1878 Colt .45 Cal SN 14779. Nickel finish with 7-1/2″ bbl, full front sight and 1-line block letter address. Left front web of trigger guard is marked “45 CAL”. Mounted with Rampant Colt hard rubber grips and has a lanyard swivel in the butt. Left front side of frame is stamped, through the nickel “48.MD”. The second revolver was sold , it had the same markings and features of the first revolver with the exception of the frame stampings According to an article by John Fera which appeared in the June 1997 issue of The Gun Report, in 1885 Canada was in turmoil with a full scale rebellion in Northwest Territories led by Louis Riel. Just prior to the beginning of the rebellion, the Canadian Government realizing that the rebellion was imminent began looking to the Militia to augment the Royal Canadian Northwest Mounted Police (RCMP) to suppress this rebellion. They realized that the Militia was poorly armed with Civil War surplus Spencer rifles and obsolete Colt 1851 Navy revolvers. They ordered that the Militia arms be immediately updated before the rebellion became a reality. This was the responsibility of the Department Of Militia & Defense. That department contacted the New York firm of Hartley & Graham to furnish 1001 Colt Model 1878 DA revolvers in cal .45 Colt with nickel finish. The first part of the order was immediately filled from stock with a rush order shipped from Colt in several increments. According to the article, these 1001 revolvers all fall within the serial range 8731 to 14996 with the majority in the 14,000 serial range. These revolvers were shipped to Winnipeg to equip a special Mounted Corps to deal with the Riel Rebellion, an anti-government uprising that was quickly suppressed with Louis Riel captured and hanged in May 1885. Many of the revolvers were subsequently stamped with an issue number followed by "MD" on the left side of the frame under the forward part of the cylinder. Eventually all of these revolvers were returned to militia armories where they remained until about 1899 when they were re-issued to the militia for the Boerer War of South Africa in 1900.. Apparently many of these revolvers returned from South Africa and were sold surplus.
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