[CIVIL WAR] ID'd Leech & Rigdon Revolver, Georgia Cavalryman

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Day 2: The American Civil War

By Fleischer's Auctions

Apr 25, 2026

Set Reminder 2026-04-25 09:00:00 2026-04-25 09:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Day 2: The American Civil War https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/fleischers-auctions/day-2-the-american-civil-war-22127
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• Lot Description

   PUBLISHED CONFEDERATE LEECH & RIGDON REVOLVER OF SGT. WILLIAM H. HOOD, CAPT. LEEK’S GEORGIA CAVALRY

   

  Among Confederate revolvers, few names inspire greater admiration than Leech & Rigdon. Elegant in form, Southern in manufacture, and produced in limited numbers under increasingly desperate wartime conditions, their revolvers have long occupied the front rank of Confederate handguns. The present example is especially desirable: a published, all-original, Augusta-finished revolver made in February-March 1864, during the final phase in which the firm operated as Leech and Rigdon.

   

  This revolver retains strong “LEECH & RIGDON” and “CSA” barrel markings, both better than average, and displays the characteristic late features noted in surviving examples from this serial range, including the absence of cylinder safety pins and the front sight drilled through the rifling, a production defect specifically associated with Augusta-period manufacture. Before the adoption of the later twelve-stop cylinder system at approximately serial number 1500, revolvers of this group represent the Confederacy’s last effort to complete one of its most celebrated revolver contracts in the familiar Leech & Rigdon form.

   

  Particularly important is its state of preservation. The revolver is all original, with every part normally numbered still numbered, including the small components so often absent or replaced: the wedge, cylinder pin, loading arm, and latch. The grips are inspection-marked “SC,” as expected on many revolvers in this range, while the buttstrap bears Sergeant Hood’s initials in a neatly crosshatched field together with the date “1864,” a compelling and highly personal wartime embellishment.

   

  According to the provenance retained with the arm, it descended in the family of William Henry Hood of Capt. Leek’s Georgia Cavalry, later passing through Damon Mills of Montgomery, Alabama, before entering the Kent Wall collection in January 1998. Wall subsequently published the revolver in North South Trader in 1999 as “Sgt. Wm. H. Hood’s Leech & Rigdon Revolver.” It was again illustrated in the American Society of Arms Collectors article “Leech & Rigdon Revisited” in April 2011. That publication history places the revolver securely within the corpus of well-known Confederate arms long recognized by advanced students of the type.

   

  Although the family reportedly allowed children to dry fire the revolver, damaging the nipple slots, the gun was expertly corrected by returning them to proper shape and re-patinating the affected areas to blend with the surrounding metal. Today the revolver remains a notably sharp and handsome example, with very good mechanics, a crisp rifled bore, and only the ordinary cosmetic dings and wear expected of an authentic Confederate sidearm. By any fair standard, it ranks among the better surviving Leech & Rigdon revolvers and would be at home in even the most advanced collections of Civil War arms.

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