Interesting. I don't recall running across that one.
AKA the *.45 S&W* to cavalrymen who could thereby use the same ammunition in eitherthe #3 S&W Schofield in .45 caliber, or in the then-new 1873 Colt Single Action Army, originally issued to the Cavalry with a 7.5" barrel, and later to artillerymen with a 5.5" barrel.
Smith & Wesson was distressed because the government’s money was being directed to their competitor in handgun manufacturing. So with the aid of patents developed by a serving Army officer named Major George Schofield, the Model No. 3 was remodeled. However, the US Government didn’t want the .44 S&W Russian cartridge and Smith & Wesson’s Model No. 3 cylinder lengths were too short for the new .45 Colt with its 1.29-inch case length. So the company developed a brand new .45 cartridge. Case length was shortened to 1.10 inches, bullet weight reduced to 230 grains and powder charge to 28 grains.
Today we call this round the .45 S&W Schofield. Circa 1875 it was referred to as the .45 Government because indeed Smith & Wesson’s Model No. 3 “Schofield†revolvers had been adopted by the US Army as a substitute standard. Early on there was confusion because some cavalry units received S&W Model No. 3 .45 revolvers but their ammunition was the full-size .45 Colt round. Of course it would not chamber in S&W .45 revolvers. So about 1875/1876 the decision was made to cease production of .45 Colt ammunition by government arsenals and only make and issue .45 S&W cartridges. That situation held on well into the 1880s even after all .45 S&W Model No. 3 Schofield revolvers had been withdrawn from government service and sold off as surplus.
As late as the early 1980s, when the military was going through the JSSAP program that eventually gave us the M9 Beretta handgun and M16A2 version of the AR15, there was still .45 S&W Schofield *universal* ammunition in storage in the ammo bunker igloos at NWSC Crane in Indiana. During part of the comparative testing, a couple of thosand rounds was broken out and testfired, in part to determine if the packaging materials [acid-washed brown paper and cotton string] had any long-term ill effects on the cartridges within. Nope. Every round went *bang* as advertised, with great clouds of 30-grain black powder charge smoke, to the amazement of the kids on the range detail who had never seen such a thing from their 9mms.
