^Lot 3425 RARE & UNIQUE "COLONEL SAMUEL COLT" SIGNED 1861

ARMY REGULATIONS. Octavo, 457 pps, plus 21 page appendix, May 1, 1861 frontis stating authorization by president by Simon Cameron, Secretary of War. Brown cloth binding with embossed patriotic covers. Beautifully signed in dark brown ink "Sam Colt" on front end paper and "Col Sam'l Colt" on top of title page. Signatures are impeccable, Samuel Colt signed books are very rare. This is a manual that every Civil War officer would follow, many signed copies by company & regimental officers survive, but none more famous than Colonel Samuel Colt who would die a year after he signed his manual. Colt contacted Connecticut's Republican Gov. William A. Buckingham with an offer to raise, train and equip a full regiment, each man armed with one of Colt's patented revolving rifles. Colt, then 46, insisted upon leading the regiment himself having experience in the Putnam Phalanx militia in 1851. Colt was commissioned as Colonel in the 1st Regiment Colt's Revolving Rifles of the Connecticut militia on May 16, 1861, within 2 days companies of the now fully formed regiment bivouacked on the Colt Armory grounds. This was to the high-water mark of Colt's military career, though unit disbanded later and men reassigned. Colt's Civil War dress uniform and accoutrements are part of the Connecticut State Museum collection. CONDITION: very good to fine overall, complete, near fine cover, bent corners, 2 small reductions at top of spine, signatures are fine, Col Sam'l Colt signature has acid burn causing missing section of "C" in Colt. (02-25597-2/JS). NON-GUN. $1,000-2,000.