ITEM # 58
Smith & Wesson Factory Engraved 44 Double Action 1st Model Revolver
Shipped to Lt. Colonel Theodore Roosevelt

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serial #36669, 38 U.S. Service (38 Long Colt), 6 1/2" barrel with an excellent, bright bore. This is a rare and important revolver which has all matching numbers and retains 80% of the original blue blending into a plum-brown color along the gripstraps, rear of the frame, and along the barrel with silvering towards the muzzle. The cylinder has a mostly smooth gray-brown patina with original blue remaining in the flutes and slots. Excellent quality, factory engraved scrollwork is present on the sides of the frame, cylinder, rear section of barrel, and gripstraps. The latch is fitted with a semi-target rear sight. The checkered walnut grips are in very good condition with sharp points on the checkering, a few small impact marks on the butt, and are numbered to the revolver in pencil on the interior of the left side panel. A Smith & Wesson factory letter accompanies the revolver which confirms the unusual chambering (in the standard U.S. Army revolver cartridge) as well as the engraving and lists a ship date of June 12, 1898 to Col. Roosevelt. Another Roosevelt Smith & Wesson, a New Model No. 3 currently on display at the National Firearms Museum, has an identical engraving pattern, semi-target rear sight, and .38 Army chambering. The other revolver is serial #32661 and shipped to Roosevelt exactly one month prior to this one on May 12, 1898, leading us to believe Roosevelt intended them as a set. Theodore Roosevelt had been Assistant Secretary of the Navy before resigning in order to receive a commission as Lt. Col. in the 1st Volunteer Cavalry Regiment as its second in command under Col. Leonard Wood. Mustering in between May 1 and May 21, 1898, the regiment, numbering about 1,000 men, spent several weeks training at Camp Wood near San Antonio, TX, in all of the rigors of cavalry tactics and techniques (training which proved useless, of course, as the 1st would spend the war fighting on foot, as attested by their pre-"Rough Rider" nickname: "Wood's Weary Walkers"). At the time of the revolver's shipment, the 1st Volunteer Cavalry Regiment was at its port of embarkation in Tampa, FL, and 18 days later they would see furious action at San Juan and Kettle Hills, ending the "splendid little war" with an astonishing 76% casualty rate (killed, died of disease, wounded, and sick). This is a wonderful and important revolver, ordered by the future president just prior to his triumph leading the Rough Riders in combat. This revolver has been in possession of the consignor’s family for many years and was not known to be ordered by Roosevelt until 2002 when out of mere curiosity, a factory letter was ordered. A rare opportunity for the advanced collector to acquire a previously unknown, documented and completely honest Roosevelt gun. (2026-1) {ANTIQUE} (60,000/80,000) SOLD FOR $92000.00