At the outbreak of the American Civil War, the Griswold cotton gin factory was leased to the Confederate government and retooled to make pistols and munitions at the behest of Georgia governor Joseph E. Brown.
The Griswold Gunnison revolvers are reduced sized copies of the Colt Dragoon, round barrel not octagonal (but in .36 cal not .44) and were made with distinctive brass frames because of the shortage of steel in the South.
However, Griswoldville was destroyed on November 20, 1864, by Captain Frederick S. Ladd and his men of the 9th Michigan Volunteer Cavalry Regiment.
[citation needed] After the Civil War, he sold a portion of his property and retired.
Cullen Bohannon, the Confederate Army veteran and protagonist of AMC's Hell on Wheels, carries a Griswold revolver.