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Some neat history about Samuel Colt.

Very interesting. Thanks for the post.

The Texas Rangers did not fight in the Seminole War. The author got that part of the story a bit confused. Also, I've never heard that Colt himself "named" the 1851 Colt Navy. I thought that came about in popular jargon because of the naval scene roll stamped on the cylinder. Guns made after the Walker were quite reliable for the time. The original Patterson had a reputation for being finicky and unreliable.

kragluver wrote:The Texas Rangers did not fight in the Seminole War.

Depends on how you define the Seminole War. In the early 1850s Seminoles that had been relocated to Oklahoma escaped through Texas to Mexico and developed settlements. The Texas Ranges fought with them during the mid 1850s (unseccussfully). Of course this would be after the time frame referred to in the article.
Sam Walker did however fight in the Seminole War not long after joining the U.S. Military.

The article states this:

Colt’s revolvers were held in such esteem by Captain Sam Walker and his Texas Rangers during the Seminole War that when the Mexican-American War flared up in the 1840s, Walker helped convince the U.S. War Department....

Walker fought in the Second Seminole War (in Florida) in 1836-7. He joined John Coffee Hays and the Rangers in 1842. Walker didn't rejoin the US Army until 1846, and it was after that that he sought arms for his companies. And rather than convincing the War Department, he gave up fighting the bureaucracy and financed the entire purchase himself.

Texas ordered 180 Patersons in 1836 for the Texas Navy, and some of those found their way into the hands of other people.

Patersons saw limited use in the Second Seminole War (the one that Walker fought in), but I'm not aware of any evidence that Walker was issued one. Walker certainly would have been familiar with and using a Paterson as a Texas Ranger, but the way the author has worded this phrase is very deceptive. While Walker may have used a Paterson in Florida and certainly used them in Texas, and some Rangers may have had Patersons during the time period when the Second Seminole War was raging, the phrasing implies that Walker was a Ranger during the Second Seminole War, which he most certainly was not since he didn't even arrive in Texas until 1842.

Thank you Eagle - that is the point I was attempting to make. Actually, I was unaware that Walker fought the Seminoles or that the Seminoles fought Texans. Good discussion.