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The Spencer Carbine made its appearance during the Civil War,and many of these government-purchased arms were re-issued in the1870s for service on the frontier. These guns utilized aspring-loaded seven-shot tube magazine that was located in thebuttstock. In post-war models, a patented magazine cut-offprevented the breechblock from traveling far enough to the rear toaccept a magazine-fed cartridge. This allowed soldiers to load andfire single rounds, with the ammunition contained in the magazinekept in reserve. The serial number on this carbine indicates it wasmade c.1863-1865 in cal. .52 rimfire (56-56) and converted bySpringfield Armory c. 1867-1874 to .50 cal. by sleeving the barrel.SN 50266
Two barrel bands were used instead of the three on factory-original Spencer rifles. The wood and metal were refinished or repaired as necessary, and the receiver serial number (which could be anything from 1 to 34,000) was added to the left side of the barrel. If the carbine did not have a Stabler cutoff, one was added.
Christian Minor Spencer was born in Manchester, Connecticut onJune 20, 1833. At age 11, he went to live with his maternalgrandfather, Josiah Hollister, a veteran of the Revolutionary War.It was there that young Christian learned the rudiments of wood-and metalworking. By the age of 14, Spencer was apprenticed to theMount Nebo Silk Manufacturing Co., located in South Manchester,Connecticut. This firm was owned by the Cheney family, one of NewEngland's most enterprising and influential families. After a year,he entered a second apprenticeship, this time with local machinistSamuel Loomis.
In late 1850, Spencer returned to the employ of the Cheneys as amachinist. During this period, he perfected several experimentalmachine designs, and in the process, he developed what would be alifelong relationship with the Cheneys. At the advice of FrankCheney, Spencer worked as a toolmaker in Rochester, New York, thenas a machinist in the locomotive repair shops of the New YorkCentral Railroad. He also worked briefly for the N. P. Ames Companyof Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, where he received his firstformal experience with the manufacture of firearms. His next stopwas at the factory of Samuel Colt, where he helped to design manyof the specialized machines used in the production of Coltrevolvers.
Christian renewed his employment with the Cheney family in 1854when, at the age of 22, he became superintendent of hisbenefactor's new silk ribbon manufactory in Hartford. During thisperiod, Spencer designed and patented a machine to attach labels tospools, thus allowing one shop girl to do the work of three. TheCheneys paid Spencer a $25 royalty on every machine he produced.Although working 11 hour days six days per week, Spencer began toexperiment with an idea for a breech-loading repeating firearm. By1859, with the encouragement of both his father and the Cheneys, hehad perfected a lever-action rolling block rifle design, and onMarch 6, 1860, he was awarded a U.S. patent for his work. Withfinancial backing from his father, Ogden Spencer, a prosperous woolmerchant, Christian was able to secure the services of LukeWheelock, an experienced gunsmith, for the production of prototypefirearms. Spencer also befriended Richard S. Lawrence, thensuperintendent of the Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Company, and thisassociation most likely influenced certain aspects of Spencer'sdesign.
By the spring of 1861, civil war had come to America, and theCheney family entered into a contract with Spencer in which allrights and patents for Spencer's rifle design would be assigned tothem. In return, Spencer would receive a royalty of $1 for everyrifle produced. This was later lowered to 50 cents for eachmilitary arm produced. The Cheneys had long been friends of GideonWelles, Secretary of the Navy in Abraham Lincoln's administration,and this gave them, and Spencer's rifle, access to governmentofficials in Washington. At this time, Spencer also contracted withConnecticut ammunition makers Crittenden & Tibbals for themanufacture of a .56 caliber rimfire metallic cartridge for use inhis rifle. In its final form, the Spencer rifle employed aspring-loaded seven-shot tubular magazine which was located in thebuttstock, and a lever-action which, when operated, ejected a spentcartridge and chambered a fresh one. Manual cocking of the hammerthen readied the rifle for firing.
The stage was now set for Spencer's rise to fame. Through thepatronage of Secretary Welles, Spencer's rifle was successfullytested by the Navy, resulting in the purchase of 1,000 guns. Armytrials followed in the spring of 1862, and this resulted in thesale of an additional 10,000 guns. In addition, President AbrahamLincoln also took part in a demonstration of the Spencer, firingseven shots at a target forty yards away. This demonstration tookplace on the Mall, near the site of the Washington Monument, andresulted in Lincoln's personal endorsement of the arm. Spencer nowhad contracts but no manufacturing facilities. Once again, theCheney family would prove to be indispensable to Spencer, asCharles Cheney rented a portion of a piano factory in Boston forproduction of Spencer firearms.
After several delays, the first shipment of Spencer carbines wasdelivered on December 31, 1862. Both Army and Navy placedadditional orders during the summer of 1863, and many other Spencerarms were purchased privately. By the end of the war, more than144,000 Spencer rifles and carbines had been manufactured; overtwo-thirds were purchased by the U.S. government. To keep up withdemand, Spencer subcontracted some production to the Burnside RifleCo. of Providence, Rhode Island.
