Lieutenant Colonel Henry Clay Yeatman’s cased double action Tranter revolver was imported from England. The Colonel’s revolver was modified for combat use by adding a lanyard hole through the grips so that if he dropped it the revolver would remain attached.

Henry Clay Yeatman was born in Nashville, Tennessee on September 22, 1831. His father died when he was young; his mother subsequently remarried the Honorable John Bell who was a United States Senator from Tennessee. In the 1860 presidential election the Bell/Everett ticket would receive just over 12% of the vote in the four way race, sadly handing the election to Lincoln.

Henry was originally a unionist, but soon took the side of his state. Henry served as Volunteer Aide-de-camp to Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk for two years prior to his official appointment. On November 7^th, 1863, General Polk requested Yeatman’s appointment to Captain & Adj. Gen. No answer survives in the Colonel’s records but on May 12^th, 1864, he was promoted to Lt. Colonel. His close association with the Polk family led to his marrying Brigadier General Lucious Polk’s daughter soon after the close of the War. Some of his notable activities during the War were subsequently recorded in Confederate Veteran Magazine in the early 1900s, "The military career of Colonel Yeatman is outlined by the operations of Polk’s Corps, Army of Tennessee serving with noted bravery and efficiency on the staff of that knightly and able soldier and peerless Christian gentleman, Lieut. Gen. Leonidas Polk, in all the battles and campaigns of the army until the death of General Polk, who was killed by a cannon shot at Pine Mountain during the ‘Georgia Campaign.’”[i] It is particularly noted in an account published in another issue of Confederate Veteran that Henry was at General Polk’s side at the time of his death at Pine Mountain, "The group began to disperse—Gen. Johnston and Gen. Polk moved off a few paces together, and separated—the former selecting a path lower down the hill, and Gen. Polk proceeding along the cone of the knoll, followed by his staff, Col. Gale, the General’s son-in-law, Capt.[ii] Henry Yeatman, nephew by marriage, Capt. Meck Polk, his son, and Major Douglas West. Gen. Johnston had scarcely parted from Gen. Polk before a second shell, or round-shot, from the enemy’s same battery struck the latter in the chest, and he fell without a groan.”[iii]

A 1984 North South Trader Magazine article[iv] written by Henry’s great-grandson, Ted P. Yeatman (a copy of which is included in the sale), records that after the death of General Polk on June 14, 1864, Henry was gathering the General’s belongings, the Colonel fell ill with malaria and became incapacitated for the remainder of the War. Lt. Colonel Henry Yeatman took the Oath of Allegiance on May 10, 1865.

After the War, Colonel Yeatman eventually settled back into civilian life and married Mary Polk, the daughter of General Lucious Polk, on April 2, 1868. The couple made their home in Hamilton Place Plantation, Lucious Polk’s family home.

Colonel Yeatman was described by his peers as, "In all the points of personal merit, in culture, in taste, in honor, in generosity, in humanity, every living sentiment and in every liberal accomplishment, Colonel Yeatman was a richly typical exponent. Among his neighbors, and they knew him best, he was the evangel of peace, justice and good will.”[v]

The Colonel’s life came to a tragic end, when on August 1^st, 1910, at the age of 78, he was fatally wounded by a train while trying to save his dog from the tracks. According to his obituary, which was published in full in Confederate Veteran Magazine, "He was placed aboard the train to Mount Pleasant and thence to his home, where he breathed the last of his unimpeachable life a few moments after crossing its threshold.”[vi] He is buried in Saint John’s Church Cemetery, Maury County, Tennessee.

In early 1984 Henry’s great-grandson, Ted P. Yeatman, published an article in North South Trader Magazine telling the history of his great-grandfather’s Confederate service and cased Tranter revolver. There he describes how he first learned of the existence of the revolver at a Texas Gun Collector’s Association show in the spring of 1965. His father mentioned to him that as a child he had played with the Colonel’s revolver at his grandmother’s house in Columbia, Tennessee. Following her death in 1970 the gun passed to Ted’s uncle, Harry Yeatman. Ted was intrigued by the gun, but had to wait another ten years, until 1980, to get a chance to handle and photograph it.

The gun was sold by Case Auctions in 2016 from "The estate of Jean A. Yeatman and Harry C. Yeatman, formerly of Hamilton Place Plantation (near Columbia, Tennessee)”. Ted died in 2009, seven years before his great-grandfather’s gun was sold at auction, so he never got to own it himself. Ted is buried in the same cemetery as the Colonel.[vii]

The revolver itself is serialed "No. 12959 T”. There are no definitive records of Tranter serial number dates, so in his North South Trader Magazinearticle Ted uses other known Tranters to place the date of manufacture for this gun as about 1861.[viii] I have looked over his research and think 1860 more likely, but whether it was made in 1860 or 1861 the gun was certainly made right at the start of the War.

This .44 caliber gun is of the pattern known as the single-trigger revolver, and was named for Birmingham, England gunmaker William Tranter, who patented this modification of the Adams designed gun in 1856.[ix] The gun is in good overall condition, with much blue remaining. Other than one replaced screw, the gun is completely original. The small arbor retaining pin is missing (though the arbor pin remains in place without it). The grips remain in excellent condition with sharp checkering and the brass lanyard insert remains tight. The gun functions perfectly. The top of the breech is marked R. S. GARDEN 29 PICCADILLY LONDON.

Its original leather covered case remains in excellent condition but the latch was broken at some point. The leather carrying handle remains in excellent condition attached to the back of the case. The inside of the case is lined in velvet. The original maker’s label remains entirely intact and reads in full, "ROBERT S. GARDEN, - Manufacturer of – GUNS, RIFLES, PISTOLS & SWORDS, - 29. Piccadilly. – London.w.”

There is a tin of W. Tranter’s "Lubricating Bullets” with much of the label intact remaining inside. Five bullets are in the tin. The case still has the powder flask, along with a spare nozzle for it, and its nipple tool, complete with pick. In the photos in North South Trader Magazine a bullet mold is also shown in the case, but that was lost somewhere along the way. A pistol barrel cleaning rod is included, but was not with it when pictured in North South Trader Magazine.

This is truly one of the best, most historic and complete cased Confederate firearms known, and has an impeccable provenance.