The end of the American Civil War in April of 1865 and the resulting abrupt cancellation of nearly all outstanding and current military contracts by the US Government placed many of America’s gunmakers on shaky ground financially. Those that had entered the business when the war started, in hopes of making quick profits, were among the first to fail. With no established market presence prior to the war and no manufacturing capabilities beyond US model rifle muskets or special patent carbines and revolver, many of these firms quickly went out of business. More established gunmakers like the Starr Arms Company of Yonkers New York, who had been making arms for the government prior to the outbreak of the war, managed to hold on briefly but were often out of business by 1867 or 1868 when new contracts did not materialize. 

The Colt Patent Firearms Company was in a somewhat better position than most gunmakers, in that they had been in business for more than a decade prior to the war in their current incarnation and had established a strong following in the civilian market with their high-quality percussion revolvers. They had deep market penetration, a strong reputation in the field and excellent name recognition. What they did not have was a product for the rapidly changing field of modern firearms design. The American Civil War had clearly shown that the days of percussion, muzzle loading arms were over, and that the new world was one of guns that fired self-contained metallic cartridges. This was problematic for Colt since they primarily manufactured handguns, and their largest competitor Smith & Wesson controlled the patent necessary to make an effective and efficient cartridge revolver. Smith & Wesson held the exclusive rights to the Rollin White patent for the bored-through cylinder and without access to that patent, which would not expire until 1869, Colt was forced to try to find ways to produce cartridge revolvers that evaded that patent. Their less than successful Thuer line of cartridge revolvers was a good example of their attempts to stay relevant in the handgun market, as they watched the sales of their previous market flagship percussion revolvers like the Model 1849 Pocket, Model 1851 Navy, and Model 1860 Army plummet. Colt’s position in the rifle market was even weaker, and nearly non-existent. During the Civil War the only longarms that Colt had produced were some of the Model 1855 Root patent side hammer guns and the Special Model 1861 Rifle Musket. There was now no demand at all for a muzzleloading percussion rifle musket and Colt needed something to offer to the market.

Elisha Root had started working on a metallic cartridge rifle design towards the end of 1864, but at the conclusion of the war he was not materially past the experimental and model stage. The firm did manage to secure some percussion revolver business after the conclusion of the war through their London agent Baron Von Oppen. In the fall of 1865, Von Oppen had managed to sell some Colt Model 1851 Navy Revolvers to the Viceroy of Egypt and in so doing also opened the door to sell surplus Colt Special Model Rifle Muskets that the firm had on hand. The Viceroy only wanted the muskets if they were altered to breechloading metallic cartridge arms and eventually a deal was struck to sell 12,100 Special Model Rifle Muskets to Viceroy after they were altered to the Snider Breechloading system. The acquisition of the machinery to produce the parts needed for the Snider system put Colt in the breechloading metallic cartridge market, but they continued to search for a better product to offer. One of their in-house designers, Alexander Thuer did develop a sliding block breechloading metallic cartridge design that never got past the developmental and sample stages, but it showed the firm was clearly making efforts towards that end. 

Colt was keeping their options open and as a result started looking at outside designers. In the fall of 1866 Major T.T.S. Laidley approached Colt about producing sample rifles based upon a rolling block design that he and C.A. Emery had invented. Although sample rifles were produced, they did not result in any further contracts or commercial interest for Colt, although a few years later Whitney ended up incorporating Laidley’s improvements into their line of rolling block rifles. Another outside design was that of Lewis Lippoldt, who developed an improved version of Root’s experimental breechloading design. However, after some initial development and samples, this design was abandoned by Colt. 

By mid-1867 pressure was increasing for Colt to have a viable breechloading rifle design in the market. Colt had been working with a number of foreign countries to win military contracts to produce long arms and had yet to be successful. They had bid on a contract to produce the Model 1866 Chassepot Rifle for France and had not been selected. They had similarly chased a potential Austrian contract to produce Werndl Rifles and again had not received it. In the case of the Werndl contract this was particularly galling, as the firm had invested in the machinery to produce the Werndl action. There was also pressure from an old time Colt customer, Russia. Colt had contracted to sell rifled percussion muskets to the Russians during the Crimean War, and although the war had ended abruptly and resulted in the contract being cancelled with only about 3,000 of the guns delivered, Colt hoped that this time the results would be different.

