Most folks don’t realize that the US Army rarely issued the .45 Colt cartridge, and when they did, it was often not a full-power load. Mike Venturino has a January 1874 vintage box of Frankford Arsenal .45 Colt ammunition. The box label clearly indicates that it was only loaded with 30gr of blackpowder, not the 40gr seen in commercial ammunition.

Once the S&W Schofield revolver was approved for service, the US Army began to move away from the .45 Colt cartridge. Frankford Arsenal received its first order for production of the .45 Schofield cartridge on August 20, 1874. Like other cartridges of the era, these used internally-primed copper cases. With the transition to Boxer primers, the Cal. .45 Revolver, Ball, Model of 1882 was adopted July 3, 1882. On June 13, 1887, the case specification became a hybrid of the Schofield-length case with the smaller rim of the .45 Colt case. Early .45 M1882 cartridges used a 230gr projectile loaded over 28gr of blackpowder. By 1901, this was reduced to a 225gr projectile loaded over 26gr of blackpowder. Procurement of blackpowder Schofield-length cartridges continued as late as 1920.

In 1898, US Army Ordnance purchased 650,000 commercial .45 Colt (40gr blackpowder) cartridges from UMC for use in the Philippines. However, these turned out to be over-pressure, causing split cases and blown primers. (Outside of possible QC issues, I’m going to guess that the issue was compounded by the lengthy transport and storage time in excessive heat.) In 1903, Frankford Arsenal ordered 10,000 additional commercial .45 Colt from UMC. Once again loaded with 40gr of blackpowder, these cartridges were purposefully dedicated for proof firing refurbished Colt revolvers.

The full-length .45 Colt case (albeit with a wider rim) was revived for the smokeless Cal. 45 M1909 Revolver Ball cartridge, but even that was loaded fairly light. Vintage Frankford Arsenal box labels claim 725 fps.