Interesting quote.

[Crawdad1]

"I generally rode a good horse, and carried two six-shot pistols, one a navy class, which I belted around me, and the other a dragoon class that I hung on the horn of my saddle." Early Days in Central Texas, by F.M Cross."

Not only references throughout the journals of the Pony Express riders of discarding their rifles to carry only a Colt's revolver, that makes sense being that he needed speed from his horse and weight was probably a big factor in his decision also, but also a quote here from another journal that he carried with him only two Colt revolvers a 51' Navy and a Dragoon?

 

[tembotusk]

Might have to start referring to my Colt revolvers by class! I like the sound of it.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Neat find.

 

[Panzerschwein]

Might have to start referring to my Colt revolvers by class! I like the sound of it.

I like to call my '51 navy "revolving belt pistol of naval caliber" ala Sam Colt, LOL! !

I love reading these historic accounts. This year I've read about a half dozen different Civil War memoirs, and they called there weapons several different things. One of my favorite was that the soldiers often called the 1860 Henry rifle a "sixteen shooter", and I believe Spencer carbines as "seven shooters" if I remember right.

Very cool!

 

[Crawdad1]

The trouble is finding these old journals and letters since far too many of them are "out-of-print" And I agree Cooldill I like to read about these old Colts out on the western frontier.

 

[Officers'Wife]

The trouble is finding these old journals and letters since far too many of them are "out-of-print" And I agree Cooldill I like to read about these old Colts out on the western frontier.

There was a guy out of Illinois that used to find out of copyright books and reprint them for sale and made a comfy living from it. You might consider that problem as an opportunity.

 

[45 Dragoon]

Hmmmmmm . . . . , .smart man !!! (toting a Dragoon !!!)

Thanks Crawdad1 !!

Cooldill, my naval is more 44 than 36 !!!

 

[Berkley]

I have to confess to having edited my great grand-uncle's journal entry, quoted above, when I posted it here. This is the actual wording:
.
He refers to a "navy siege" and a "dragoon siege". I have pondered over those strange expressions since I first read the book thirty years ago.
I finally found the answer in an obsolete definition for "siege" at the bottom of the entry in the unabridged Oxford English Dictionary.

Remember that this was a man who was educated in a one-room frontier school in the first half of the Nineteenth Century. The books to which he had access were few, precious, and quite likely printed in the Eighteenth Century.

 

[MIOkie]

So, what comes after "... a post oak stump from..."

The suspense is killing me.

I really admire his modesty in down-playing his own bravado.

That would have scared the crap out of me... stump or no stump.

Thanks for posting that.

 

[jrdolall]

Great read!
I can't recount the times a stump or tree limb has scared the crap out of me on camping trips. It's amazing how the changing light can alter your perception of a tree. What was obviously a small tree at 10 PM can become a menacing bear at 3 AM.

The oldest family writings I have were from around 1908 and they are all old postcards to aunts and grandparents. They are cool but not exciting like this.

 

[Crawdad1]

I knew this thread would get Berkley to give us some more of the great journal written by his great grand uncle. There is a method to my madness.

 

[Berkley]

Another little tidbit, second-hand:

Sul Ross was also a general in the Confederate States Army and the 19th Governor of Texas.

 

[BullRunBear]

More of that journal, please!! Having been fooled by stumps and branches when it was safe, I want to see what your relative found when there might be real peril. Nice discussion.

I would guess that the word "siege" may be related to "size", at least distantly, as a way to classify objects.

Jeff

 

[Berkley]

Another page pulled out at random, just as a tease-
and another:

 

[Steel Horse Rider]

I picked up the copy I ordered last week yesterday. I can't wait to start reading it but since the paper seemed to be pretty brittle (This copy was printed in 1910 which was the third printing) I am going to treat it by sealing it in a Tupperware container with a damp paper towel for half a day. I have treated other old parchments in this manner and it restores the elasticity of the paper.

 

[BCRider]

SHR, a trick for restoring brown sugar that has gone hard and crusty is to put some wads of plain white bread in with the sugar for a day or two then remove and discard. I tried it and the sugar stayed moist and useable for the next 4 months or so that it took me to use it all up.

I'd suggest that the same trick might just be better than the high humidity that a moist paper towel will generate. No need to get the air SO moist that any mold spores wake up on ya.

If it doesn't work out then at most you've lost a couple of days of potential reading.

 

[BCRider]

Hey Berkley, I too am on the edge of my seat. This peak at life of the old west is HIGHLY addictive.

If the journal is tough to come by and no longer under copyright, as it appears to be the case, what are the chances of working your way through the book from cover to cover and posting the page images?

Trust me, you'd have a highly attentive and grateful audience out here in THR land!

 

[Berkley]

I'll try to post some more as time permits. As far as posting the whole thing, probably not for a couple of reasons. One, the author was a white Southerner born when slavery was the law of the land. Some of his writings probably wouldn't be appropriate for a public forum in the 21st century. Two, he was a garrulous old man ( it runs in the family), and some of his lengthy recitations of names and places are reminiscent of old Simon Wheeler in Mark Twain's "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County".

if I asked old Wheeler about him, it would remind him of his infamous Jim Smiley, and he would go to work and bore me nearly to death with some infernal reminiscence of him as long and tedious as it should be useless to me.

But as long as there is some interest, I'll try to post some of the good stuff.

 

[Crawdad1]

Not to impose Berkley but any other references to a particular type or name of a firearm would be interesting.

 

[Berkley]

Firearms references turn up in some unexpected places. Following P. 83, above, that begins "The first Methodist preacher was called Brother H. Childress; he was sent to the"

 

[Berkley]

Miscellaneous recollections

 

[Crawdad1]

Thanks Berkley, excellent reading and thanks for all the time and effort.
I'm reading an interesting journal written by John McCorkle and readily available. I would like to post some from this journal but being that he was a Missouri Guerrilla during the struggle it may be offensive to some.

But all I can say was he loved his '51 Colts and was a heck of a shot, not unlike a more famous person that also loved his '51 Colts in naval caliber.