Hayes:

It seems that in reading on Fort Pillow, an officer commanding one of the assaulting regiments, who actually went over the parapet with his men, is quoted by Dr. Wyeth as stating that before the lunge into the works, each man had (as I recall, not having the reference at hand) "gun and navy six" cocked and ready to pour fire into the defenders. From previous posts I see that "guns" might be any description of shoulder arms, and I take "navy six" to be Colt Navy revolvers, cal .36. This would suggest that the vast majority of those assaulting Fort Pillow each carried some long arm (I had assumed carbines, but probably not) AND a revolver, quite possibly the reworked pocket revolvers you described. In what calibre were the 1849 pocket revolvers orginally made, and to what were they reworked? Did these have six or five chambers in the cylinder? Might their similarity to the Colt Navy revolver have led to their being termed "navy six"s?

As I recall the Leech and Rigdon, and the Giswald and Gunnison revolvers, of Confederate maufacture, were cal .36. Of course, the Confederate ordance dpt tried to standardize cal .577 as that of all their rifle muskets, for obvious reasons, but might .36 have been chosen as the standard for revolver? I don't see much reference to Colt Army, cal .44, in Confederate hands.

Just some thoughts.