This extremely early first year production, first shipment Cavalry Model revolver was delivered to the U.S. Ordnance Department on December 31, 1873. In “Cavalry & Artillery Revolver…a Continuing Study," authors Kopec and Fenn cite serial numbers 179 and 182 as the earliest known Ainsworth inspected Cavalry Models known to exist. Based on their research, this revolver, serial number 205, is therefore the third earliest Ainsworth inspected Cavalry Model known to exist. Kopec and Fenn also cite serial number 189, but this is an A.P. Casey inspected example. The accompanying John Kopec letter identifies this revolver as “a very early example of a U.S. Cavalry issue” and notes the shortened barrel with short piece added ahead of the ejector and facsimile address, an “A” inspector initial missing from the barrel and remarked on the back strap, and a modern replacement mainspring. The current grip, which has checkering on the left side and a relief carved buffalo head on the right side, has since been added after Kopec examined the revolver in late 2003. It was also Kopec’s opinion that the revolver had been originally issued to the 6th Cavalry. The left side of the frame has the two-line patent dates marking followed by “US.” A “P” proof is marked on the underside of the barrel. An original Ainsworth “A” inspector initial is stamped on the trigger guard. The hammer is a later replacement. Matching serial numbers are on the frame, trigger guard, back strap, cylinder (restamped to match), and barrel. The back strap is inscribed “Dave Rusk U.S. Marshall I.T.” and the butt is dated “1880.” David V. Rusk was a U.S. Marshall in Indian Territory under the famed Wild West era Judge Isaac Parker (1875-1896). Judge Parker went by the moniker the "Hanging Judge." During his 21 years on the bench, Judge Parker tried 13,490 cases of which 344 were capital crimes. He sentenced 160 men to death by hanging (79 actually hanged for their crimes; the remaining died in jail, appealed or were pardoned). In Michael Brodhead’s “Isaac C. Parker: Federal Justice on the Frontier,” Marshall Rusk is identified among several of his fellow deputies “who earned reputations for bravery and devoted service” in Indian Territory (page 44). In 1889, Rusk led a posse that ultimately tracked down and killed notorious Indian Territory outlaw gang leader Wesley Barnett (see Ken Butler’s “More Oklahoma Renegades,” page 25). Upon hearing the death of Wesley Barnett one period newspaper reminded its readers, “For years the Barnett boys had defied all law and ridden over the western portion of the Creek Country committing the most atrocious murders ever known in the Indian Territory.” In the aftermath of Barnett’s death, “the entire Creek nation breathes easier tonight than for some time past.”