Original Item. Only One Available. This is a difficult-to-find holster for the 1860 Colt Revolver, which saw extensive use by Union forces during the American Civil War.

This holster is a hard to find, early, black leather accoutrement original Civil War belt flap holster popular during the Civil War. Holster was made to accommodate the Colt M1860 Army revolver and fits the M1851 Navy model Colt as well. The machine-made accoutrement measures a total of 14.5” long with its flap closed. Holster is made from a large, single piece of thick, black bridle leather that was folded over and machine-stitched to form the main body. In fair but brittle condition, this holster bears no visible maker marks. The flap closure hole is almost broken off but is still retained. Side stitch has split and the leather has dried and shrunk somewhat. With a revolver inserted into the body, the flap fits perfectly and snugly over the small brass, bullet-head finial attached to the main body. Holster has a leather belt loop or strap on the reverse that measures 4” x 2.5” and is riveted to the flap.

The Colt Army Model 1860 Revolver

The Colt 1860 Army uses the same size frame as the .36 caliber 1851 Navy revolver. The frame is relieved to allow the use of a rebated cylinder that enables the Army to be chambered in .44 caliber. The barrel on the 1860 Army has a forcing cone that is visibly shorter than that of the 1851 Navy, allowing the Army revolver to have a longer cylinder. Another distinguishing feature of the Colt 1860 Army, first introduced on the Colt 1855 Sidehammer Revolver, is the "creeping" loading lever.

More than 200,000 were manufactured from 1860 through 1873. Colt's biggest customer was the US Government with no less than 129,730[1] units being purchased and issued to the troops. The firearm was a single-action, six-shot revolver accurate from 75 up to 100 yards, where the fixed sights were typically set when manufactured. The rear sight was a notch in the hammer, only usable when the revolver was fully cocked.

The Colt .44-caliber “Army" Model was the most widely used revolver of the Civil War. It had a six-shot, rotating cylinder, and fired a 0.454-inch-diameter (11.5 mm) round spherical lead ball, or a conical-tipped bullet, typically propelled by a 30-grain charge of black powder, which was ignited by a small copper percussion cap that contained a volatile charge of fulminate of mercury (a substance that explodes upon being subjected to a sharp impact). The percussion cap, when struck by the hammer, ignited the powder charge. When fired, balls had a muzzle velocity of about 900 feet per second (274 meters/second), although this depended on how much powder it was loaded with.

The unfluted cylinder was "rebated", meaning that the rear of the cylinder was turned to a smaller diameter than the front. The barrel was rounded and smoothed into the frame, as was the 1861 Navy Model. The frame, hammer, and rammer lever were case-hardened, the remainder blued; grips were of one-piece walnut; and the trigger guard and front grip strap were of brass while the backstrap was blued."