Ironically enough, when Colt went into bankruptcy in 1844, a Texas Ranger named Walker met with SamuelColt and helped him redesign the Texas Paterson as a heavier model called the Colt Walker.
From that point on the government seemed to just want to get rid of the models, moving them into storage, sending some back to their owners and allowing the Smithsonian to take some important ones--Isaac Singer's sewing machine, for example, and Samuel Colt's revolver.