The 1854 model was the first metallic-cartridge revolver adopted by a national government; the 1858 was the first variant fielded.

[5][page needed] Models of the 1858 were also purchased by Spain, Sweden, Italy, Russia, and Norway.

The LeFaucheux M1854 was one of the few foreign-manufactured weapons to have been imported by the U.S. government during the American Civil War.

[8] A western style pistol along with bullets and other related items were recovered in the Japanese artificial island of Dejima, a Dutch United East Indies Company settlement in Japan.

"[9] A Lefaucheux revolver thought to be the one with which the artist Vincent Van Gogh shot himself in the chest, resulting in his death two days later, was found proximate to the site of the self-shooting in a wheatfield near Paris more than 70 years later.