Hello! So I'm writing a little Western adventure novel, and I have a pet peeve with historically inaccurate fiction, so I'm trying to avoid historical errors when I can. The protagonist of my book uses a Colt Dragoon revolver (which I believe was first made in 1848, but I'm not too sure. The book is set in 1853, if that's of significant importance to this question). I looked up a video of a guy using one, and what struck me the most was that the cylinder didn't swing out like on a modern revolver, nor did it break like with a double-barreled shotgun. Instead, the shooter loaded all of the cylinders one by one (first pouring in gunpowder, then pushing in the bullet), without opening the cylinder in any way. Was this generally accurate for revolvers of that era? Or did they already come up with modern-type bullets and openable cylinders by the eighteen fifties? Much appreciated!
For cap and ball Colts, that's the way they worked, loading powder, then ball, using the loading lever to push the ball all the way down, then putting a wad or some grease over the top, to keep chain fires from happening.The "openable" revolver would not arrive for a bit longer, after the advent of cartridge ammunition. That Colt Dragoon actually relied on the central axle of that cylinder to hold the pistol together, like a big bolt. To get the cylinder out, the barrel assembly had to be unpinned from that by knocking out a wedge. But carrying a spare cylinder , pre-loaded, was not unknown. The Remington New Model Army, which was a bit later than the Colts, circa 1858, had a rigid frame and the axle of the cylinder was not so structural and could be pulled without taking apart the gun. This meant it was possible to more quickly swap the empty cylinder with a loaded one.