Colt’s Chief Workman

Chief engineer Elisha King Root had been with Colt since 1849. He became president of the company after Colt’s death, January, 1862. Root was a quiet and methodical person, but a go-getter in his way. He had plenty of work cut out for him; Sam Colt on December 26, 1861, had signed an additional contract for 25,000 muskets, although not one had been delivered on the first contract by that time. No arms had been produced, but the Colt factory had not been idle. Three large buildings totalling 160,000 square feet had been erected to the rear of the original pistol making buildings which dated from 1854. But Colt’s machinery suppliers were not always prompt and the entire rifle musket program was far behind schedule, complicated by the second contract for 25,000 guns, which Root agreed to accept as soon as Colt’s death put the decision in his hands.
By February of 1862, 1,500 men were at work day and night on two 10-hour shifts. The massive flywheel

Sidehammer rifle design is attributed to Root though patents on most details were issued to Colt. Only Root patent element is creeping lever believed developed first in December 1849 but not protected until later. Cutaway model shows pinion gear teeth for lever and cylinder turning pawl in slot behind hammer, which acts on head of cylinder pin in reverse motion upon cocking. Long rifle is Heavy Military Musket nominally caliber .56 but can be loaded with .58 U.S. bullet. Angular bayonet type was believed used by Berdan’s Sharpshooters though Colt Guard (5th Conn. Revolving Rifles) had sword bayonet version comparable to short Enfields. Bottom carbine is military .44 six-shot on light military frame. Latch is pre-War button type on lever end. Southern militia in “cold War” period bought hundreds of these.

measuring 30 feet in diameter ranconstantly as the big 50 horse power steam engine drove the belting which ran the lathes and drills in the factory. The flywheel had been made by Colt’s pattern men. It was so perfectly balanced that although it was sunk nearly 15 feet below the level of the engine house floor, the wheel did not appear to be moving when seen from the edge at top speed. “We have now received most of the machinery needed for the production of at last 1,000 muskets per week,” wrote Eli Root to Secretary Stanton in February of 1862, “and the remainder will be delivered in a few days. Our small tools are completed, and we shall be ready to turn out arms as soon as the stocking machinery is delivered to us.”
Root was writing to gain an extension of both contracts from Stanton. Despite the delay, it was easy for Root to satisfy Messrs. Holt and Owen that not only was Colts Company doing their best, but that they had the capacity to do much better. While the tools were readying, Root had been engaged in procuring materials for the guns. On March 26, 1862, the Colt factory president reported to the commissioners that “we have engaged 54,000 skelps of Marshall iron; have on hand 19,000; also have engaged 25,000 barrels of steel, solid, to be bored, and by us; we have also 20,000 barrels made in England, rough bored and first smooth bored; they have turned breech pins fitted. These breech pins may each interchange, although we ordered them by the Springfield pattern for this order. We have also ordered bar steel for 25,000 barrels in case our iron will not answer. Have machinery enough to roll over 1,500 barrels per week and to finish over 1,000 guns per week, (except in stocking machines which we are now extending). Have been much delayed on this work thinking that the Secretary’s order annulled the contracts . . . Some of our order to Mr. Ames was taken by the Springfield Armory and this had delayed us. (I think) $20 per gun as low a price as the Springfield musket can be made for a profit, and consider that an order for 50,000 required for that price.”
The original contract with the Ordnance Department contained a clause which voided it if Colt’s did not supply the muskets on time. Because of the expense, not to speak of the profit, Root was anxious to have an extension of time granted. On May 16, 1862, Commissioners Holt and Owen recommended that the original contracts of July 5 and December 26 be confirmed and that they be allowed time to fill the order. Accordingly, on September 26, 1862, nearly a year after the first deliveries were due, a thousand rifle muskets were trucked by Colt’s to Governors Island for inspection and acceptance.
It is significant that in speaking of the progress of operations, Root did not mention the locks, either from foreign sources or of his own make. The locks, it appears, were in arrears. Lamson, Goodnow & Yale had fallen heir to the Windsor, Vermont, factory of Robbins & Lawrence, which included the Robbins & Lawrence British-contract Enfield rifle M1853 machinery. They had a gold mine in the tooling, which according to Mitchell resulted in their selling off “lots of surplus Enfield rifle bayonet machinery for more than they paid for the entire plant. It was here, also,” Mitchell continues, “that Whitney procured the machinery to make his ‘Enfield’ pattern arm which he tried unsuccessfully to sell to the State of Mississippi.” We have shown that Whitney did not try to sell Mississippi any Enfield pattern arm, but that the Whitney Enfield appears to have been a bad job all around and was sold to a limited extent to the United States through Schuyler, Hartley & Graham. That Whitney might have obtained, say, barrel band die stamps, of this refuse equipment, is possible, for the Whitney “Enfield” has bands of the 1853 pattern— and that’s about all of the Whitney Enfield that is from the Enfield model, too, while of the Special Model locks, not one part will interchange with the Windsorstamped Robbins & Lawrence Enfield rifle lock, without major file fitting.
L, G & Y boasted that in spite of receiving the new model musket 60 days after signing the contract, they would have their work far enough ahead to get up gauges for the Springfield production of this gun; as they said, “we shall turn out the new gun before they do at Springfield.” They were also making stocking machines for Amoskeag, and barrel finishing machinery.
In spite of this outside labor, they were prepared to deliver 1,000 finished rifle muskets two days prior to Colt’s own delivery.
Amoskeag, of Manchester, New Hampshire, also built the Special Model ’61. Their first delivery was August 25, 1863.