Greg --

For some reason Ed Bearss fails to mention the "bayonet charge" you described, let alone its repulse by pistol fire alone. Nor is there any mention in the O.R. of such a charge by the 9th Minnesota. The only action at Brice's Crossroads like that was taken by the 59th U.S.C.T. What is your source for this description? Perhaps you have another battle in mind.

If you aren't going to accept Confederate Inspection reports as authoritative, what source would you accept?

Forrest certainly preferred the revolver, but there were never enough arms of any kind in his command. On page 23 of Bearss' Forrest at Brice's Crossroads, we learn that 3,800 of Forrest's effective present of 9,200 in May 1864 were unarmed. To make up the deficiency, S. D. Lee redirected a shipment of 3,000 rifled muskets intended for the TM to Forrest's command.

You will not be inclined to accept its authority, but a comprehensive inspection report of Johnson's Brigade after Brice's Crossroads lists few pistols, even though we have receipts in officers' CSRs for Navy .36s issued in March 1864.

When it came to handguns, even the best-armed in Forrest command didn't always have them. Consider his order to assemble a force of 500, the "best and most most reliable men" from McCulloch's Brigade --

HEADQUARTERS FORREST'S CAVALRY, Tupelo, Miss., May 16, 1864.
[Brigadier-General CHALMERS :]

GENERAL: I am instructed by the major-general commanding to say that he desires Col. R. McCulloch to take from his brigade, without regard to company or regiment, 500 of his best and most reliable men, and the best mounted men in his command, placing them in companies of fifty men each under a complement of officers. You will see that these men all have the best of arms, and have them uniform]y armed. If practicable let them be armed also with pistols.

If, as you say, most Confederate troopers carried a least one good revolver, how would it not be possible for all of a picked force from one of Forrest's best brigades to be armed in this manner? Wouldn't you imagine that they would each carry a pair of Navys each?