Colt-modified Guns

The demand for arms was great that spring of ’61, and Colt obtained a sample “old Harpers Ferry rifle” as he wired Ripley on June 22, “and on hasty examination believe they can be bored up with sword bayonets so as to be useful to Mi(li)tia.” Asking the price, he was told by Ripley he could have those on hand in the various arsenals at $10 each. Colt’s letter of the next day, June 23, asked for a box of rifles to be sent from each place where stored. Coloney Ripley so ordered, telling Colonel Colt there were 11,500 of the rifles on hand at Watertown, Watervleit, Governors Island, and Washington arsenals.

Colt followed up with a request for more arms; then Ripley wrote in some heat that rumors had reached him Colt was offering these same rifles, unaltered and without bayonets, in the open market. Since the express understanding had been that by converting them Colt would increase the store of rifles generally available for War, a service for which he might reasonably also expect a profit, Ripley asked that Colt at once take steps to fill his offer by reboring and fitting bayonets as he had promised. Colt immediately disavowed any general intent to peddle the arms, but did confess August 2, 1861, “that the only Rifles I purchased of Your Department which have yet been sold are 468 upon which Sabre or Sword bayonets were attached. These were sold to our own State without a change of Caliber but altered to correspond with some they had on hand in order to make up enough to arm the 5th Connecticut Regiment uniformally (sic), which have just entered the service.” Colt continued to say that sword bayonets for additional rifles had been started in production, presumably at Collinsville although he does say “are already in the works” as if he meant in his own factory. He promised to “soon begin to put them on and be ready to offer the altered Rifles for sale to our Volunteer Troops.” During this period the 10th of January, 1862 passed, and with it Colt’s death.
Toward the end of the month Ripley decided he wanted the rifles back, and was willing to pay the company for the added cost of the converting and bayonets. Three officers were recommended to mediate the value of the work: Colt’s good friend Brigadier General Marcy, Major Thornton of the Contract Office, shortly to move into Colt’s old New York premises at 240 Broadway, and Major Rodman, who may have been the only impartial man of the trio. Root on March 5    wrote that the Government’s offer was agreeable and they had 5,000 rifles to deliver. Ripley thereafter authorized the commanding officer at Springfield Armory “to visit the Armory of the Colt’s Arms Manufacturing Company at Hartford, Connecticut, and inspect the rifles cal. .58 with sword bayonets, which are to be taken by the U. States . . .” By May 4, the 5,000 Colt-modified Harpers Ferry rifles were shipped to St. Louis for the Army of the West. There is in fact indication that Colt had not just 5,000 of these rifles, but the whole 10,000. Late in 1864, Hartley, Schuyler 6    Graham wrote to Colt’s, asking if they still had any Mississippi Rifles, as they, H. S. & G., had a stock of bayonets to which they wished to fit rifles and so dispose of them. Colt’s answer is not known.
Two types of Colt-Mississippi rifles thus may exist. Specimens of the Ml841 have been observed fitted with the Colt double leaf rear sight, such as was fitted to the Revolving Rifles. Whether these arms had bayonet studs is not certain; they were in use by North-South Skirmish shooters at Camp Perry, August, 1959. But from the record it would seem likely the Colt-sighted gun is the one to look for; those in original .54-inch bore would logically be of the 468 sold to the State of Connecticut for the 5th Regiment. The .58 caliber arms, especially if of a St. Louis or Missouri provenance, must be of the first 5,000. Whether additional arms exist is uncertain. The .58 caliber weapons at least may bear the marks of inspectors from Springfield Armory ca. 1862.