The Colt sold at auction was issued to Private Sam Wilson at Vera Cruz, Mexico in 1847. He was a volunteer Texas Ranger. In many ways the Mexican War is the most interesting and certainly the most cost efficient war the US has ever had. I have heard that it is the deadliest war we ever fought which, I think, means the deaths per capita were the highest of any war. Although it may mean the casualties per capita. Most of the casualties were caused by illness and it is said that many men who fought in the war suffered from life long problems because of illness incurred during the war, dysentery, parasites, malaria, etc. Another interesting feature is that many of the leaders who fought in the later War Between the States learned a lot of their craft in Mexico, including Lee, Grant, Jackson, Bragg and Jefferson Davis, to name only a few. It was one of the first wars where photography was used and the daguerrotypes of the dusty troops tell quite a story. Without the Mexican War, California, Arizona, much of New Mexico and parts of other western states may have still been part of Mexico. The territory gained by the US in that war was essential to the US's future and was a great bargain. The other interesting factor in the war was how effective the US forces were under the circumstances. The war was fought on two fronts with Zachary Taylor's army moving south from the Rio Grande. He won victory after victory against the Mexican army, always outnumbered, penetrating deep into Mexico under incredible hardship. At that time, the US Army had no cavalry. Their dragoons were essentially mounted infantry and were of little use for scouting and countering the Mexican cavalry and Lancers which were superb. The answer to that problem was the Texas Rangers, supplied by the governor of Texas. The Rangers, some of whom had lost friends and relatives during the Texas Revolution to what they considered Mexican atrocities, gleefully went about their work, armed to the teeth with several Colt pistols, shotguns, carbines and rifles. The problem was that the Rules of War meant little to them which caused the regular army officers to hold them in less than high regard. Taylor got rid of them from his army as soon as the fighting was over. The Walker Colt played a big role. It was a massive weapon, around 44 caliber, fired six shots, weighed more than three pounds, had muzzle energy similar to the modern 357 magnum, and was more accurate and had more killing power than the average smooth bore musket of the day. It had two drawbacks, the loading lever handle would fall down from under the barrel during the recoil and sometimes jam the cylinder and sometimes the pistol would blow up in the user's hand. I have heard two causes of the latter problem. one was that the material used by the Eli Whitney Company was sub grade and the other was that if the bullet in every chamber which sat on top of the powder charge was not sealed off well enough, the charge in the cylinder which was ignited by the hammer would set off the charges in the rest of the cylinder and cause a blowup. The loading lever problem was corrected in later Colt designs. The second front was when Winfield Scott managed an amphibious assault on the Mexican coast near Vera Cruz, took the fort there and set off on the road to Mexico City. His army was small and they could not leave their supply lines protected. They fought and won every battle, always outnumbered but Mexican irregulars soon became a severe problem along the supply lines back to Vera Cruz. The governor of Texas was contacted, he obliged, and the Rangers showed up to interdict the interdictors. That problem was soon alleviated by one means or another with, of course, many tales of atrocities commited by Rangers. The Rangers fought all the way to Mexico City and during the occupation they distinguished(?) themselves by not taking any insults from the indiginous population. The story goes that one Ranger had his hat snatched by a local, who he promptly shot dead and one Ranger who found himself alone one night was slain. The next morning, 80 dead locals were found strewn about the streets in retaliation. Don't know if those stories are accurate but the Rangers and the Walker Colt played a big role in that war.