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Hawg and the Captain are not really correct. The cylinder alone will fire a bullet with enough velocity to cause death or severe injury. It is easy enough to try - just put a cylinder with one loaded chamber into a Colt and don't install the barrel. The cylinder inertia will hold it until the cap fires. Use any convenient means of measuring the velocity/energy involved.
The troopers did indeed carry spare cylinders and they did carry them loaded and capped; in effect it was just like inserting a fresh magazine in an auto pistol. But they were young and in a war, and safety took a poor second place to survival.
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I never said it wasn't dangerous. I just said 1/2 inch of chamber wouldn't make enough difference to worry about. It won't have anywhere near the velocity of a ball going through the barrel tho so in that sense it would be less dangerous.
If troopers in the CW carried spare cylinders where's all the pics? I've seen countless pics of troopers carrying four to six revolvers but never saw a pic of a cylinder pouch.