Enter Colonel Hiram Berdan. Berdan was certainly a well-known figure in post-Civil War America and throughout much of the world as the namesake of the two regiments of “Berdan’s Sharpshooters” that he organized during the Civil War. To most who simply knew his name he was a “war hero” but to those who dealt directly with him on a regular basis, adjectives like “ruthlessly ambitious”, “arrogant” and a “supreme egotist” were all used and likely quite appropriate. Berdan was brilliant, even if he was difficult to work with, but certainly not quite the war hero that popular culture makes him out to be. 

Berdan was born on 6 September 1824 in the town of Phelps in Ontario County New York. As he grew up, he had two passions: inventing and shooting. By the time he was 23 he had received his first patent for a threshing machine and before he reached the age of 28, he received a patent for a “gold amalgamation machine” which could separate gold from quarts. As this was the height of the California Gold Rush period, his invention made him extremely wealthy very quickly. He was also a top marksman and widely known target shooter. In 1861, it was Berdan who sold the concept of a regiment of designated marksmen to the US military, a harkening back to the days of the British Army’s “rifle regiments”. Berdan established grueling standards for the men that were recruited to serve in these specialized units and soon organized two full regiments of the finest shots in the north, which the War Department designated as the 1^st and 2^nd US Sharpshooters. However, they will forever be known as Berdan’s Sharpshooters. While Berdan was an excellent shot and a brilliant inventor he was not a good military commander. By the fall of 1862 charges of “conduct unbecoming an officer”, “abandoning his command” and “cowardice” were swirling around him. In fact, he was described as “incompetent” by General Fitz John Porter. Although he was initially found “not guilty” of the charges, the case was later reexamined and he was found to be guilty, putting an end to his military career in January 1864. At this time, he returned to his other love, inventing. He soon received a patent for a self-contained centerfire metallic cartridge, and cartridges that use this priming system are still referred to as the “Berdan Primed” to this day. 

Berdan’s involvement with the Colt Patent Firearms Company really started to be serious in the fall of 1866. At the time he was working on breechloading rifle designs, both with an eye towards producing a way to alter muzzleloading arms to breechloaders and as a standalone design as well. Between October of 1866 and January of 1867 Berdan approached Colt to estimate the costs and potentially pursue the production of 60,000 Enfield Rifle Muskets altered to Berdan breechloaders for the Canadians, 50,000 of the same for the State of New York, for the production of 300,000 Berdan breechblocks for Spain, as well as machinery to make them and for the potential of altering 100,000 additional muskets “abroad” to the Berdan system. Based upon the notes taken of their meetings by Colt President Major General William B. Franklin, we know that after getting his quote for the Canadian and New York Berdan altered Enfield contracts, that Berdan sought a quote from Remington and then proceeded to use that to try to get a better price from Colt. In the end those contracts went to Remington, who produced the guns using the samples built by Colt. But Franklin saw the potential for Berdan to bring significant business to the company and continued to put up with his eccentricities and generally gruff attitude.

Berdan’s design, like nearly all of the widely accepted breechloading designs of the mid-to-late 1860s, revolved around a hinged breechblock. In all Berdan would experiment with three different hinged breech designs at Colt, the first being an articulated two-piece breech and the next two utilizing solid breech blocks. The hinged system made it easy to utilize both as a standalone system and to alter existing muzzleloaders to breechloader. The hinged breechblock contained a firing pin which was struck by a spring-loaded in-line striker in the rear of the action. The system was rather advanced and modern in that it did not utilize a hammer to strike the firing pin. The striker which struck the firing pin entered the rear of the breech block when the gun was fired and locked the breechblock in the closed position. When the cocking piece was drawn back to the cocked position, it disengaged from the breechblock and allowed it to be opened. Opening the action activated the extractor and ejected the fired cartridge casing. A new cartridge could then be placed in the chamber, the action closed, and the rifle was ready to shoot. While Berdan’s design did not infringe upon Erskine Allin’s patent for the Trapdoor rifle system since Allin’s system was predicated on the alteration of pre-existing receivers to accept the new breechblock, rather than using a newly made receiver, it did infringe at least partially upon some other existing patents. Patents by General Benjamin Roberts, George & William Miller and Mont Storm were all at least lightly touched upon in Berdan’s design. As a result, Colt made sure to secure the patent rights to all of these designs for the production run of the Model 1868 Rifles.

