Steeped in history, tradition, and legacy, percussion Colts have long been the king in the discipline of fine and historic American arms collecting. Bolstered by such famous sets as: "The Anderson Guns", "The McClatchie Root" (sold by Rock Island Auction Company August 2022 $323,125), "The Johnson Navy", "The Millikin Dragoon" (sold by Rock Island Auction Company May 2019 $1,667,000), "The McPherson’s", "The Pomeroy’s", "The Union Liberty Army", to name a few, and this pair, numbers 76608 and 76609, better known simply as “ The Parsons Armies” or “ The Parsons Guns.” Rock Island Auction Company proudly presents this magnificent and iconic set for sale for the first time in a public setting. They stand on hallowed ground in the field of fine and historic American arms collecting, like the aforementioned; famous guns with nicknames that have been revered for decades by collectors, authors, and historians, immortalized in print, and belong in any conversation regarding the truly elite, historic, rare, and exceptional. This incredible consecutively serial numbered pair of factory double cased and deluxe engraved Colt Model 1860 Army revolvers was presented to Colonel Lewis B. Parsons Jr., later brigadier general and Chief of Rail and River Transportation, by his older brother Philo during the Civil War. Parsons is one of the unsung heroes of the War Between the States and played a significant role in the Union victory. Officers who led men on the battlefield have received the vast majority of the honor and glory when it comes to popular military history, but those who study war know that supply lines play a significant role in the outcome of wars, not just men who led heroic charges or stood firm in the face of overwhelming odds. Emerging victorious in a single great battle just to see your men starve does not win a war; just ask Napoleon after burning Moscow. The Confederates also understood the significance of men with logistical minds like Parsons but constantly struggled to supply their men. Their congress reported, “The labors of these departments penetrate the entire military establishment, breathe life into the Army, nurture its growth, give it strength and efficiency in the field, maintaining its health and facilitating its movements.” Had Parsons failed his task, the Union would have struggled to emerge victorious in the great contest between the North and the South, but he did not. He worked fervently to ensure that the boys in blue had arms, ammunition, food, and clothing and that they were transported to the fronts where they were needed to complete their missions and reunify the nation. Parsons did not have a simple task before him. While the advent of steam engines and the railroads greatly enhanced the ability to move material at rapid paces, the American Civil War was a logistician’s nightmare. Hundreds of thousands of men needed to be supplied and moved across great distances. For comparison, during the Mexican-American War, only around 100,000 U.S. troops were involved. The Union armies at their peak contained seven times as many men. While Parsons had railroads and steamboats available, there were not large organized networks to work with but a wide variety of competing smaller businesses, and the actual railroad lines themselves did not run on standardized gauges complicating matters. No U.S. officer had ever faced such a daunting task. Parsons didn’t just take control of the logistics of rail and river transport during the middle of a war, he overhauled it and enabled the Union’s armies to quickly move large quantities of men and supplies by both rail and water at speeds unimaginable when the Confederates fired the first shots on Fort Sumter. “Were trains to be employed in carrying troops to a distant point, Lewis B. Parsons provided them; were the great rivers to be used for the needs of the army, Lewis B. Parsons assembled flotillas and fitted them for their purposes; were food or clothing or forage or arms to be supplied, Lewis B. Parsons gave the orders that carried them to their destination; were Grant or McPherson or Sherman to be fitted out in the midst of great enterprises, they rested with absolute reliance upon the work of Parsons, and he never failed them.” – From "In Memoriam: Lewis Baldwin Parsons" (1908). It is noted that “His greatest single achievement, the most picturesque and startling in the annals of the war, was in the movement of Schofield’s army from the neighborhood of Nashville to the Coast near Wilmington, North Carolina, passing over the Ohio River, eastward over the Alleghenies, and down by the way of the Atlantic Coast to its destination; and the men who had stood fighting splendidly with Thomas at Nashville appeared in front of their astounded and bewildered foremen at a new and far distant point in the theater of war.” This was but just one of his great accomplishments. Two full binders of documentation about the set and its original recipient are included along with five related books, a case with portraits of Philo and L.B. Parsons, and two additional portraits of L.B. Parsons. The factory letters state that these revolvers were factory engraved per inventory records on November 13, 1862, and that the two revolvers were bracketed together in the records indicating they were made as a true consecutive pair. Given this date, it is possible the pair were intended as a gift the