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Colt Army Model 1860
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Colt Army Model 1860
The Colt Army Model 1860 is a cap & ball .44-caliber single-action revolver used during the American Civil War made by Colt's Manufacturing Company. It was used as a side arm by cavalry, infantry, artillery troops, and naval forces.
The Colt 1860 Army uses the same size frame as the .36 caliber 1851 Navy revolver. The frame is relieved to allow the use of a rebated cylinder that enables the Army to be chambered in .44 caliber. The barrel on the 1860 Army has a forcing cone that is visibly shorter than that of the 1851 Navy, allowing the Army revolver to have a longer cylinder. Another distinguishing feature of the Colt 1860 Army, first introduced on the Colt 1855 Sidehammer Revolver, is the "creeping" loading lever.
More than 200,000 were manufactured from 1860 through 1873. Colt's biggest customer was the US Government with no fewer than 129,730 units being purchased and issued to the troops. The firearm was a single-action, six-shot revolver accurate from 75 up to 100 yards, where the fixed sights were typically set when manufactured. The rear sight was a notch in the hammer, only usable when the revolver was fully cocked.
The Colt .44-caliber “Army" Model was the most widely used revolver of the Civil War. It had a six-shot, rotating cylinder, and fired a 0.454-inch-diameter (11.5 mm) round spherical lead ball, or a conical-tipped bullet, typically propelled by a 30-grain charge of black powder, which was ignited by a small copper percussion cap that contained a volatile charge of fulminate of mercury (a substance that explodes upon being subjected to a sharp impact). The percussion cap, when struck by the hammer, ignited the powder charge. When fired, balls had a muzzle velocity of about 900 feet per second (274 meters/second), although this depended on how much powder it was loaded with.
The unfluted cylinder was "rebated", meaning that the rear of the cylinder was turned to a smaller diameter than the front. The barrel was rounded and smoothed into the frame, as was the 1861 Navy Model. The frame, hammer, and rammer lever were case-hardened, the remainder blued; grips were of one-piece walnut; and the trigger guard and front grip strap were of brass while the backstrap was blued."
A distinguishing feature of the Model 1860 was that its frame had no top strap, or no component running above the cylinder. Instead, its strength came from the lower frame and the massive fixed cylinder pin. This made the gun slimmer and lighter than its main competitor, the Remington Model 1858, but the fixed cylinder pin meant that the barrel had to be removed to remove the cylinder, unlike the Model 1858, which only required removal of the cylinder retaining pin.
By April 1861, 2,230 of Colt's earliest production went to dealers south of the Mason–Dixon line. The United States Navy ordered 900 fluted cylinder revolvers in May 1861 later issued to ships enforcing the Atlantic and Gulf blockade. United States Army orders also began in May, with a total of 127,157 being delivered. The Colt 1860 would be the most prolifically used revolver by union forces throughout the civil war. At the time many cavalry forces saw the revolver as the primary arm for horse mounted action, and during the early war years many cavalry units would go into combat armed only with a saber and a Colt 1860. Eventually the 1860s were replaced by the Remington Model 1858 due to Remington’s cheaper price and the ability to easily reload by swapping cylinders[citation needed] without having to remove the whole barrel, as was the case for the Colt. The last government contracted Colts were delivered in November 1863. But even with this early end of production the model 1860 would remain the most popular sidearm with union forces. The revolver would continue to see service after the war and all the way up to the adoption of the Colt single action army.
During the early years of the Plains wars the 1860s saw service with many different cavalry units. While considered outdated, the lack of funds for the military led to these revolvers being retained with many units. The army was aware that front loading revolvers were out of date, and trials would soon begin to find a proper substitute. As a stopgap measure during the late 1860s and early 1870s many Model 1860s would also be converted to fire the new .44 Colt metallic cartridges. About 1000 of these conversions came from the Colt factory and were considered relatively high quality. But many other conversions were made by local gunsmiths and varied wildly in quality with many done in a haphazard fashion. As such these conversions saw mixed results in service, with a general reported decrease in the overall reliability of the revolvers. Some of these conversions were found lacking basic features such as cartridge extractors, making them very difficult to use.
