David --
Unless I misunderstood, you have been suggesting that all of Forrest's men (whatever that term means) carried at least one revolver. For that to have been true at the time of Brice's Crossroads, the 9,200 officers and men who took orders from him would have to hit the revolver jackpot and make up the deficit of about 7,000 handguns.
In an earlier post you mentioned Forrest losing his command and having to rebuild another. As part of a reasonable and informative discussion, I expected to discuss men under Forrest's actual command in the spring and summer of 1864, not others who had been taken away from him and were no longer answering to his orders.
Here's the post from the earlier thread in which Greg Biggs and I crossed some of the same ground that we seemed headed for --
http://history-sites.com/mb/cw/tncwmb/index.cgi?read=5425
Forrest sent deserters back to their proper commands, but had officers who sent them off take their arms and equipment. A review of orders Forrest issued during the spring and summer of 1864 demonstrates a keen interest in each of his brigades. At any given moment General Forrest could provide volumes of detail about how his troops were armed, equipped and supplied. The orders cited in our earlier thread touch all the bases.
Sure the Yankee officer took a good look. But that wasn't the question I offered to you.