Jan 16, 2012 Hi folks, I've got a great model 1860 Spencer infantry rifle that I'm getting ready to sell, and I'm wondering how I might find details about this particular gun's serial number. The number is 9481, so I think it's an early one, but how can I determine which regiment it was issued to? Thanks, Jeff.
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The Spencers - Then The Spencer - ThenChristopher Miner Spencer, inventor, manufacturer andsalesman extraordinaire, was aptly described by John Hay, AbrahamLincoln's Secretary, as a 'splendid little Yankee.' Spencer, aConnecticut native, embodied all the best aspects of 19th centuryentrepreneurial capitalism.Born in 1833, Spencer, who had little formal education,began working in a silk mill at the age of fourteen, where hedemonstrated a particular genius for designing machinery. Hislifelong interest in firearms led to employment with ColtFirearms and then Robbins and Lawrence, contractor for the famedSharps. Spencer also worked on his own ideas and, on March 6,1860, was awarded a patent on a new type of breechloadingrepeating rifle.The introduction of the self contained metallic cartridge inthe 1850s made the Spencer Model 1860 technically possible. TheSpencer, with its tubular buttstock magazine, was a simpler andsturdier design than the competing Henry. Although the gun'sseven round capacity was less than half that of the Henry, theSpencer's.56.56 rimfire cartridge packed a much heavier wallopthan the.44 rimfire. A lever action gun like its competitor,the Spencer's lever actuated a rolling block that fed cartridgesfrom the magaznie into the chamber.
Unlike the Henry, however,the Spencer's hammer had to be manually cocked for each shot.The advent of Civil War promised a big market to Spencer aswell as a legion of other firearms inventors. In the summer of1861, the inventor secured manufacturing space in the ChickeringPiano Factory in Boston, and pressed the government to test hisprototypes.Like almost all 'patent arms' purveyors, Spencer used anyinfluence available to promote his repeater. Fortunately forhim, a former neighbor who was a personal friend of NavySecretary Gideon Welles secured a trial for the new gun.Although the Henry was also tested and both weapons receivedfavorable reports, the Navy ordered ordered 700 Spencer rifleswith 30 inch barrels and sword bayonets.The Army also tested the Spencer and preferred it to theHenry.
Ordnance people liked the Spencer's sturdiness, heavycaliber and relative ease of manufacture and placed an order for10,000 (later reduced to 7,500) rifles. Although the army wantedarms in the standard.58 caliber bore diameter, Spencer deliveredhis guns in.56.56, which was nominally.52 caliber. Actually,there is a great deal of variation in.56.56 bore diameters,many of which are actually.54 caliber. In black powder days,bore tolerances were not considered as critical as today.
Thecharcoal based propellant 'boosted' undersized bullets up to borediameter, atoning for a multitude of machining sins.Deliveries of Spencer rifles began in December of 1862 andcontinued through June of 1863. The state of Massachusetts alsoordered 2,000 rifles, although other contracts delayed deliveryof the Bay State guns until 1864. A total of 11,471 Spencerrifles were manufactured, and it is safe to say most made theirway to the battle front during the war.More numerous were the carbines, with orders beginning in thesummer of 1863. Spencer's salesmanship was fully equal to hisskills as an inventor and manufacturer, and he touredbattlefronts and visited the White House promoting his rifle.After a personal test by President Lincoln, the Spencer's futurewas secure.Carbine deliveries began in October of 1863, and a total of64,685 were delivered through January 1866. In addition thegovernment purchased 30,496 of the slightly different pattern.56.50 caliber Model 1865 Spencer carbines, made by the BurnsideRifle Company of Providence, Rhode Island.Some writers have incorrectly assumed that all these gunssaw service in the Civil War, which gives a skewed view of theSpencer's influence. Including deliveries of 2,007 carbines onApril 3 and April 12, 1865, as hostilities came to a close,46,185 carbines were deliverd by April 12, 1865. Adding the11,471 rifles gives a total of 57,656 Spencers which possibly sawcombat.