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Colt Army Model 1860
The Colt Army Model 1860 is a cap & ball .44-caliber single-action revolver used during the American Civil War made by Colt's Manufacturing Company. It was used as a side arm by cavalry, infantry, artillery troops, and naval forces.
The Colt 1860 Army uses the same size frame as the .36 caliber 1851 Navy revolver. The frame is relieved to allow the use of a rebated cylinder that enables the Army to be chambered in .44 caliber. The barrel on the 1860 Army has a forcing cone that is visibly shorter than that of the 1851 Navy, allowing the Army revolver to have a longer cylinder. Another distinguishing feature of the Colt 1860 Army, first introduced on the Colt 1855 Sidehammer Revolver, is the "creeping" loading lever.
More than 200,000 were manufactured from 1860 through 1873. Colt's biggest customer was the US Government with no fewer than 129,730 units being purchased and issued to the troops. The firearm was a single-action, six-shot revolver accurate from 75 up to 100 yards, where the fixed sights were typically set when manufactured. The rear sight was a notch in the hammer, only usable when the revolver was fully cocked.
The Colt .44-caliber “Army" Model was the most widely used revolver of the Civil War. It had a six-shot, rotating cylinder, and fired a 0.454-inch-diameter (11.5 mm) round spherical lead ball, or a conical-tipped bullet, typically propelled by a 30-grain charge of black powder, which was ignited by a small copper percussion cap that contained a volatile charge of fulminate of mercury (a substance that explodes upon being subjected to a sharp impact). The percussion cap, when struck by the hammer, ignited the powder charge. When fired, balls had a muzzle velocity of about 900 feet per second (274 meters/second), although this depended on how much powder it was loaded with.
The unfluted cylinder was "rebated", meaning that the rear of the cylinder was turned to a smaller diameter than the front. The barrel was rounded and smoothed into the frame, as was the 1861 Navy Model. The frame, hammer, and rammer lever were case-hardened, the remainder blued; grips were of one-piece walnut; and the trigger guard and front grip strap were of brass while the backstrap was blued."
A distinguishing feature of the Model 1860 was that its frame had no top strap, or no component running above the cylinder. Instead, its strength came from the lower frame and the massive fixed cylinder pin. This made the gun slimmer and lighter than its main competitor, the Remington Model 1858, but the fixed cylinder pin meant that the barrel had to be removed to remove the cylinder, unlike the Model 1858, which only required removal of the cylinder retaining pin.
By April 1861, 2,230 of Colt's earliest production went to dealers south of the Mason–Dixon line. The United States Navy ordered 900 fluted cylinder revolvers in May 1861 later issued to ships enforcing the Atlantic and Gulf blockade. United States Army orders also began in May, with a total of 127,157 being delivered. The Colt 1860 would be the most prolifically used revolver by union forces throughout the civil war. At the time many cavalry forces saw the revolver as the primary arm for horse mounted action, and during the early war years many cavalry units would go into combat armed only with a saber and a Colt 1860. Eventually the 1860s were replaced by the Remington Model 1858 due to Remington’s cheaper price and the ability to easily reload by swapping cylinders[citation needed] without having to remove the whole barrel, as was the case for the Colt. The last government contracted Colts were delivered in November 1863. But even with this early end of production the model 1860 would remain the most popular sidearm with union forces. The revolver would continue to see service after the war and all the way up to the adoption of the Colt single action army.
During the early years of the Plains wars the 1860s saw service with many different cavalry units. While considered outdated, the lack of funds for the military led to these revolvers being retained with many units. The army was aware that front loading revolvers were out of date, and trials would soon begin to find a proper substitute. As a stopgap measure during the late 1860s and early 1870s many Model 1860s would also be converted to fire the new .44 Colt metallic cartridges. About 1000 of these conversions came from the Colt factory and were considered relatively high quality. But many other conversions were made by local gunsmiths and varied wildly in quality with many done in a haphazard fashion. As such these conversions saw mixed results in service, with a general reported decrease in the overall reliability of the revolvers. Some of these conversions were found lacking basic features such as cartridge extractors, making them very difficult to use.
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