A story to share, and input to request

[hhughh]

Howdy all.  Haven't been on in a good while.  Hope all are well, and having a great Christmas.
There will eventually be a much longer story about some of the details I'm about to put forward, but I have a firearms question from some research I'm doing.

In 1884, a man was abducted from a home outside of San Antonio and killed.  The lady of the house where he was taken described one of the guns used by the abductors as a "square-barreled pistol". Other phrases she used were "Tolerably long", "blue or black finish" and the "handle" looked like walnut.  She said she could not remember "what size cartridges it shot."

A few months after the event, one of the abductors was killed trying to pull off a "jail break" on a train.  Literally.  Anyway, the testimony does not refer to the barrel of his pistol, but the parts of the description that are given seem to match.  They do, however, refer to it as a "38 calibre", and there was a pouch or some such of "38 calibre" cartridges found in his pocket.

I had thought when reading "square-barreled" that she was referring to the octagon barrel on a Navy pistol.  The 38 reference suggests it may have been a conversion.  My question is, were there any cartridge revolvers--other than conversions--turned out with octagon barrel, or would the guy's pistol have unquestionably been either a cap-and-ball or a Colt conversion?

Typing this, I just remembered Remington also converted their New Army model as well.  Were any of those converted to .38?

Thanks to any that can help,
Hugh

[Arizona Trooper]

Well, this is kind of late, but.... Remington Navies were converted in large numbers, and they are 36 cal. However, could the square barrel be a 4 barrel pepperbox? Most were 22 and 32 cal. though.

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

The cartridges for .36 conversions were mostly .38, both rimfire or centerfire like .38 short or long Colt, but there were others.

[Blair]

As late as the 1889 Remington was still offering .38 cal. conversions in their catalog.
They stopped advertising the .44's a little earlier (I don't remember the date), but I believe they could still be ordered.
Remington must have had a very large supply of percussion frames on hand.
My best,
Blair