota Indians until 1866. His revolver was a smaller pocket pistol and not a larger belt revolver, the exact make/model escapes me at the moment.

[Bill_Cross]

The biggest problem with deciding this issue is the lack of information about what officers did in the field. Even the photos from the LoC, while marvelous, are staged in their own way. First of all, they are taken at leisure, either long after a battle or before. It's clear some of them (from the tentage) are at HQ, where the need for a sidearm is usually pretty small (someone check their buttons and see if they're the "mushroom" variety indicating staff duty).

Even the photo of the jaunty three officers with their pistols and Hardee hats was not taken on the battlefield per see, but in front of what looks like a painted canvas backdrop provided by the photographer.

The better solution is to scour the writings of the period and see what, if any, conclusions can be drawn. The photographic record simply lags in time from what most LINE officers did in the field.

[Poor Private]

I remeber reading in E.H. Rohdes diary"All For The Union" of him using his revolver a few times on his rise from a from up through the officer ranks. It's just to bad I don't have a copy on hand to give you chapter and verse.

[TheQM]

I remeber reading in E.H. Rohdes diary"All For The Union" of him using his revolver a few times on his rise from a from up through the officer ranks.

In his book Elisha Rhodes talks about "strapping" on his revolver. I take from what he said, that he had a holster on a separate belt for his pistol. I've examined a lot of original officer's sword belts and I have never seen one that showed wear from a holster. I firmly believe that most officers, who owned a pistol, kept it in their baggage, until they felt he might need it and wore it on a separate belt. (Or, carried a small pistol and just stuffed it into a pocket, or haversack.)