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Very Rare and Historically Significant C Company No. 81
U.S. Colt Model 1847 Walker Percussion Revolver - Serial no.
CCOMPANYNO.81, 44 cal., 9 inch part octagon bbl., blue/casehardened
finish, walnut grips. The Colt Model 1847 Walker revolver was the
revolver that relaunched Samuel Colt’s firearms business following
the failure of his earlier Patent Arms Manufacturing Company. Only
1,000 of the historic U.S. martial contract Colt-Walker revolvers were
manufactured, and, with the exception of a few special pairs sent
earlier, this revolver would have been part of the first batch of 220
revolvers manufactured in 1847 and specifically marked for Captain
Samuel H. Walker’s C Company of the U.S. Mounted Riflemen. On Feb
18, 1847, Captain Walker wrote to Colt and indicated Colt was to number the
revolvers by company. This is one of the many unique aspects of the Colt Walker revolvers.
Due to Walker’s involvement, the first revolvers manufactured were marked for Walker’s company.
The story of the collaboration between Samuel Colt and Captain Walker is among the most famous stories in American firearms history.
In short, Walker had used Colt’s “Texas Paterson” revolvers as a Texas Ranger and came to Colt seeking a more durable and more powerful
revolver for use by mounted troops in the Mexican-American War. Walker provided insights into various improvements he believed would
make the revolvers better suited to military service. The result of their collaboration was an incredibly powerful revolver and an Ordnance
Department order for 1,000 revolvers. This modest order resurrected Samuel Colt’s firearms business and set him on a path to immense
success and wealth. Back in Hartford, Connecticut, at his new factory built after the Mexican-American War, Colt did not forget his friends in
Texas. The cylinder scene of the Texas Rangers fighting the Comanche in a running battle used on the Colt Walker continued to be used on the
subsequent Colt Dragoon revolvers manufactured between the Mexican-American War and the American Civil War.
The Colt-Walkers were manufactured at the Whitneyville Armory since Colt did not have his own factory. The C Company Walkers were
shipped to the Vera Cruz Ordnance Depot. While these first Walkers were intended for Walker’s company, Colonel John Coffee Hays of the First
Regiment, Texas Mounted Volunteers, signed for 214 of the C Company revolvers in October 1847, and the other six C Company revolvers were
listed as stolen. Subsequent shipments were issued to the Mounted Riflemen. The last 500 Walker revolvers were delivered to the Ordnance
Department in March 1848 after the war was over making the C Company revolvers particularly significant since we know they were issued
during the war.
The Texas Mounted Volunteers were nicknamed the “The Texas Devils” and used their Walker Colt revolvers in a number of actions against
Mexican irregular forces operating between Mexico City and Vera Cruz. After the war ended, most of the surviving Colt Walker revolvers were
returned to government arsenals in Texas. Of the 191 turned in by Colonel Hays’s men, only 82 are recorded as remaining serviceable, and the
revolvers continued to be issued in Texas during in the late 1840s. Many of the Walkers were later shipped to the San Antonio Ordnance Depot
and were captured by the Confederacy at the beginning of the Civil War and then issued to Confederate cavalry units. Given these many years
of harsh military service, the fact that any of these historic C Company Walkers survive is surprising.