All of the Burnside guns were delivered after the closeof hostilities.The first Spencer was fired at Confederates in a skirmish near Cumberland, Maryland on October 16, 1863. The prototype gunwas in the hands of Sergeant Francis O.
Lombard, a gunsmithfriend of the inventor serving in Company F, 1st MassachusettsCavalry. It was a while before others would follow Lombard'sexample.
Most, if not all of the rifles puchased by the Navywere issued to the Mississippi Marine Brigade. In January of1863, the army issued its first Spencers to the 5th, 6th 7th and8th Independent Companies of Ohio Sharpshooters.Spencers gained their greatest fame in the hands of men whodidn't wait for the army to issue them. Colonel John T. Wilder'sMounted Infantry Brigade bought their own repeaters. Wilderoriginally wanted Henrys for his men, but slow productionseverely limited the availability of that arm.
EventuallyWilder's regiments, including the 17th, 72nd, 92nd Indiana, and98th Illinois (the 92nd Illinois joined the brigade later) werearmed with a mixture of Spencer rifles and carbines along withBurnside single shot breech loading carbines.On June 24, 1863, Wilder's men cleared Hoover's Gap,Tennessee of Confederates and then held it successfully against acounterattack. Although often cited as a prime example of theefficacy of the Spencer's firepower, the fight at Hoover's Gap isas much a tribute to Wilder's speed of movement and tacticalabilities as his men's armament. His brigade overran the singleRebel regiment in the gap and then, supported by an artillerybattery, stood off a counterattack by a weak brigade ofConfederates.
Caught in flank and front by Spencer fire andcannister, 650 Grayback attackers lost 19 killed and 126 wounded,a fairly heavy percentage, but hardly a massacre. Chickamaugaprovided a better test of the effects of rapid fire. There is nodoubt that Wilder's fast firing Spencers caused GeneralLongstreet to believe he was confronting a whole army corps, andhelped to save the defeated Union Army.Spencer Rifles were first carried into battle by the 5th Michigan Cavalry at Hanover Station and were later used at Gettysburg in the drawn cavalry battle behind the Union lines on July 3, 1863.
General Custer credited the Spencers of the dismounted 5th with enabling the regiment to hold a crucial fenceline against the Rebels. In fact, the 5th was never directly attacked, although its rapid flanking fire wrecked one of several Rebel charges. Mounted saber charges by other Union horsemen, the superior accuracy and ammunition supply of the Federal horse artillery and the fact that some of Stuart's men had to withdraw when they ran out of ammunition were also factors in the fight, however.One historian credits the handful of Spencers issued to Colonel William Gamble's cavalry brigade for the stand taken by the Federal cavalry on Gettysburg's first day. This seems doubtful, however.
Despite the claims of participants, the Yankee cavalry does not seem to have been heavily engaged with Confederate infantry on McPherson's Ridge. With 1,600 troopers engaged, Gamble only lost 13 men killed and 58 wounded.It was, however, clear that Custer's assessment of theSpencer as 'the most effective firearm our cavalry can adopt,'was correct. Over the winter of 1863-1864, Spencers began toflow into the field on a regular basis and were issued to anumber of units, primarily cavalry outfits.
Several infantryregiments were issued Spencer rifles as well. One was the 46thOhio Veteran Volunteers. In a recent monograph on the Spencer,Mr. McQueen has reprinted in its entirety his originalcopy of a Spencer manual written by the 46th's Colonel Charles C.Walcutt. McQueen's book, a must for the Spencer scholar andshooter, is available from the author. (1900 Amherst Rd. NE,Massillon, OH; $15 postpaid)Colonel Walcutt's work details a new manual of arms for theSpencer, but offers no tactical suggestions.
If followed to theletter, Walcutt's drill, in which soldiers return to the 'ready'before levering another round into the chamber, negates to adegree the Spencer's prime virtue, rapid fire. Considering thesituation the 37th Massachusetts found itself in at Winchester,however, the fears of officers that men armed with repeatersmight blaze away all their ammunition to little effect doesn'tseem so far off the mark. One Confederate commander recalledthat his men didn't mind fighting Spencer armed Yankees forprecisely that reason.Some commanders may have exercised considerable firediscipline, however. The number of relatively heavy Spencerrounds a man could carry (especially an infantryman) wasnecessarily limited. In Major General James Wilson's massivecavalry raid in the final weeks of the war, troopers were issued100 rounds each with another 85 per man in reserve.
