AUCTIONS POULIN'S SPRING PREMIER FIREARMS AUCTION, JUNE 7-10, 2024 HISTORIC & RARE VERY EARLY CIVIL WAR SMITH &

3048 HISTORIC & RARE VERY EARLY CIVIL WAR SMITH &

Category Firearms & Military
Auction Currency USD
Start Price 1,500.00 USD
Estimated at 3,000.00 - 5,000.00 USD
WESSON ARMY REVOLVER, CAPT. GEO. ADAM SCHMITT & LIEUT. WM. L. PUTNAM, CO. E, 20TH MASS, "HARVARD REGIMENT". Cal. 32, S# 200. Both men whose names are found on this revolver enlisted in company E, 20th Massachusetts on July 10, 1861. George Schmitt was elected captain, and William "Willy" Putnam was elected Lieutenant, both on July 22. 34-year-old Schmitt was German instructor at Harvard who had just received his MA from Harvard the previous year. William was a 20-year-old law student at Harvard. Schmitt had immigrated from Prussia and had previous military training. He was the only Harvard instructor to volunteer for service during the Civil War. The 20th Massachusetts, best known as the "Harvard regiment" would have quick training and march South to Washington. They would take the brunt of the assault at Ball's Bluff on the Potomac River, October 21. The Harvard regiment would suffer the most casualties of any Union regiment there, with Captain Schmitt badly wounded, and Lieutenant William Putnam killed. William Putnam came from an aristocratic Massachusetts family who did not have to fight. Few children in this world grew up with more advantages and privileges as William. His relatives and friends came from some of the wealthiest and best educated families in the country, other men in his company came from similar backgrounds such as Paul Revere Jr, and Oliver Wendell Holmes. Like most of his family and friends he became an ardent abolitionist. The last letter he wrote home dated just six days before his death on October 15th, Camp Benton Maryland. "We are now fairly at the seat of war and within a few miles of the enemies encampments. We have been roughing it pretty hard during the past few weeks but have seen no fighting. Our camp is within a mile or two of the Potomac, and companies from our regiment are regularly detailed for outpost duty. I begin to feel like an old campaigner. You have no idea how comfortably we sleep in the open air, with the ground for a bed and brick bats for pillow. How soon we shall take up the march for Richmond I cannot tell, but hope the time approaches…. I have seen but little of slavery during the few weeks we have passed in traitorous Maryland, and yet enough to hate it with a hate more intense because more living than ever before. How is it that when John Brown's little band invaded Virginia with the prospect before it of carrying fire and blood and freedom through the Southern states, how is it that then the loud-spoken sympathy of old England was with the right, and that now when thousands of avenging freeman girdle the frontiers of slavedom with a glittering line of bayonets she talks of the horrors of war, and by both word and deed gives what aid she dares to the friends of human bondage? He who said "a century of civil war is better than a day of slavery" was right. God grant that every river in this land of ours may run with blood, and every city be laid in ashes rather than this war should come to an end without the utter destruction of every vestige of this curse so monstrous. Human beings never drew sword in a better cause than ours, and the time is not far distant when, when the war cry "emancipation", our armies will plant the stars and stripes over every citadel of the South…'to John Brown, hero and martyr, the gratitude of two races'… not only William was a staunch abolitionist, when the 54th Massachusetts, the most famous of black regiments left Boston for its rendezvous with glory at Fort Wagner, they carried with them four flags, one given by William's mother in memory of her deceased son. Willy's direct commander in his company Capt. George A Schmitt who carried this revolver from Willy was so badly wounded, he was not expected to live, a musket ball entered his side just above the left hip exiting near the spine on the right side making a wound 11" long. The tough German captain did survive and though not fit for long field service, served out the war in Veteran Reserve Corps. William's Harvard classmate Oliver Wendell Holmes was also badly injured, he writes in his diary that he was carried on the same ambulance with William to a small tobacco barn which was converted into an emergency hospital. Putnam's wound was mortal. Willy's death was described by Holmes ".. I remember poor Willy Putnam's groans, and his refusal to let the doctor operate on him, saying he knew the wound was mortal and it would only be more pain for nothing. I remember the surgeon saying "it is a beautiful face", and looking up and seeing Willy Putnam, calm and lovely, and being told, or knowing, he was dead." This is a standard production very early 2 pin frame example, 6" barrel that is among the first inscribed examples of this model. Mike Bricker states in his 10-page Gun Report article, June 2002 article there is possibly only one lower. Article should be read for more details. The most interesting detail of this inscription is that which soldier was revolver presented to? Was it Captain to Lieutenant? Or most likely presented to the captain by his student? A Boston newspaper article states that the Harvard junior class had presented Captain Schmitt a sword on July 15th, and it's quite likely that recently graduated Lieutenant who was going to serve with the captain in his company would have given him this newly introduced expensive army revolver with self-contained cartridges. Smith & Wesson would go on to sell 35,000 of these revolvers during the Civil War and an equal amount after, this revolver was in the very first batch of 200 sold less than a month before their muster. Smith and Wesson's new army revolver was in such high demand that orders were no longer taken well into 1862 as they could not produce enough. Lt. Putnam unquestionably had the means to buy whatever he wanted. Only 2,100 revolvers were produced in 1861 & it's not easy to find a nice example like this one, much less with the extraordinary history, of patriotic Harvard student and Harvard professor. UNATTACHED ACCESSORIES: large file of research & copy of June 2002 Gun Report article "From Springfield to Harvard to Balls Bluff, the Journey of a Smith and Wesson Revolver". CONDITION: very good overall, frame and cylinder retain much original blue, all matching. The barrel has traces a blue in protected areas. Markings easily discerned with the exception of assembly mark on face of barrel housing which has pitting internally reminiscent of identified guns that pitted from blood. Both Captain Schmitt and Lt. Putnam bled severely at Balls Bluff battle. The tip of the spur of hammer is broken off, but mechanics are still functional, well defined rifled bore. PROVENANCE: from the Lifelong Collection of Robert "Mike" Bricker. (01-25014/JS). ANTIQUE. $3,000-5,000.
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