Hello everybody. Of course I have only known this forum recently and sometimes I enjoy reading the old threads. This is really very interesting for me! However, regarding the .45 Government cartridge I have always known (but I believe my sources are the same as you have) that the Chief of Ordnance ordered the Frankford Arsenal to stop production of the "Cartridge for Colt's Revolver" in the summer of 1874 (the contract date for the first 3000 Schofield was in September) and this started the production of the "Revolver Ball Cartridge". Why are you talking here about a version for the Colt and S&W born only in 1887? The 1875 cartridge already had a 28 grs powder charge and a 230 grs bullet. Of course the OAL was 1.42 "and the rim diameter was increased by .02" (0.5mm) to be positively ejected by the Schofield extractor. It seems to me that the first boxes of "Revolver ball Cartridges" have the date of 1875, but without the month as it happened in the previous version. The same date, 1875, of the first supply of the Schofield revolvers. If I'm not mistaken, since then this model of cartridge (since 1882 produced with the external primer and no longer with the internal Benet one) have even been produced until the birth of the mod. 1909 for the double action Colt mod 1909. So even during the war with Spain. And this, I suppose, only for logistical problems since the Schofield had been withdrawn for some time.
Giorgio