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Consideringthat a Spencer can (conservatively) be emptied in under tenseconds and reloaded in well under a minute, Wilson's horsemencould have, in theory, expended their whole ammunition supply inhalf an hour. Yet this supply was considered enough for a wholecampaign, and proved sufficient through several battles.Traces of specific Spencer tactics can be found in Wilson'sraid, as well as at the Battle of Nashville in December, 1864.Had the war lasted another year, a tactical doctrine might wellhave evolved. Doctrine or no, the growing number of Spencers inthe hands of Federal troops would probably have played a decisiverole in the Union victory.The realities and possibilities of the Spencer were soon forgotten, however, and the Spencer's eventual replacement in the service by a single shot weapon indicates that evidence of its effectiveness and potential failed to penetrate the military mind of the day. General Custer must have rued the day his 'most effective firearm' was dropped from the army inventory,however, the fears of officers that men armed with repeaters might blaze away all their ammunition to little effect doesn't seem so far off the mark. One Confederate commander recalled that his men didn't mind fighting Spencer armed Yankees for precisely that reason.Massachusetts infantry regiments began receiving theirstate purchased Spencer rifles in the summer of 1864.
Thesharpshooter company of the 57th Massachusetts received theirguns, promised them at their January enlistment, in July. Themen of the 37th Massachusetts regiment were issued Spencer rifleson their way to the Shenandoah Valley the same month. Otherunits received Spencers during the Valley campaign, including thesharpshooter detachment of the 1st New Jersey Brigade.
Somesoldiers issued Spencers to themselves. When Adjutant EdmundHalsey of the 15th New Jersey took an inventory of his unit'sweapons on August 19, 1864, he found one of his infantrymen armedwith a Spencer carbine.Elisha Hunt Rhodes of the 2nd Rhode Island, a featuredcharacter in the recent PBS series on the Civil War, was aSpencer fan.
On July 18, 1864, Rhodes borrowed forty Spencersfrom the 37th Massachusetts to surprise some Rebel pickets whowere picking off his men. On September 19, at the battle ofWinchester, the men of Rhodes's regiment filled their pocketswith.56.56 rounds and ran to the support of the 37th, which hadshot away all its ammunition and was lying helpless under fire.Resupplied, the Bay State men rejoined the attack, which wasultimately successful. Rhodes, a gun buff who was president ofthe Officer's Rifle Association of Rhode Island in the 1890s, wasimpressed enough with the Spencer to carry one as his personalweapon in the closing months of the war.According to Earl J.
Coates and Dean S. Thomas in An Introduction to Civil War Small Arms,(Thomas Publications, 1990) 36 Infantry and 15 Cavalry outfits in the Union army were armed in whole or in part with Spencers during the '1863-1864 time period.' By 1865 many more regiments,primarily cavalry, were equipped with the repeaters. Spencerswere effective weapons and, perhaps as important, were greatmorale boosters. They were not, however, war winners or evenbattle winners.
Spencers in the hands of the 7th Connecticutrepulsed a Rebel assault at Olustee, Florida in February of 1864,but did not save the battle for the Union.By 1864, some Confederates, including the 2nd North CarolinaCavalry, the 8th Texas and General Joseph Wheeler's escort guardwere carrying 'galvanized' Spencers. Nathan Bedford Forest wasone of several cavalry raiders whose men captured a number ofSpencers which were, no doubt, used with with great effect ontheir former owners as long as captured ammunition held out.Although some authors have contended that repeating riflescaused a revolution in tactics, there is no solid evidence tobuttress the allegation. Civil War 'tactics' manuals werelargely drill manuals whose combat application revolved around getting men massed to deliver maximum amount of fire for Muzzle loaders.The repeater was a definitive asset in the defense, and a welcome addition to the lonely skirmisher. If vollies were used, then volumes of fire were never lived up to!
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