Jesse Butterfield was the underdog in winning a contract for the U.S. military. In 1861 he won a contract for 2,300 pistols to a New York regimen. Quite an accomplishment, given his competition was the likes of Colt and Remington. We think he signed a contract too big for his factory, or he ran out of money, because only 600 pistols ended up being produced. Still he had an impressive design, that we consider ahead of its' time. Check it out!

Rare Butterfield Civil War Pistol

Hey, guys, welcome to another walk-in Wednesday. This one is pretty exciting because we got something very unique. This is a Butterfield. It's a civil war pistol and it was patented by Jesse Butterfield. Now, Jesse and I have something in common. First of all, we were both from Philadelphia and we both love the Philadelphia Eagles. And Philadelphia Eagles, just like they were underdogs for the Super Bowl, this is Super Bowl ring, not a real one, but it's close enough. Super Bowl ring, they were the underdogs, and Jesse was the underdog in this competition, too. So, Colts or Remington or, in this case, a Butterfield to the U.S. Army. He was successful; however, in that, he had a new and different patent. And I want to show this to you because maybe you think a single action army does not really excites me a whole lot. This thing is really cool. OK, so in 1855 and you can see at the top we have Butterfield and the patent date eighteen fifty-five. And then also the fact that it was made in Philadelphia. Good for him. Good hometown boy. I'm from Philadelphia by the way.

Butterfield Civil War Pistol an Up Close Look

And also, you can see the serial numbers on the barrel underneath. You can see that. And then if you look at the bottom, you can see the serial number on the frame. And then both grips are also numbered to match. Its numbered on the inside. I'm not going to take it apart today because it's very delicate. But on the inside, a brass plate, it's also numbered to match the gun. So 1855, of course, Civil war started in 1860. 1861, he got a contract for the New York Regiment to produce twenty-three hundred of these pistols. We think he ran out of money because he stopped producing them after he made about six hundred of them. And again, he is competing with the corporate giants such as Colt and Remington, who are making guns for the civil war.

Butterfield Civil War Pistol Advanced Patent

This is an advanced patent, in my opinion. And let me show you why. So just like most cap and ball pistols, it has it's a single action. This is extremely tight. The spring on this is down in here. It's very tight. Hard to push pull back. But you can see that it has the same cap and ball configuration where you would put the percussion cap over the nipple. And this would work in that standard way. But what makes this contract so unusual is, this uses a magazine, as far as I know, it's the first use of a magazine.

How the Butterfield Civil War Pistol Works

Let me show you how this works. Unscrew the magazine. Comes right out. Then the way it functions is you load it. You pull the spring down. And you load it with percussion pellets. These are like little tiny wafers percussion pellets that you then would put the magazine into the tube. It's loaded. When you screw it down, you can hear a click — pushing the spring so that the pellet's feet up inside when you pull the hammer back. You can see the little bar in there that takes the pellet and feeds it in. The best way to describe this, if you've ever used a Pez dispenser, this looks like a Pez dispenser. In fact, I'm sure they stole the patent from Jessi Butterfield. Pull this back. It takes the bar, grabs the pellet, moves it forward as it moves it forward. The hammer slide slams down on the pellet, igniting the powder underneath and shooting the ball. So, after other than the pellet design, it shoots like a regular single action army.

Butterfield Pistol Sights and Hammer

A couple of other things that make it unusual. If you look at the sights, you pull this back, and you can cite it from underneath a cocked hammer. The rear sight is very faint. Like most single action armies, they don't have good sights. I guess it didn't do a lot of aiming, they were just pointing and shooting, but sight back and front and pull the trigger. This one works very well in terms of the spring action. When you pull the trigger, it drops a hammer.

Butterfield Pistol, a Rare Gun

Very rare gun again, only about six hundred of a made contract 1861. And it was never, never completed due to probably running out of money. So that's the Butterfield very interesting and unique weapon.

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