In 1870 the United States Army adopted the 44 calliber Smith and Wesson American top break revolver: the first standard issue cartridge firing revolver. Most military pistols up until that point were black powder cap and ball revolvers, which were (by comparison) slow, complicated, and susceptible to the effects of wet weather. The Schofield had several advantages over the Peacemaker, with its topbreak action empty cartridges could be ejected and loaded in 26 seconds. While a Colt had to have its cartridges ejected on at a time through a ejector rod.