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BY RAYMOND CARANTA

Just as the Civil War has been called the major military event of the 19th century in the United States, the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 is considered in France to be the landmark for armament evolution during the last thirty years of that period.

As a matter of fact, for instance, 1870 marked the bridge between the muzzle-loading and breech-loading eras for military firearms. In this connection, if we consider handguns, immediately after the war, most cavalry departments shifted from traditional muzzle-loading horse pistols to the most up-to-date metallic cartridge revolvers.

FRENCH CAVALRY HANDGUNS BEFORE THE WAR

In the French cavalry, the handgun was considered, up to the war, quite as a secondary weapon, after the saber and the lance. It is for this reason that, in 1870, the “1822 T Bis” horse pistol, a flintlock single shot design converted to percussion in 1860, was still the basic service handgun.

It was a conventional side-lock single shot 69-caliber gun, 13.7 inches long and weighing 43 oz. with a 7.8-inch barrel. Officers were either armed with single shot flintlock “1822 T” horse pistols converted in 1840 to percussion (overall length 13.4 inches; weight 35 oz. with 7.8-inch barrel) or with the Officers Model of 1833 (same caliber; overall length 14.3 inches; weight 32 oz. with 7.8-inch barrel). However, most cavalry officers used personal handguns, such as the Lefaucheux 12mm pinfire revolvers.