Correct, they are conversions. It was not an uncommon practice. When you had to rely on your sidearm quite a bit, you tend to be resistant to the idea of change. It was also cheaper to convert an existing cap-n-ball to cartridge than it was to buy a new cartridge gun.
Said conversion work would be prohibitively expensive these days, not to mention possibly illegal. Black powder guns are almost unregulated in many states. Converting one to fire cartridges would change its' status and thus constitute a possibel breach of the draconian Federal firearms statutes
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