This extraordinary pair of presentation cased, factory engraved, silver plated, gold trimmed Colt Model 1861 Navy revolvers with spectacular raised relief grips is among the best known pair of silver Colt revolvers in existence. The pair is featured in the Walpole Galleries' catalogue for the Frederick E. Hines Estate in 1924, "Dexter's Antique Weapon Trade Journal Presenting the McMurdo Silver Colt Revolver Collection," "The William M. Locke Collection" (p. 21, 33 and 148) and "Colts from the William M. Locke Collection" (p. 119) by Frank Sellers, "Percussion Colt Pistols" (p. 36) and "Colt Firearms from 1836" (p. 134) by James E. Serven, "Colt's History & Heroes" (p. 15) by John G. Hamilton, and "The Colt Heritage" (p. 106-107) and "Colt: An American Legend" (p. 106-107) by R.L. Wilson. In his discussion of the McMurdo collection, F. Theodore Dexter called them "America's most beautiful presentation Colts...probably the most beautiful early Colt outfit ever got up, and whoever finally owns this, never need fear that a better one will turn up. The outfit is like new and extra fine." In his included letter, R.L. Wilson wrote, "This cased set - in magnificent condition, and a work of beauty worthy of any art museum- is also a set representative of the treasured history of the Civil War. The Williams-Warner Colts stand tall in the pantheon of classics among America's finest firearms...The author regards the magnificent set of Captain George A. Williams-B.W. Warner presentation Colt Model 1861 Navy Revolvers as national treasure firearms, worthy of the finest museum or private collection." In addition to being well-documented, the pair's inscribed case connects them to the American Civil War and a West Point graduate who served as an officer in the Union Army during the war and was connected to multiple serious scandals. This history combined with the rarity and beauty of the set itself truly sets them into a class of their own. Few Civil War presentation revolvers, let alone cased pairs, retain both their beautiful artistry and high condition as well as have traceable history. This set has all three. The Cased Set: The revolvers fall fairly late within the serial number range from 1863 and feature beautiful Colt factory engraving consisting of Germanic scroll patterns with floral accents and punched backgrounds on the barrels, frames, and grip frames along with the classic wolf head motif on the hammers. The engraving patterns on both revolvers are very similar overall, but the designs on the sides of the breech sections of the barrels have some variance. The second revolver, for example, has interlaced scroll designs just ahead of the wedge. The pair's barrels may have been engraved by two different engravers or one engraver using two different patterns. The style and shape of the scrolls are very similar overall even when the patterns differ. In his included letter, Wilson refers to the engraving as "Gustave Young style." Young and many of the other engravers who worked for Colt in the 1850s and 1860s were immigrants trained in Germany, and their styles are often fairly similar based on their training although Herbert Houze in "Colt Factory Engravers of the 19th Century" has done excellent research to show when various engravers worked for Colt and analyzed individual aspects of how some of the revolvers were cut attributed them to specific engravers. In 1864, Herman Bodenstein (1829-1865) was Colt's primary engraving contractor though not the only engraver working for the company. Young had held the position in the 1850s prior to returning to Germany in 1858 and had multiple engravers working under him. Young was employed by Colt as a "pistol maker" upon his return. The engraving on the first revolver of the pair is particularly similar to examples attributed to Georg H. Sterzing by Houze, and both revolvers may be his work or at least primarily his work. The revolvers are finished in silver with additional gilding on the cylinders and hammers. The barrels have German silver blade front sights and "-ADDRESS COL. SAML COLT NEW-YORK U.S. AMERICA-." The frames have the stamped "COLT'S/PATENT" marking. The cylinders have the standard Naval Battle of Campeche roll scene. The special grips have raised relief carving of a bald eagle and patriotic shield on the left sides. Both revolvers have matching visible serial numbers and the factory "E" designation for engraving by the lower serial numbers. As is typical for pairs of Colts, the serial numbers are close but not sequential. In this case, they are six apart. In the included R.L. Wilson letter, he notes that these revolvers are only a few digits away from 16659 which was part of the set presented by Elizabeth Jarvis Colt to the Metropolitan Fair in New York in 1864 and also fairly close to another factory engraved 1861 Navy, serial number 16702, suggesting these revolvers came from a block used for special deluxe/presentation revolvers. They come in a closely fitted rosewood case along with a silver plated Colt flask with sloped charger, blued combination ball/bullet mold and L-shaped combination screwdriver/nipple wrench, cap tin, and three lidded compartments. The case lid has a brass escutcheon inscribed "Presented to/Geo A Williams/Captain 1st US Infantry/as a token of respect from B W Warner/Memphis Tenn May 1864." Collection Provenance: In his letter, R.L. Wilson