Muzzleloadinguns

- Le Mat -

The most unusual - but certainly the most famous since the Civil War -among all the black powder revolvers bears the name of Le Mat. Jean Alexandre Francois Le Mat, of french origin, left in 1843 for the United States in order to accomplish his medicine studies. Afler establishing himself in New Orleans, he married an american young girl, cousin of Pierre-Gustave Tuatant Beauregard, a general of the Confederate Army, who encouraged and financed the audacious ideas of Le Mat in diverse fields like medicine, navigation and firearms. Le Mat devised and created together with the general a new revolver used by many Confederate cavalry officers (among the other, those of the glorious I 8th Regiment of Georgia) and by the Confederate States Navy: many infantry, officers carried this gun as their personal sidearm. Dr. Le Mat's military inventions brought him to the attention of the governor of Louisiana, who made him a colonel and appointed him as aide~de-camp on April 16, 1859. The first Le Mat models were produced in Philadelphia due to the Civil War, the production, still going to the Confederate States, was moved to France. The Le Mat was probably the most romantic and impressive revolver ever manufactured. This 9 shot .44 cal. revolver with a central single shot barrel of approx. .65 cal. gave the Confederates a considerable edge over their adversaries. Now the Le Mat has been perfectly re-created by F.lli Pietta for collectors and historians in the 3 main models : CAVALRY, with spur trigger guard, lever type barrel release, cross pin barrel selector and a lanyard ring, NAVY with knurled pin barrel release and spur barrel selector, ARMY similar to the Navy mod. with cross pin barrel selector. All models feature hand checkered walnut grips.

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