I agree that these privately owned handguns were probably not included on the reports.

In contrast to what many believe, that is that pistols may have been more common in early war days, and less common in the latter part of the war, I have seen evidence of just the opposite.

Both Selma and Macon were manufacturing pistol holsters late in the war. I have found no organized early war holster manufacturing. Both of these facilities were turning out holsters for the "pocket pistol" size revolvers. All of those that I have seen from Selma were pocket revolver size, most from Macon are this size...but I have seen some full-frame size holsters from Macon. The full frame holsters were probably for Confederate manufactured revolvers.

It is believed by Colt collectors that the Confederacy was "remanufacturing" old Model 1849 Pocket Colts and then issuing them. There are *many* of these still surviving that bear the earmarks of Confederate remanufacturer...too many in my opinion to have only been carried by officers. There are so many out there, in fact, that I would conclude that they are the most common surviving single type of Confederate issued handgun (and you could possibly include long guns in this, too.) This high survival rate also could indicate late war issuance.

Unfortunately, unit records for this late war period are few and far between. So, there is little available evidence to see what the common enlisted trooper was carrying in 1865. My guess is that these small pocket size pistols were being issued to the cavalry, and that the full size Confederate manufactured pistols were issued to officers of both the cavalry and line infantry officers.