Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol…

Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the U.S government on January 4, 1847.

Captain Samuel Walker of the Texas Rangers had acquired some of the first five-shot Colt Paterson revolvers produced during the Seminole War and had seen first-hand their effective use as his fifteen-man unit defeated a larger force of seventy Comanche in Texas.

Walker had wanted to order Colt revolvers for use by the Rangers in the Mexican–American War, and had traveled to New York City in search of Colt.

He meets Colt in a gunsmith's shop on January 4, 1847, and places an order for one thousand revolvers.

Walker asks for a few changes; the new revolvers will have to hold six shots instead of five, have enough power to kill either a man or a horse with a single shot and be quicker to reload.

The large order will allow Colt to establish a new firearm business.

Colt will hire Eli Whitney Blake, who is established in the arms business, to make his guns.

Colt will use his prototype and Walker's improvements as the basis for a new design.

From this new design, Blake will produce the first thousand-piece order known as the Colt Walker.

The company will then receive an order for a thousand more; Colt will take a share of the profits at ten dollars per pistol for both orders.