They did have premade cartridges, using nitrided paper, the whole thing was rammed down in one step, saving some time, you still had to cap the round, though. They were very fragile, and couldn't be put in a belt. Reloading my Colt 1861 Army replica (using a powder flask) takes about 2-3 minutes, including putting Crisco over the ball, something the old-timers didn't do. I've got an inline capper, putting the tiny little cap on is about the hardest part. In one of the Clint Eastwood movies he reloads using a pre-loaded cylinder, (the whole barrel comes off on the Colts if you push out the wedge in front of the cylinder) that is the fast way! ;-)