The Remington Model 1858 Beals revolver was manufactured by Elialet Remington and Sons, Inon, New York. It was manufactured in two calibers, .36 caliber (Navy) or .44 caliber (Army), with the .36 caliber being the preferred model, used primarily by Union soldiers.
This revolver is a .36 caliber, single-action, six-shot percussion revolver based on the Fordyce Beals patent of 1858. It is engraved on the bottom of the trigger guard “Louis Pelosi, 1st Lt. Co. G.” There are four notches carved on the right wood grip.
The Benton Hussars was a cavalry battalion organized at St. Louis, Missouri between September 18 and December 23, 1861. The Hussars served unattached with the Army of the West until January 1862. In February 1862 they were assigned to the 5th Missouri Cavalry. Pelosi, claiming to have been poisoned at Mudtown, Arkansas in February 1862 and suffering from “inflammation of the liver,” resigned from the army and was discharged that April. Despite his medical problems, Pelosi entered the service again, commissioned as captain of Company K, 26th Wisconsin Infantry in September 1862. He resigned again in March 1863.
Image Courtesy Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield; WICR 30076