wrote, "Having a collector pedigree dating back to 1924, the Captain Williams from B.W. Warner presentation set is among the best documented of all known American Civil War Colt revolvers." Wilson indicates this pair was sold out of the Frederick E. Hines Estate on May 9th, 1924, by Walpole Galleries in New York and was later part of The McMurdo Silver Collection, The Leonard A. Busby Collection, The William M. Locke Collection, The John B. Solley III Collection, and The Paul Tudor Jones II Collection. Wilson's letter also provided some of the information discussed below. Captain George A. Williams of the 1st U.S. Infantry: George Augustus Williams was a cadet at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point from July 1, 1848, to July 1, 1852. After graduating, he was promoted to brevet second lieutenant in the 1st U.S. Infantry stationed at Fort Columbus in New York. He then served on frontier duty at Ft. Duncan in Texas in 1852-1853. He was promoted to second lieutenant in the 1st Infantry on Mar. 2, 1853, and continued to serve at various forts in Texas until being posted at Fort Cobb in Indian Territory in 1859-1860 and then served as an assistant professor of Spanish at West Point from September 4, 1860 to April 22, 1861, when he became an assistant instructor of infantry tactics until October 8, 1861. During the later service, he was promoted to captain in the 1st Infantry on May 14, 1861. During the Civil War, he served in the headquarters guard in Washington, D.C. until November of 1861 and then was stationed near Sedalia, Missouri, from November 1861 to Feb. 1862. He then served the heavy artillery during the capture of New Madrid, Missouri, capture of Island No. 10, Mississippi River, and the siege and battle at Corinth, Mississippi. For the latter, he was brevetted as major on Oct. 4, 1862, and Battery Williams at Corinth was named in his honor. He was in command of the 47th Illinois Volunteers during the Vicksburg Campaign and was wounded and disabled during the Expedition by Yazoo Pass. He received a brevet promotion to lieutenant colonel on July 4, 1863, for his service during the Siege of Vicksburg. He then served as commissary of musters for the XVI Corps, at Memphis, Tennessee from April 15, 1863, to Nov. 24, 1864, and then of the Department of the Mississippi from June 27, 1865, to July 2, 1866. He was promoted to major in the 6th Infantry after the Civil War on March 15, 1866. During Reconstruction, he was in command of the regiment at Charleston, South Carolina. He also served as a sub-assistant commissioner in the Freedmen's Bureau and commissary of the 2nd Military District covering the Carolinas. He was in command at Raleigh, North Carolina, in June-August of 1868, Charleston, South Carolina, from August to December of 1868, and then Savannah Georgia from December 1868 to Feb. 1869. Towards the end of his career, he was stationed at Fort Gibson in Indian Territory and transferred to the 20th Infantry and then took command at Fort Totten, in the Dakota Territory from June 30, 1869, to August 25, 1870. He was then on leave until retiring on December 15, 1870, due to disability. He died on April 2, 1889, at the age of 58. His death in 1889 was reported as "probably in no small degree due to injuries sustained a quarter of a century ago at Vicksburg." The official record of his service barely scratches the surface of Captain Williams' career and escapades, in particular his activities in Memphis. With Major General Stephen Augustus Hurlbut, Williams, serving as his provost marshal, are reported to have extorted the local populace in Memphis. In particular, they acquired ransoms from prisoners held at Fort Pickering and the Irving Block Prison. They also reportedly took cuts of cotton exported through the area as was common on Union controlled areas in the southern Mississippi Valley. Such affairs were also related to the presentation of the famous Remington New Model Army revolvers presented to Grant that were sold by Rock Island Auction for $5.17 million in May of 2022. In the summer of 1863 alone, former confederate lieutenant John Hallum helped residents pay more than $65,000 to Williams and others to free over 200 men held in dreadful conditions, some of them not captured soldiers but men held under the orders of Hurlbut and Williams for supposed illegal activity such as smuggling. Hallum himself later found himself on the wrong side of Hurlbut and was fined $1,000 payable through Williams and locked away at Fort Pickering. The treatment of Hallum ultimately led to unwanted attention of the conditions, and Williams was removed by Secretary Stanton for “excessive cruelty to prisoners and gross neglect of duty” before being reinstated in large part due to General Ulysses S. Grant writing in support of Williams based on Williams’ service earlier in the war. Grant had also previously recommended Williams to be promoted to brigadier general. After he was reinstated, Williams broke up the extortion ring and improved conditions in the prisons. Who was B.W. Warner? Exactly who B.W. Warner was has yet to be definitely proven although at least one man by that name appears in records from the 1860s in Memphis. A “B.W. Warner” is listed on an 1863 “Semi-Monthly Report of Citizen Prisoners Confined within the District of Memphis,” but the specifics of Warner’s offense are not