Special Model Colts

Of Special Models, Colt’s fabricated 75,000 which they delivered under their own contracts:
5 July, 1861    25,000 contracted    25,000 delivered
5 June, 1863    50,000 contracted    12,500 delivered
19 March, 1864    37,500 contracted    37,500 delivered
In Haven & Belden’s A History of    the Colt Revolver
it is stated that they delivered 75,000 on contract, and “nearly forty thousand more on sub-contracts for others who could not fill their orders.”

Not usually reliable on esoteric bits of information, H & B drew this data from Prof. Barnard (Armsmear) who presumably in 1866 had some accurate sources. Such a flat statement is not opposed by contradictory evidence; it is probable that Amoskeag drew heavily on Colt for assistance, since Lamson, Goodnow & Yale were quite clear in their arrangements for parts and forgings.
That Colt was willing and able to make additional guns is reflected by a query from Major T. T. S. Laidley, then stationed at Springfield Armory, to Elisha Root on November 10, 1864. Laidley was authorized to purchase “such spare parts of muskets as you may have on hand, and may be required for repairs of the muskets of that model.”
Root on November 18 countered with an offer to fabricate spare parts as might be needed. He enclosed a bill of parts and cited the quantities he could produce, based on delivering the “quantity named within three to four months.” Laidley apparently did not buy any parts; and from the tenor of Root’s letter it is clear that he had no vast stock of spare parts. The parts were, at the end of 1864, useless except to the Government.
Root’s strict sense of economy that vastly increased the fortunes of the company he had been handed by the death of his friend would never have permitted so many as 10,000 sets of guard assemblies, butt plates, etc. to accumulate; while the offer of 20,000 to 22,000 lockplates and 25,000 to 27,000 hammers quite clearly indicates a proposal to manufacture to Laidley’s order, not an offer of parts on hand. Having 25,000 hammers on hand as refuse work has given rise to the unrealistic suggestion that these were rejected parts, or that one third of Colt’s machine production in the hammer and lock department was defective! While Colt replaced cylinders of the New Model Army revolver, or complete pistols, which proved defective, as well as violently complaining about the quality of arms issued from the assembly department at one time, the proportion is too high—Colt had no left-overs after the rifle muskets were delivered, so far as evidence today shows.