While the design of the gun is generally credited to Berdan, surviving records and notes suggest that the two Russian military representatives involved in the contracting process with Colt had at least some influence upon the rifle’s final form. Russian Captain K.I, Gunius and Colonel Alexander P Gorlov are believed to have made as many as twenty-five design suggestions during the process and there is the possibility that they may have been responsible for the adoption of the in-line striker system and the abandonment of the conventional hammer in the design.

The Berdan I Infantry Rifle as adopted by the Russians utilized Berdan’s .42 caliber Berdan primed cartridge, which would become known as the 10.66x57R (or 10.75x57R) cartridge, and as the “4.2 Line” cartridge in Russia. The nickname was derived from the caliber of the cartridge and the Russian unit of measure, the liniya, which was one tenth of a diuym. A diuym had been established as being equal to an English inch by Peter the Great, thus a liniya was one tenth of an inch, and four point two liniya was 4.2 tenths of an inch or .42 caliber. The cartridge featured a paper patched round nosed 99% lead and 1% antimony bullet that weighed 386 grains over a propellant charge of 77 grains. The cartridge had a nominal velocity of 1,440 ft/s and a muzzle energy of roughly 1,770 foot/pounds. The cartridge certainly held its own with all of the comparable military cartridges of the period and was essentially the basis for the .43 Spanish cartridge which would soon see worldwide use for a number of decades.

The infantry rifle had a nominally 32.5” round barrel secured by two screw clamping barrel bands, an overall length of 53” and weighted in at nominally 9 ¼ pounds. The rifle was equipped with an adjustable ladder rear sight graduated to 1,400 yards, a dovetailed blade front sight in a rectangular base and had a lug on the left side of the barrel to guide the mounting of socket bayonet. Sling swivels were attached to the upper barrel band and the front of the triggerguard bow. A rudimentary pistol grip projection was included at the rear of the trigger plate. A steel cleaning rod was included in a channel under the barrel. The barrels of the guns and most of the furniture was blued, while the receivers were color casehardened, as were the buttplates. Markings were limited to a one-line barrel mark in Cyrillic which essentially translated to read “Colt Arms Factory City of Hartford America No” or “Colt’s Armoires, Hartford, America No” with the serial number applied by the Russians after receipt of the rifle, following the abbreviation for the word “number”. It appears that initially these rifles were intended for use by specialized riflemen or sharpshooters with the majority of the line infantry still being armed with the Krnka rifles, which were had been developed as a way to alter Russian muzzleloading percussion guns to breechloading cartridge guns. As a result, the order was only for 30,000 rifles. Deliveries began during early 1869, as the official final variant of the rifle was not approved until February of 1868 and the necessary machinery was not installed and able to produce the guns on the assembly line until December of 1868. The 30,000 rifles were delivered in several batches between March 1869 and May 1870.

Almost as soon as the ink was drying on the contract for the 30,000 Berdan I Rifles, Hiram Berdan was trying to improve upon his design. The next incarnation of the Berdan design was as a single shot bolt action rifle that utilized the same cartridge. This rifle was adopted by the Russians as the Model 1870 or Berdan II rifle. However, other than the samples and some of the machinery necessary to produce the guns, the production was all performed by Russian state arsenals like Tula, Izhevsk and Sestroretsk rather than by Colt. Some Berdan II Rifles were also produced in Great Britain by BSA. Despite the fact that the Berdan I Rifles were obsolete almost as soon as they were being adopted and were officially replaced by the Berdan II Rifles only two years after they were first accepted into service, the rifles remained in service through the Great War period, although typically in reserve and rear echelon applications.