listed. Given the offense is left blank, the offense may have been dittoed from the last offense listed above which was smuggling. Wilson theorized, “Perhaps the gift of these revolvers assisted in the incarceration of Warner – or were instrumental in obtaining his release.” Given the extortion discussed above, the latter could certainly could have been the case. However, local newspapers also provide clues as to who Warner may have been and how he may have been in a position to present a lavish pair of Colts to a Union officer in Memphis. While the inscription on the case does not include “Dr.” ahead of the presenter’s name, a “Dr. B.W. Warner of Berlin, Prussia” was advertised in the Memphis Daily Appeal in October of 1860, as a “resident physician and operating surgeon of the hands and feet” or “surgeon chiropodist” who had relocated from Mobile, Alabama. Subsequently, local papers also advertised his services and noted that he had “been induced to settle here permanently and become a citizen of Memphis.” The Memphis Bulletin on June 22, 1863, lists a “B.W. Warner” as one of the citizens of Memphis who claimed to be British subjects who took the alien oath under the orders of General Sherman. Significantly given the deluxe Colt Model 1861 Navy presented by Elizabeth Jarvis Colt to the U.S. Sanitary Commission discussed above, the Memphis Bulletin on November 14, 1863, includes the following article: “THE BENEFIT AT THE THEATER. – Our readers will recollect that Mr. Rayfield, some time ago, gave a benefit for the sick and wounded soldiers. The proceeds, which amounted to [difficult to read but appears to be $240], were handed over to General Veatch, who added $20 and gave it to Dr. Irwin, the efficient manager of our hospitals. Subsequently it was placed in the hands of Dr. Warner, Agent of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, to be expended in luxuries and restoratives for soldiers in our hospitals.” “The Sanitary Commission of the United States Army: A Succinct Narrative of Its Works and Purposes” indicates that Memphis was one of the depots for the commission. Unfortunately little else was found concerning the doctor, although he continued to reside in Memphis given The Memphis Argus on October 22, 1865, notes “Dr. B. W. Warner, just returned from Havana, has selected for this market a fine stock of Havana cigars…” It is certainly possible the doctor and the man held as a prisoner in 1863 are the same man and that he was released via some intervention by Captain Williams as part of the extortion scheme or through other means. Unfortunately, more documentation on the two men and their relationship to one another remains lacking. The Sanitary Commission connection certainly is seems a most likely explanation for how these revolvers ended up being presented to Captain Williams in Memphis where he was provost marshal. “America’s Greatest Maritime Disaster”: After receiving this cased set, Williams remained with the Union Army, but his most infamous days lay ahead as the war was coming to an end. Thousands of Union soldiers held prisoner by the Confederacy were being exchanged and paroled. Many of them had been struggling to survive under horrid conditions, and Union officials were eager to get the men home. Around 5,500 Union prisoners were released from the infamous Andersonville Prison and the Cahaba Prison in early 1865. They were transferred to Camp Fisk near Vicksburg, Mississippi, to await parole. Once paroled, they were to be taken northward up the Mississippi River by privately owned steamboats with the government paying for their passage. One of these steamboats was the Sultana which was officially supposed to have the capacity to carry 376 men. Captain Williams was technically in charge of the exchanged prisoners, but he was absent from Vicksburg in mid-April 1865, so Captain Frederic Speed, the assistant adjutant general for the Department of the Mississippi, handled preparations for the departure of the paroled Union soldiers. Many other steamboats had taken large loads of prisoners up river in recent days without issue and the same was promised to Captain J. Cass Mason of the Sultana. However, as the time for the Sultana to depart approached, Speed did not have the paperwork prepared and indicated the passengers would not be ready in time for the steamboat’s departure. Mason met with the Union commanders to ensure he received a full load to take north. He also had one of his boilers hastily repaired despite the mechanic urging him to have a more thorough repair undertaken, but Mason did not want to wait and risk losing his passengers and thus pay for another steamboat. Captain Williams returned and decided the men could be released by just being checked off the list as they departed. Thus, the remaining prisoners, estimated 1,300-1,400 by Speed, were to be loaded on the Sultana for its return trip. Before it was even being loaded, the plan was for the vessel to carry more than three times its capacity, but Speed had also underestimated the number of paroled prisoners awaiting a ride home: there were actually more than two thousand. Williams oversaw the loading over the men onto the Sultana at Vicksburg while Speed oversaw them being sent from Camp Fisk in three train loads. As the boat filled up, Captain Kerns and others pleaded that the men be sent on multiple boats since others were