George Washington's Pistols

They have a picture of a pistol, with   these words:

"A horseman's  pistol given to George Washington by the Marquis de Lafayette.

"The pistol was one of a pair of heavy horseman's pistols which general Lafayette used during the  the Revolutionary War."

No mention as to what happened to the other pistols.  Perhaps the library never received the second one.

--Old Secesh

George Washington's Sword

From the NYSED site

The George Washing Collection at the New York State Library.

In an earlier post I mentioned Lewis Washington's George Washington's Frederick the Great's sword and the pistols given him by Lafayette having been given by Lewis' widow to the New York State Library.  I decided to see if they still have them.

They do.

There is a picture of the sword and these words:  This is one of George Washington's swords, alleged to have been given to him by Frederick the Great of Germany.  It was frequently worn by Washington on dress occasions and is represented in the portrait painted in 1834 by Vanderlyn for the United States House of Representatives.

The Pistol (S) Next.  --Old Secesh
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Civil War Weapons With Dick Stilling-- Part 5

Then, Mr. Stilling showed us a Starr pistol which he said was the third most popular side arm in the war.  In 1963, he had paid $12 for it in Dahlonega, Georgia, the same as the government spent for it during the Civil War.  This particular one had what he termed as trench art, a series of hash marks on the handle and he believe it was very-likely captured from the Confederate unit Cobb's Legion.

I'd sure buy one of those for $12.

CARBINES

Carbines were generally issued to cavalry units.

A Burnside Model #4, named after the man with the facial hair.  I'd never heard of one of these.

Smith Carbine with breach-open.

Spencer Carbine, the one that Confederates claimed Yankees could load on Sunday and shoot until Saturday.

John Wilkes Booth received two of these from Mary Surratt the day after Lincoln's assassination.  Stilling believes she was definitely not as innocent as she claimed to be and was very much in the conspiracy.

An Interesting Talk.  --Old Secesh

Civil War Weapons With Dick Stilling-- Part 3

Those Pisrtols in the Trunk

Mr. Stilling had a collection of pistols and explained each one.  Best of all, afterwards, you could go up to the display tables, touch and even pick them up.

The first two pistols were little-bitty Allen pistols, including a pepperbox.  This one had a bunch of little barrels and dated from the early part of the war.

Then, there was an 1858 French LeFaucheax Army pistol with pinfire and cartridges.  Some 12,000 were purchased, mostly by the Union Army, but some by the Confederates as well.

Then, there was an Army Starr pistol.

Mr. Stilling pointed out on several occasions what a nightmare supplying ammunition was during the war with all the many different calibers of bullets used in rifles and pistols.

He owns all of the weapons he presented to us.

Civil War Weapons with Dick Stilling-- Part 1

The regular monthly meeting of the McHenry Historical Society (for the city, not the county) on October 20th featured Dick "Red" Stilling, a former resident of McHenry now living in retirement in Florida and whose hair is no longer red, hence his nickname, but gray.

He grew up in McHenry, went to high school there, played football, was in the Marine Corps, taught high school in Lake Zurich, Illinois, and was in the FBI for 23 years.  Quite an interesting life.

The reported title of what he was to talk about was covert operations (which he had plenty of in the FBI), but it centered on a large collection of pistols, rifles and swords he had with him.

In the FBI, he headed up the raid on the FALN group who were making bombs with which to blow up the Marine Corps office in Chicago and Operation Graylord which caught dishonest Cook County judges.  A member of our Palatine (Il) Class of 1969, Terry Hake, was involved in it and I asked if he new Terry and he definitely did.

Right There Would Have Been An Interesting Talk.  --Old Secesh