After the initial success in selling the Model 1868 Berdan I Infantry Rifles to the Russians, either Colt or Berdan decided to produce some samples of a saddle ring carbine to try to acquire a contract to produce those for the Russian cavalry. According to the last Colt historian and author R.L. Wilson, between 10 and 25 of these carbines were produced as samples, making them “the rarest of the Russian Berdan military arms”. The guns were primarily produced from rifle component parts and used the standard rifle receiver and furniture, a shortened rifle barrel, a specially made stock and incorporated a saddle bar and ring for cavalry use on the reverse of the stock. The rifle barrels were trimmed to nominally 18 ½” and were secured to the specially made 30 ½” carbine stock with a single solid barrel band that was attached to the stock with a single wood screw through the bottom of it. The barrel band’s placement on the altered rifle barrel meant that part of the roll marked information on the barrel was covered by the band. The carbines were nominally 38 ½” in length and the forend did not incorporate any sort of cap or tip. A 3 ¾” sling bar was attached to the reverse of the stock and mounted with a 1 3/16” outer diameter sling ring with an inner diameter of 13/16”. All other features, including the front and rear sights, finger spur trigger plate, buttplate and action were standard rifle parts. Unlike the infantry rifle, no provision was made for a cleaning and clearing rod and no bayonet lug was attached to the barrel. Apparently only these few sample guns were made, and the Russians did not choose to order any cavalry carbines. Today, I am only aware of two surviving examples, one in the Museum of Connecticut State History and this particularly well documented example.

Offered here is an EXCELLENT condition and extremely rare example of a Colt Russian Model 1868 Berdan I Sample Cavalry Carbine. This gun has a well-documented and somewhat famous pedigree that I will detail shortly. The carbine remains in wonderful condition and retains most of the original factory finish. The barrel retains about 95%+ of the original blued finish with some minor thinning, light wear, and loss due to age and handling. The metal is smooth and free of pitting with some scattered freckles of minor oxidation present on the barrel. The receiver retains a similar amount of the original vivid mottled color casehardened finish, again showing some minor thinning and dulling to the vibrant colors. The furniture shows slightly more finish wear and loss with the buttplate showing a small spot of minor from being propped upon it for some time and some freckled and loss on the triggerguard which also shows light to moderate thinning. The metal remains clearly and crisply marked with the one-line Cyrillic barrel marking reading:

Кольтовскiй  Оружейный  заводЪ. г. ГартфордЪ. Америка No.

This translates to read Colt Arms Factory City of Hartford America No but no serial number was applied after the abbreviation for “number”. The serial numbers on the infantry rifles were hand stamped by the Russians after acceptance in Russia. The placement of the single barrel band partially covers the first part of the first word in the marking, so the first three characters are not visible without moving it. Behind the triggerguard is a block letter cartouche, surrounded by an oval, which reads J.R.H.JR. and it is this mark that is extremely important in determining the provenance of this gun. The initials of Major John R Hegeman Jr, who was considered the first serious and advanced collector of Colt firearms.

John Rogers Hegeman Jr (1872-1923) is often conflated with his equally famous father, John Rogers Hegeman Sr (1844-1919). Hegeman Sr. had been a major mover and shaker in the financial world in New York and served as the President of the Metropolitan Life Company from 1891-1919, having previously served as its Vice President from 1870 until he ascended to the Presidency. John Rogers Hegeman Jr was certainly born with a silver spoon in his mouth and into the world of elite New York society, but he still chose to enlist as a private in Company E of the 7th New York National Guard Regiment on 19 December 1892. Some five years later he was promoted to corporal on 7 January 1897. On 21 April 1898 the United State entered the Spanish-American War and in July Hegeman was transferred to the 108^thNew York as the “inspector of small arms practice” and was elevated to the rank of captain, no doubt due to his father’s business and political connections. “War time service” as an officer, even in a regiment that was not selected to go to the war, would no doubt look good on the young Hegeman’s resume if he were to pursue a political career. He was subsequently re-assigned to the 5th Brigade as acting aide-de-camp and the following fall he was listed as the “assistant inspector of small arms practice for the 5th Brigade”. In July of 1901 he was assigned to the 1^st Brigade of the New York National Guard where he was carried on the roles as a "supernumerary" and as the “assistant inspector of small arms practice” for the 1st Brigade. In 1905 he was breveted to the rank of major and was serving as the Ordnance Officer for the 1^st Brigade as well as the “inspector of small arms practice”. He left his Ordnance posting in 1912, and was returned to the rank of captain, and retired from the New York National Guard in 1913 after some 20 years of service. His military service was in no way livelihood as Hegeman was the son and heir of a multimillionaire. It was more likely a matter of patriotic zeal combined with the attitude of the English aristocracy (and American “old money”) that gentlemen did not work at a trade, although they could certainly serve in the military as a way to spend their time. Hegeman Jr did also serve as an assistant secretary to the Metropolitan Life Company as well as one of its directors, but there were certainly more ceremonial positions than as a true avocation. Hegeman’s wealth allowed him to pursue those things he was interested in and if the work he did during his military service is any indication he was quite the firearms aficionado. His social, political and possibly military connections allowed him access to major firearms manufacturers like Colt and Winchester and also the opportunity to meet military luminaries of the period like General Nelson Miles. In fact, Hegeman presented Miles with a deluxe Winchester Model 1895 Saddle Ring Carbine that recently sold for over $100,000. Hegeman was certainly enamored of the American West and counted such American heroes as Theodore Roosevelt and William “Buffalo Bill Cody” among his friends. Hegeman owned a ranch in Montana adjacent to Cody’s and according to some accounts occasionally made appearances in Cody’s Wild West Show. As an avid gun collector, Hegeman put together one of the most famous collections of Colt firearms ever assembled, which included numerous sample and experimental guns, serial number 1 guns and some twenty Patersons. Most of the arms in his collection were marked with his J.R.H.JR. cartouche, allowing collectors to identify these guns today when they are located. His amazing Colt collection was sold by the Kimball Arms Company of Woburn, MA in 1940 and the catalog noted that it consisted of 350 pieces, many of which were presentation arms to other luminaries of the era. 