also available to lighten the load, but his concerns were ignored. Some of the officers being boarded also grew concerned as did Captain Mason as the Sultana became increasingly overloaded. Nonetheless, more than 2,300 men departed on the Sultana on April 24 at 9 p.m. The decks had to be reinforced to keep them from collapsing under the weight of the men. A famous last photograph was taken of the Sultana while it was docked at Helena, Arkansas, on April 26, 1865. The men nearly capsized the boat when they rushed to the port for the photograph. Around 2:00 a.m. on April 27, 1865, the ship’s boiler exploded seven miles north of Memphis. Hundreds of men may have been killed almost instantly. Others were scalded and/or thrown overboard by the blast. Fire quickly spread throughout the ship and the ship began to collapse. Hundreds of men jumped overboard into Mississippi River to escape the inferno, and they struggled to keep their heads above water. Many of the men were severely weakened from their time as prisoners and drowned quickly. The first assistance did not arrive until an hour after the explosion when the crew of the Bostonia II pulled survivors from the water. At 3:20 a.m., U.S. Navy gunboats finally advanced upstream from Memphis to assist. The total number who died is estimated to be from 1,169 to as many as over 1,700 depending on the source. Among the dead was the ship’s captain. Although steamboat explosions, fires, and sinkings were far from scarce, the explosion and sinking of the Sultana remains the worst maritime disaster in U.S. waters. The disaster was mostly blamed on the decision to hastily patch the boiler, but it was obvious from the start that the Sultana had been overcrowded and that there certainly would have been fewer killed if so many hadn’t been crowded onto it. Captain Speed was found guilty of being complicit in the deaths by overcrowding the vessel. His conviction was overturned, and he was honorably discharged. Captain Williams was not charged since Speed had technically taken charge of the operation. With the boat’s captain dead, no one was ultimately held accountable for the affair. Nonetheless, the Sultana disaster has continued to be the most infamous affair of Williams’ career and remains the deadliest maritime disaster in U.S. history. Despite his involvement in the disaster, Williams remained with the U.S. Army into the post-war era and was promoted to major in the 6th U.S. Infantry on March 15, 1866, and held the various commands noted above in the South and West during Reconstruction before retiring on December 15, 1870.

Excellent. 95% plus of the original silver plating remains on the barrel, loading lever, and grip frame. Some areas have taken on an attractive natural aged patina while most of the silver remains bright. The cylinder retains 85% of the delicate original gilding with silver plating showing through, and traces of gold remain on the nose of the hammer. The frame has 60% of the original silver and a smooth silver-gray patina on the balance. The engraving throughout remains sharp. The grip is also excellent and has some attractive natural aged creamy tones along with a long vertical age stress line visible on the left. The raised relief carving remains crisp, and the grip has minimal light handling and storage wear. Mechanically excellent. The case is very fine. The historic inscription remains crisp on the lid escutcheon which has dark aged patina. The exterior has attractive figure and raised texture. The lining has mostly faded to a yellow-orange coloration but retains more red under the revolvers and the accessories. The flask is extremely fine and has essentially all of the original silver plating which displays aged patina and minor storage wear. The mold and L-shaped combination tool are very fine and retain 90% plus of their original blue finish.

As discussed in "A." Provenance: The Frederick E. Hines Collection; The McMurdo Silver Collection; The Leonard A. Busby Collection; The William M. Locke Collection; The John B. Solley III Collection; The Paul Tudor Jones II Collection; The Norm Vegely Collection

Excellent. The barrel, loading lever, and grip frame retain over 95% of the original silver plating which remains mostly bright with some areas of natural aged patina. The frame is mostly an attractive silver-gray patina with some darker aged patina on the loading cut-out. The hammer retains strong original gilding, particularly on the right, and the cylinder retains 85% of the thin original gilding and silver showing through. The engraving throughout remains crisp. There are some dings on and around the wedge and otherwise mostly light handling and storage type marks. The grip is also excellent and has extraordinary raised relief carving, thin age stress lines on the right, including one vertical extending from the heel towards the top of the back strap. The action is locked up. This is an incredible cased, well-documented, and well-publicized set. Factory embellished Colt Model 1861 Navy revolvers are already very rare, and matched, closely serialized pairs are especially so, but this deluxe factory engraved, silver and gold plated pair with raised relief carved antique ivory grips and a historical Civil War presentation inscription on the rosewood case is truly one-of-a-kind and will add beauty, rarity, and historical interest to any collection.