This great pistol just drips with Western history.  It's inscribed on the backstap " Judge Charles E. Clay Douglas ,Wyo "  He was a Confederate veteran who like many Confederate vets went West after the War.  He led a very colorful life out West .Please refer to the cover sheets in the photo's.  His marriage to  "Lulu Fingernail Women" an Ogalala Sioux ended after the Battle of the Little Big Horn when she left him to join Crazy Horse's Band.   His homestead at the base of Chimney Rock is described as an arsenal, so I would imagine his marriage to Lulu was more about security from Indian attack than anything else.  I've got an inch thick folder on his life that will go with the pistol and holster. As you can see in my cover sheet there's much to cover. The end of his life was a sad way for such a obviously brave man to die.  As Town Marshal of Elma, Washington he was kicked in the groin while arresting a drunk.  He later on died of gangrene as a result of the blow. 
The pistol still functions and has had a few western modification such as replacing the loading release screw with a larger one for easy grip and shortening the barrel to 5 1/2".   It's amost impossible to find colorful western guns such as this anymore.  I put this pistol in my personal collection about 10-12 years ago. I also have a book "The Praire Schooner" by Wm. Francis Hooker publ. 1918 that will come with it. In it there's a chapter devoted to Charles Clay and his partner Jack Hunter titled 'Hunter and Clay, Bull Train Magnates'. It's about their early years as freighters on the Wyoming frontier.  

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