Colt Had Military Ambition

Back in 1837, the legislature of New Jersey, when young Sam Colt then managed a primitive factory for making his guns, passed an act authorizing the raising and equipping of a regiment of volunteers, to be armed with Colt’s Paterson revolving rifles or carbines. The legislature neglected to appropriate the funds to buy these rifles, and no regiment was raised; but Sam made known his wish to be the officer commanding, for he felt convinced the firepower of his rifles would prove devastating against troops with conventional arms. In the dark and slim-pursed years of the early 1840’s, his younger brother, James B. Colt, later a judge in St. Louis and at the time of the War in 1861 an employee of Colt’s in Hartford, chided him about his wish. Several letters (at a time when there was no War and Colt held no commission) from Jamie are addressed to him as “Col. Colt.” The title was facetious, based on Colt’s wish for a command in the field, a deep-seated desire.
After Sumter he proposed to Governor Buckingham to equip a regiment. “His other proposition is to give the use of a sufficient number of rifles to arm an entire regiment,” wrote J. D. Williams of the Adjutant General’s office to the Governor on April 25, 1861, “to be called the 1st Connecticut Regiment Colt’s Revolving Rifles, to be officered by Army officers and West Point cadets of Connecticut origin, for the field, and as many captains as can be procured —he mentioned Major (Wm. B.) Hartley and others— the regiment to be enlisted for the War and offered to the President. He can make 100 rifles a week after the second week, so that enough to arm the Regiment could be made in nine weeks, if authority is given for enlistments. He will furnish officers to drill the recruits as fast as they come in.”
Colt’s offer was accepted by Governor Buckingham the day it was received, April 26, . and May 1 in addressing the legislature the Governor spoke of the type of arms to be issued as with saber bayonets; the two-band rifles, evidently, instead of the long muskets. One thousand of them to equip 10 companies, the Governor appraised at over $50,000 cash—to be furnished without charge to the Government for the duration. Enlistments began on May 14 and on May 16 Colt’s orders were cut for the War:

View of Colt’s famous arms factory, which achieved the status of a “national works.”

GHQ State of Connecticut Adjutant Gen’l Ofc.

Hfd May 16, 1861

Special Orders No. 83

Sam Colt, Esquire, of Hartford is appointed Colonel 1st Regiment Colts Revolving Rifles of Connecticut.

By order of the Commander in Chief J. D. Williams,

Adjutant General

The regiment was almost at once fully manned. Standards were high; five feet seven was the minimum and many groups which came in from different communities of the state to enroll averaged five nine or better. Aside from the physical stamina which these larger, healthier troops might be presumed to have, Colt’s organizational intentions can be deduced from the rifles which the Governor indicated were being made for them. These were the sword bayonet rifle, not musket, probably .56 caliber taking either Colt’s solid bullets or the Government minie bullet in an emergency, barrels 27 inches, weight 9 pounds 11 ounces, $40.50 plus sword bayonet. They indicate that the regiment was to train as light infantry, a special force relying on Colt’s five-shooter firepower to clear the way for regular musket-armed infantry. The 1st Connecticut Revolving Rifles were the world’s first storm troopers.
As light infantry they were “active, strong men carefully selected from the rest of the regiment. Selected and trained for rapid evolutions; often employed to cover and assist other troops,” they had a mission as skirmishers. Hardee’s Tactics tells us what characteristics skirmishers had:
1.    The movements of skirmishers shall be subjected to such rules as will give to the commander the means of moving them in any direction with the greatest promptitude.
2.    * * *
3. When skirmishers are thrown out to clear the way for, and to protect the advance of, the main corps, their movements should be so regulated by this corps, as to keep it constantly covered.
* * *
8.    The movements of skirmishers will be executed in quick, or double quick time. The run will be resorted to only in cases of urgent necessity.
9.    Skirmishers will be permitted to carry their pieces in the manner most convenient to them.
These were the shock troops, the men on point; these were something new in formal warfare. Uniformed as Regulars, the Revolving Rifles were an elite corps. On the South Meadows their ranks could be seen late in May, arms smartly swinging in cadence, the broad blades of the white Collins-made bayonets glittering like a field of steely wheat rippling in the sun. Major Hartley was in command, Colt himself being too ill to take an active part in the maneuvers. But the guidance behind the training of the regiment was his. Too soon was it ended.
Perhaps the Governor became miffed because of the highly personal title of the unit; perhaps there was pressure based upon the issue of the non-issue re-

in 1857 about 300 cal. .44 revolving rifles had been bought for field trial issue; specimen shown has hooks to place supporting hand in firing. Inspection stamp of William A. Thornton, WAT, is on side of stock.

volving rifles. Three hundred Colt revolving rifles had been issued in 1857; there was then another President, another Secretary of War. Whatever the reason, the blow came barely a month after the reigment had been organized: General Orders No. 307 dated June
20, 1861, declared: “The 1st Regiment Colt’s Revolving Rifles of Connecticut is hereby disbanded and all commissions issued to officers in said regiment are revoked.” All arms, equipment, uniforms, and other property of the State were directed to be returned at once to the State Quartermaster General. Presumably, Colt’s revolving rifles were returned to the armory for cleaning and storage. How many there were was suggested by the original proposal.
Colt offered to start making 100 guns a week, one week after approval was given. Between organization and disbanding, five weeks had elapsed. Allowing for the finishing up of arms in preparation the final week, a run of 400 sword bayonet rifles appears to have been made up for the Revolving Rifles Regiment. That a week had to elapse before any guns could be made, indicates that the “production line” for the revolving rifles was temporarily set aside, and the week’s delay was set-up time for putting the tools back onto the machines to get things going again. Though Colt obviously did not intend to lead the regiment in the field—he was too valuable running the factory to spend his time midst shot and shell—the sudden termination of a life-long dream that had been within his grasp must have been a bitter shock to him in his sickness. He was defeated in his vanity, the most important vanity of a man, the vanity of a belief in the value of his career. Colt had developed his revolvers, had made them in all sizes, had sold them around the world, because he believed that greater firepower would revolutionize defensive warfare. They had “terrorized the Indians of the Sierra Madres into honest habits” in Gold Rush days; what the full-sized repeating rifles would do in “modem” War, he was never to find out.