Coleman,
- Been looking for my copy of the Calander of Virginia Papers that had the Adams purchase - sadly I can't find it yet. My memory is it was in the 1899 vol and my memory it was only a brief summary of the purchase. They are starting to scan in online a number of those volumes - but I searched and could not find the correct volume, and 1899 was not amongt the vols I saw that were scanned. I believe I saw the 1899 volume referenced in a CW arms book and it seems to stick in my mind. But I did note in Google Books a 1893 vol. which has John Brown material The hyperlink is: http://books.google.com/books?id=GkcOAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA1&dq=calendar+of+virginia&as_brr=1#PPA357,M1
- I didn't see anything in the 1893 Vol that would answer you question as to what revolver John Brown used, however on a visit down to Harpers Ferry the National Park Service had a Mass Arms revolver with the Maynard tape primer which they said was one of the type used. Looking at the Calander of Virginia papers I observe most of the references are just summaries of letters or documents - with the major exception of the John Brown papers which are more fully transcribed.
Sincerely PD