following month by Philo Parsons to his brother Colonel Lewis B. Parsons for Christmas. The cased set has been featured in several publications, including: "Colt Engraving" by R.L. Wilson on pages 103 and 104, "The Colt Engraving Book, Vol. 1" by R.L. Wilson on pages 165 and 166, and more recently in "The Colt 1860 Army Revolver" by Charles Pate on page 390. A photograph of George S. Lewis Jr. and his family displaying the set at a show in Kansas City, Missouri, c. 1973 is included in the extensive document file for this incredible pair. They were part of the collection of Parsons College from the early 20th century until they were sold to Bill Sisney who quickly resold them to Lewis who sold them to Greg Lampe more than four decades later. The best comparable pair of revolvers are the revolvers inscribed to General W.S. Rosecrans shown on pages 105-107 of "Colt Engraving," along with the pair presented to Parsons friend General George B. McClellan. While all of these revolvers are incredible and valuable, this pair is superior as it remains in exceptional condition and remains together in its original case. The other pairs were split up. One of the surviving McClellan revolvers was sold at Rock Island Auction Co. for $299,000 in 2019, and the other and the case for that pair have been out of private circulation collection since 1870 when they were made part of the national collection at the Smithsonian. Aside from the pair's incredible historical connections which we will discuss more below, it is an incredibly rare example of a matched, consecutive pair of Colt Model 1860 Army revolvers with nearly the highest level of engraving available. The engraving begins at the muzzles, around the front sights, along the sides of the barrels and around the front of the barrel addresses, the flats of the loading levers, the rebated portions of the cylinders, all of the frames, and onto the grip frames and hammers. The latter feature stunning patriotic eagle motifs rather than the more common wolf/dog head designs. The bulk of the engraving is classic Germanic scroll and floral patterns with punched backgrounds. The engraving patterns are very similar but vary in some of the details. The scrollwork is inhabited by several animal masks, including different eagle masks on the right side of the barrels and frames as well as the recoil shield on the left of the first revolver and variety of dog head designs on the recoil shield on the left of the second revolver and the left side of the barrels of both revolvers above the wedges. Both revolvers also feature the rare hand engraved enhancement of the cylinder scenes and "COLT'S/PATENT" hand inscribed on the left side of the frames. The back straps have the historical presentation inscriptions: "Col. L.B. Parsons/From his brother P. Parsons." The barrels have the roll-marked "-ADDRESS COL. SAML COLT NEW-YORK U.S. AMERICA-" addresses, German silver blade front sights, and "S" on the bottoms at the breech ends. The visible serial numbers match on both revolvers. The left side of the trigger guards have "2" and "44 CAL." The revolvers are fitted with deluxe walnut grips with "piano" varnish finish. They come in a very scarce deluxe factory double presentation case with brass fittings and red lining along with two Eley Bros. cap tins, spare nipples and springs, a Colt's patent powder flask with sloped charge, L-shaped combination tool, key, blued dual cavity ball/bullet mold with "44H" and "S" markings on the right arm, two cartridge packs, and an assortment of lead balls and bullets. The original flask and cap tins were swapped out by George Lewis, and Greg Lampe replaced them with correct examples appropriate for this incredible cased set. These stunning revolvers have been attributed as engraved by Master Engraver Gustave Young. By 1862, Young was no longer the primary engraving contractor for Colt as he had made a return trip to Germany in 1858-1861, but he was employed as a "pistol maker" at Colt upon returning per records cited by Herbert Houze in "Colt Factory Engravers of the 19th Century" before becoming a private engraver in Hartford. The engraving patterns are similar to examples attributed to both Georg H. Sterzing and Young, and both men would have had similar training and styles. Sterzing and others were overlooked for many years due to the emphasis on Young in Wilson's books. The engraving may be by Young, Sterzing, or both of them working together given some of the notable differences in the finer details of the engraving. The animal masks are certainly more detailed on the first revolver. Lewis Baldwin Parsons (1818-1907) was born in Genesee County, New York, the third of ten children. His father was a merchant and was widely traveled. Parsons graduated from Yale in 1840 and taught at a classical school in Mississippi before returning to the Northeast to complete his law degree at Harvard in 1844 and then established himself as a lawyer in Alton, Illinois, as a partner with U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Strong’s brother, Newton D. Strong, and then partnered with Henry W. Billings in 1846. He was the city's attorney in 1846-1859. In 1847, he married Sarah G. Edwards, the niece of Illinois Governor Ninian Edwards. Their marriage was tragically short as she died in 1850, and he remarried in 1854 to her sister Julia Edwards who also soon died in 1857. Parsons moved