This Smith & Wesson Model 1, Second Issue revolver is inscribed to Marcus P. Norton on the back strap. Marcus P. Norton was one of 366 witnesses that gave testimony during the trial of the President Abraham Lincoln assassination conspirators. Norton's testimony implicated Dr. Samuel Mudd in the Lincoln assassination and thereby involvement with a group of Confederate sympathizers that conspired to plunge the U.S. federal government into chaos following the closure of the Civil War. On the night of April 14, 1865, only five days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his army at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, well known actor John Wilkes Booth mortally wounded President Abraham Lincoln while he watched a performance of "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. and Booth's co-conspirator Lewis Powell attempted to assassinate Secretary of State William H. Seward at his Washington D.C. home. Vice President Andrew Johnson was the third national leader targeted by the conspirators, but conspirator George Atzerodt aborted the attack. By the end of April, Booth had been killed while resisting arrest and eight of the nine accused conspirators were in custody. One of these men was Dr. Samuel Mudd who set Booth's broken leg, an injury that Booth received when he made a dramatic leap out of the Ford's Theater presidential box after shooting Lincoln. At the nine man military commission to try the conspirators, Marcus P. Norton testified that in March 1865 a man that he would later recognize as Samuel Mudd had burst into his room at the National Hotel and claimed that the man apologized, saying that he thought the room had belonged to a man named Booth. Norton also claimed to have seen Booth and two other accused conspirators, Atzerodt and O'Laughlin, during his stay at the hotel. The testimony given by Norton presented a pre-assassination connection between Mudd and Booth which placed doubts on Mudd's claim that he did not know Booth prior to setting Booth's leg. The defense called witnesses questioning Norton's veracity while the prosecution called witnesses that refuted such claims. The military tribunal lasted more than fifty days with 421 pages of testimony recorded and edited by Benn Pitman. All of the accused were found guilty with four of the conspirators receiving a death sentence and were hanged in the Old Arsenal Penitentiary on July 7, 1865. Mudd was spared the death penalty by one vote and was instead sentenced to life imprisonment, but was soon pardoned by President Andrew Johnson and released from prison on March 8, 1869. Mudd's degree of culpability in the assassination plot has remained a controversy to this day. The barrel rib on this revolver is marked with the one line address and the cylinder has the patent date marking. As stated, "Marcus P. Norton" is script engraved on the back strap which is without a question a period jeweler inscription. The right grip panel is numbered to the gun. The included Smith & Wesson factory letter confirms the barrel length, blue and silver two tone finish and smooth rosewood grips and states that the revolver was part of a 50 unit (all in two tone finishes) shipment to Cooper & Pond Co., New York City, New York, shipped on October 24, 1861. Also with the revolver are two Lincoln conspirators trial references: John Armor Bingham and David Herold's TRIAL OF THE CONSPIRATORS, FOR THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN, & C. and THE TRIAL: THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN AND THE TRIAL OF THE CONSPIRATORS as complied and arranged by Benn Pitman.

Very fine. The barrel and cylinder retain 40% original blue finish with a smooth gray patina on the balance. The brass frame retains 97% original silver plating. The grips are very fine with some minor handling marks and retaining much of the finish. Mechanically fine. A unique opportunity to acquire a popular Civil War arm period inscribed to an individual connected to the Lincoln assassination conspirators trial.