See our discussion a year ago about the problems the 2nd Colorado Cavalry Regiment in the Dept. of the Missouri had with Starr revolvers. Use the search option at the home page for this forum and plug in "Starr" and it will take you right there. There are several good references provided.

The Union Dept of the Missouri in the "backwater of the war" was sent all the firearms not wanted in the East and other war theaters. They didn't always have enough of one type to issue all companies of a cavalry regiment, so, often, one company had this, one company had that, and so forth. Therefore, various U.S. Army documentation about ammo for issued firearms often fails to show such small numbers when only one or a few companies had Starrs. This makes such documentation harder to find so long after.

Between 1862 and, say, most of 1864 the Union military in the Dept. of the Missouri issued only rifle-muskets and shotguns to Enrolled Missouri Militia units. I have not seen it written anywhere, but I presume this was to keep modern firearms from falling into the hands of the numerous southern guerrillas and Confederate recrutiing commands active in many parts of Missouri, since the EMM members remained at home until activated for local threats. From the origin of the EMM in summer 1862 ALL unit firearms, no matter how antiquated, were kept in makeshift armories in county seats, usually in the courthouse basement. Some of the better EMM members were activated to guard these as well as the county land deeds and other vital local gov't records. I strongly believe that this policy of not allowing EMM to take firearms home was because highly-movtivated southerners could so easily intimidate vulnerable EMM members at home to give them up.

Many EMM members armed themselves with handguns from their own resources.

Bruce Nichols