across the Mississippi River to St. Louis to work for the banking firm Page & Bacon that financed the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad connecting St. Louis to Cincinnati. The bank folded, but Parsons stayed on working for the railroad and became close friends with the railroad’s vice president: George B. McClellan. Parsons himself served as the railroad's attorney as well as their treasurer and president at various times and worked from both Cincinnati and St. Louis. Both cities had long been key ports for the river trade and the battles between the riverboats and the railroad interests. When the war broke out, Parsons canceled his plans to go to Europe and served initially as a captain on McClellan’s staff in the Army of the Potomac but sought a more active position in the Quartermaster Department which was well-suited to a man of his talents and business background. Copies of letters to President Abraham Lincoln from Parsons and his allies seeking an appointment for Parsons in the Quartermaster’s Department are included. One letter from William S. Holman addressed from St. Louis on October 24, 1861, states, “The services of L. Parsons in the Quarter Masters Department, especially in the West, could not fail to be beneficial to the Government. There is no Gentleman in this section of the Union better qualified by experience, ability, and integrity to fill such a position and in the West, especially in this section of it, the Quarter Masters Department imperatively requires it.” In another letter, written by President Lincoln himself on September 17, 1861, to Secretary of War James Cameron, the president stated: “I personally know Mr. Parsons & have no doubt he would make a good Paymaster, Qr Master, or Commissary.” Parsons enlisted as a captain and assistant quartermaster on October 31, 1861, at St. Louis, Missouri per his pension records. By December 1861, Parsons was ordered by General Robert Allen to "take charge of all the transportation pertaining to the department of the Mississippi by river and railroad..." Parsons soon proved himself up to the job. Per historian Earl J. Hess’s research in “Civil War Logistics: A Study of Military Transportation,” “When supporting Grant’s Fort Donelson campaign, Parsons moved more than 10,000 men, over 5,000 horses and mules, 56 guns and caissons, thousands of tons of supplies, and 9,000 Confederate prisoners during one week in February 1862.” Thus, Parsons was a key figure in the first two major Union victories of the war and influential in Ulysses S. Grant’s rise through the ranks. He received notice of his own promotion to colonel in the regular army by April 10, 1862. He moved General Sherman’s army of 40,000 men, cavalry, artillery, and livestock from Memphis to attack Vicksburg, helping the Union capture the last key Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi and giving Parsons greater ability to utilize the Mississippi and its tributaries for the Union war effort. He remained in charge of transportation in the West under a few different titles as the Union's armies continued to evolve during the war, including as "Superintendent of Transportation in the Department of the West," "Master of Transportation," and "Chief Quartermaster of River Transportation for the West" under various commanders and at times controlled as many as 350 steamboats and barges covering 20,000 miles of river navigation. Per Harry E. Platt in the article "Lewis B. Parsons: Mover of Armies and Railroad Builder," in the fiscal year ending on June 30, 1863, Parsons arranged the transportation of some 245,000 tons of supplies along with 329,000 troops, 82,000 horses and mules, and 25,000 cattle. No small task. Parsons completed it while also limiting wasteful spending preventing unnecessary strain on the government precarious financial situation by negotiating rates and inviting competitive bids to drive down costs. Despite his influential position, Parsons sought to join the fight directly and to lead men on the battlefield, perhaps seeking additional advancement in rank or purely out of his patriotic fervor and wanting to fight for the Union alongside the men he helped ship off to war, but he was turned down because he was too good at his job and too important to be needlessly killed. The New York Times on July 31, 1865, wrote: “Gen. Parsons repeatedly solicited permission, during the war, to quit the department he was in and go into the field. But his superiors, while admitting his eminent fitness for success in the field, would never consent to spare him from the position he filled. When every department of the public service during the war comes to have its true place in history, there will be few with a more brilliant and enduring reputation than Gen. Lewis B. Parsons.” By early 1865, Parsons was receiving more of his due credit for his influential role supply the Union's armies and moving them across vast spaces to win the war. Many influential friends wrote in support of his promotion to brigadier general, including David Davis, Lincoln’s friend from Bloomington, Illinois, who he appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1862. Davis wrote of Parsons, “…the Govt has no more efficient, honest, & upright man of ability…” On March 9, 1865, President Lincoln wrote to the Secretary of War Stanton stating, “I have long thought Col. Lewis B. Parsons ought to be