AUGUSTA - A rare pistol finally found its way south to Augusta, nearly 140 years after it was made during the Civil War. <br>
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The .36-caliber muzzle-loading revolver, one of about 200 manufactured in Augusta in late 1863 or 1864, was recently acquired by the Augusta Museum of History from a Nashville, Tenn., collector. <br>
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Its history isn't known, but it bears the Augusta stamp put on guns made at a foundry where a magnet school now sits, said Gordon Blaker, curator of the museum. <br>
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``There were a lot of things made here during the Civil War, but there weren't many weapons,'' he said. ``It was an ammunition manufacturing center, with the No. 1 thing being gunpowder.'' <br>
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The Confederate Powderworks produced 2.75 million pounds of gunpowder from 1861 to 1865. Nearby, a foundry built 12-pound Napoleon cannons. <br>
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The pistols were scarce and their time in Augusta short-lived, Blaker said. One product was a revolver designed after the typical Colt used in that era. <br>
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In 1861, a wealthy cotton broker named Thomas Leech and a machinist named Charles Rigdon opened shop in Memphis, Tenn., to build Confederate weapons. <br>
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They moved their facilities from Memphis to Mississippi until arriving in Augusta in late 1863. Leech exited the partnership and Rigdon teamed up with an Augustan named Jesse Ansley. <br>
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Museum officials wouldn't disclose the purchase price, but similar pistols sell for $25,000 or more, Blaker said. <br>
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The museum expects to put the weapon on public display in about a month. <br>
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The museum's other exhibits include its permanent display on Augusta's history, chronicling the shaping of Georgia's second city.