Sometime after the sale of his collection in 1940 Robert Q Sutherland acquired this carbine. It was part of Sutherland’s collection when he partnered with R.L. Wilson to author The Book of Colt Firearms. This carbine is pictured and described on page 477 of the book. It in particular notes that it was formerly part of Hegeman’s collection and the presence of his cartouche behind the triggerguard. It also erroneously notes that it is serial number 2. As the Russian contract guns were not numbered until they arrived in Russia and were accepted, the barrels of the guns were not numbered in the United States. While it is possible that Colt would number a sample of prototype gun, this one is not. However, a quick glance as the way the marking for No. at the end of the barrel roll mark is struck, gives the impression that it reads N2. I believe this is where the confusion lies and how the text error occurred.

To return to the condition of the gun, the action of the rifle is fully functional and the cocking, firing and breech locking mechanisms all function crisply and correctly. The bore of the rifle remains in EXCELLENT condition as well and is bright and shiny with some minor frosting and crisp six-groove rifling. The rifle retains its original long range military ladder rear sight, the original front sight, and the very important saddle bar and ring. The stock of the rifle rates about VERY FINE to NEAR EXCELELNT but does show slightly more wear than the balance of the gun, as is often the case of the wood on a gun with fantastic metal. The stock is solid and full-length with no breaks, cracks, or repairs. The wood shows a small number of lightly scattered bumps, dings, and mars from handling and storage over the years, but certainly nothing excessive.

Overall, this is a really exceptional example of an incredibly scarce and extremely high condition Colt Russian Model 1868 Berdan I Cavalry Carbine. As noted, the gun remains in original condition with nearly all of the original finish and clear original Cyrillic markings as well as clear Hegeman cartouche. With only 10-25 of these guns produced circa 1869-1870 these are truly the rarest of the Russian Berdan military arms and among the rarest of Colt long arms as well. This exceptional example comes from one of the most historic collections of Colt firearms ever assembled, was subsequently part of the Robert Q Sutherland collection, which was another truly famous Colt collection, and was published in one of the leading references on Colt firearms. As noted, I only know of one other example in existence, and it is an institutional collection. This may be the only example of a Colt Russian Model 1868 Berdan I Cavalry Carbine in private hands. The provenance of the gun is superb, as is the condition. It would be a truly outstanding addition to the most advanced Colt collection or to an equally advanced collection of Russian arms. If they produced 25 of these, that means that Colt made 1,200 infantry rifles for every carbine produced, as the Russian contract was for 30,000 rifles. That means this gun is 1,200 times rarer than the rather scare infantry rifles. As Russian Berdan I rifles in this condition are regularly selling in the $10,000-$12,000 range, the implication is that a carbine such as this would be valued at $12 million dollars due to its rarity! No known sales examples could be found, nor could any example be found that had ever been on the market publicly other than when the Hegeman collection was offered for sale initially in 1940. While the price for this gun may seem “high” to some, it is a true bargain when the rarity and provenance is considered. This is one of the most historically interesting arms I have ever had the pleasure to offer for sale and I know that the new owner will be absolutely thrilled with it.

Provenance: ex-John R Hegeman Jr. Collection, ex-Robert Q Sutherland Collection

SOLD