promoted, and this impression has been deepened by his great success in the recent matter of transporting troops from the West to the East. Is there any legal obstacle in the way? If not let the promotion be made at once.” He wrote Stanton again on the 11th, adding “His long services and uniform testimony to the ability with which he has discharged his very responsible and extended duties render it but just and proper his services should be acknowledges...You will therefore at once promote Col. Parsons to the rank of Brigadier General of Volunteers, if there is a vacancy which can be given to the Quartermaster’s Department, and if not you will so promote him when the first vacancy occurs.” On May 12, 1865, Parsons wrote that he accepted the appointment to brigadier general of volunteers. His promotion was not confirmed until February of 1866. He was one of the last Union officers to be promoted to brigadier general of volunteers and was certainly among the most deserving. He remained with the Army in the year following the war as Chief of River and Rail Transportation bringing hundreds of thousands of troops back home, received a brevet to major-general for meritorious service during the war, and finally mustered out himself on April 30, 1866. He had been asked to remain with the army but wished to return to civilian life. Parsons returned to business in Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri with banks and the railroads. He also spent two years in Europe, North Africa, Western Asia, and India and remarried again shortly after returning to the U.S. in 1869, this time to Elizabeth Darrah of New York. In 1875, he and two of his brothers founded Parsons College in Fairfield, Iowa, fulfilling the wishes of their father (a bookend from the college is included). Parsons retired to his farm in Flora, Illinois, the same year. In 1880, he was nominated for lieutenant governor on the Democratic ticket with Lyman Trumbull. He was a delegate for the Democratic National Convention that nominated Grover Cleveland in 1884. His third wife died in 1887. In 1893, he was appointed by Governor John P. Altgeld as the president of the board of trustees of the Illinois Soldiers and Sailors’ Home at Quincy. His brother Philo died at Winchendon, Massachusetts, in 1896. Brigadier General Parsons gave a two-hour speech at Flora's Grand Army Post on New Years Day in 1907 and died that March 16th. Many of his personal affects were sent by his daughter Julia to Parsons College.

Very fine. The stunning factory engraving, including the hand enhanced cylinder scene, the markings, and the historical presentation inscription to Colonel L.B. Parsons remain crisp. The barrel retains 40% original high polish blue finish. The cylinder retains strong original finish on the rebated section. The balance of the blued components displays smooth gray and brown patina. Nearly all of the vibrant original case colors on the loading lever, hammer, and frame. Most of the screws retain all of their original niter blue finish, and the niter blue on the trigger is only slightly faded from handling. The trigger guard retains 95% plus of the original silver plating which displays attractive aged patina and some minor loss at the leading edges. The back strap retains 40% of the original silver plating, and the exposed iron has smooth gray patina. The grip is also very fine and his attractive figure, nearly all of the original varnish, and just some minor handling and storage marks. Mechanically excellent. The case is also very fine and has some age and storage related wear, including some minor cracks in the lid and fading of the lining. The accessories are excellent and retain nearly all of their original finish.

See "A." Provenance: Brigadier General Lewis B. Parsons Jr., Chief of Rail and River Transportation of the Union Armies; The Parsons College Collection; The Bill Sisney Collection; The George S. Lewis Jr. Collection; The Greg Lampe Collection

Very fine. The stunning factory engraving, hand enhanced cylinder scene, markings, and presentation inscription remain crisp. The barrel retains 40% original high polish blue finish and has a slight ring visible in the rifling. The cylinder retains 30% of the original finish. The balance of the blued components displays smooth gray and brown patina. Nearly all of the vibrant original case colors on the loading lever, hammer, and frame. Most of the screws retain all of their original niter blue finish, and the niter blue on the trigger is only slightly faded from handling. The trigger guard retains 95% plus of the original silver plating which displays attractive aged patina and some minor loss at the leading edges. The back strap retains 60% of the original silver plating, and the exposed iron has smooth gray patina. The deluxe grip is also very fine and his attractive figure, nearly all of the original varnish, and a few minor handling and storage marks. Mechanically excellent. This is an incredibly rare opportunity to add a documented factory engraved, consecutive pair of presentation Colt Model 1860 Army revolvers! These double case sets are incredibly hard to find, and those with this level of embellishment and with this level of historical interest are essentially impossible to come by. This beautiful pair has been well-known for many years and comes with excellent provenance making it truly the best of the best.