In 1895–1896, the U.S. federal government returned 2000 SAA revolvers to Colt to be refurbished; 800 were issued to the New York Militia with the -inch barrel and 1,200 were altered to a barrel length of inches. In 1898, 14,900 of the SAA revolvers were altered the same way by Springfield Armory. The original records of the War Department do refer to these revolvers with the shortened barrel as the "Altered Revolver". The name "Artillery" is actually a misnomer, which Sapp speculates may have originated because the Light Artillery happened to have the first units armed with the altered revolver.