Dance Brothers Revolver

During the American Civil War the Confederacy was always in desperate need for more arms. Being a more agricultural society with less industry than the North they were always at a disadvantage. But this did not stop a number of people setting up manufacturing plants to produce rifles and pistols. While they did better with single shot rifles revolvers proved more of a challenge!

The lack of quality materials, metallurgy skills and the experience of previous pistol production all worked against them. When the Dance brothers set up production in 1862 they hoped to produce 50 revolvers a week, but by the end of the war they had only produced about 350 in total. This was the experience of most other budding pistol manufacturers.

Like most of the Confederate made pistols the design was based on the Colt 1851 Navy pattern, but the Dance pistol is distinctive in one variation. The recoil shield behind the cylinder was left out leaving the rear of the frame very flat looking. This lack of recoil shield supposedly gave more room for fragments of fired percussion caps to be expelled harmlessly rather than jamming the pistol or setting of another caps. I think it may have been more to do with saving valuable material, or just making the casting easier to make!

While not many Dance pistols were made, photographic evidence shows one in the hand of the famous India Geronimo.