Spencer rifles and carbines met with high praise from those whowere equipped with them, and with respect from those who faced themin battle. In its first combat test, Spencer-armed Union troopsunder the command of Colonel John Wilder earned the nickname'Lightning Brigade' when they defeated a numerically superiorConfederate force at the Battle of Hoover's Gap, Tennessee on June24, 1863. One week later, Spencer rifles again saw action in thehands of troopers of the 5th Michigan Cavalry Regiment of GeneralGeorge Armstrong Custer's Brigade at the Battle of Gettysburg.Wilder's troops were called on again at the Battle of Chickamaugain September, 1863, when they fought to hold the Union center inthe face of determined attacks by General James Longstreet'sConfederates.
Spencer rifles and carbines also saw service with several otherUnion infantry and cavalry regiments. Although the South lacked thecapacity to manufacture metallic cartridges used by the Spencer,captured arms and ammunition saw service with troops under thecommand of Colonel John Mosby, the famed 'Gray Ghost of theConfederacy,' as well as with other units andindividuals.
The effectiveness of the Spencer was greatly increased by two otherinventions, the Blakeslee cartridge box, and the Stabler cut-offdevice. The Blakeslee cartridge box was invented by Unioncavalryman Erastus Blakeslee and consisted of a leather-coveredwood box containing six to ten tubes, each of which held sevenSpencer cartridges. Troops equipped with these boxes could quicklyreload the gun that, in the words of one awed Confederate, could be'loaded on Sunday and fired all week.'
Later Spencers, beginning with the Model 1865, were equipped with acut-off mechanism invented by Edward Stabler which, when engaged,prevented the breechblock from moving far enough to chamber acartridge from the buttstock magazine. This device permitted theSpencer to be used as a single-shot arm, with a full magazine heldin reserve. Spencer carbines continued to serve on the frontierafter the Civil War, but the firm's prodigious wartime outputcontributed to a large post-war surplus.
Declining sales forced the Spencer Repeating Rifle Co. intoinsolvency, and in October, 1868, all of the company's assets weresold to the Fogerty Rifle Co. of Boston. Within a year, Fogerty'sassets were in turn purchased by Oliver Winchester, and ChristianSpencer agreed to assign all future repeating rifle designs orimprovements to Winchester. Spencer later returned to the firearmsindustry with the formation of the Spencer Arms Co., whichmanufactured his design for the first practical pump-actionshotgun. This firm was later sold to noted arms dealer FrancisBannerman. Christian Spencer died on January 14, 1922.
In late 1850, Spencer returned to the employ of the Cheneys as amachinist. During this period, he perfected several experimentalmachine designs, and in the process, he developed what would be alifelong relationship with the Cheneys. At the advice of FrankCheney, Spencer worked as a toolmaker in Rochester, New York, thenas a machinist in the locomotive repair shops of the New YorkCentral Railroad. He also worked briefly for the N. P. Ames Companyof Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, where he received his firstformal experience with the manufacture of firearms. His next stopwas at the factory of Samuel Colt, where he helped to design manyof the specialized machines used in the production of Coltrevolvers.
Christian renewed his employment with the Cheney family in 1854when, at the age of 22, he became superintendent of hisbenefactor's new silk ribbon manufactory in Hartford. During thisperiod, Spencer designed and patented a machine to attach labels tospools, thus allowing one shop girl to do the work of three. TheCheneys paid Spencer a $25 royalty on every machine he produced.Although working 11 hour days six days per week, Spencer began toexperiment with an idea for a breech-loading repeating firearm. By1859, with the encouragement of both his father and the Cheneys, hehad perfected a lever-action rolling block rifle design, and onMarch 6, 1860, he was awarded a U.S. patent for his work. Withfinancial backing from his father, Ogden Spencer, a prosperous woolmerchant, Christian was able to secure the services of LukeWheelock, an experienced gunsmith, for the production of prototypefirearms. Spencer also befriended Richard S. Lawrence, thensuperintendent of the Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Company, and thisassociation most likely influenced certain aspects of Spencer'sdesign.
By the spring of 1861, civil war had come to America, and theCheney family entered into a contract with Spencer in which allrights and patents for Spencer's rifle design would be assigned tothem. In return, Spencer would receive a royalty of $1 for everyrifle produced. This was later lowered to 50 cents for eachmilitary arm produced. The Cheneys had long been friends of GideonWelles, Secretary of the Navy in Abraham Lincoln's administration,and this gave them, and Spencer's rifle, access to governmentofficials in Washington. At this time, Spencer also contracted withConnecticut ammunition makers Crittenden & Tibbals for themanufacture of a .56 caliber rimfire metallic cartridge for use inhis rifle. In its final form, the Spencer rifle employed aspring-loaded seven-shot tubular magazine which was located in thebuttstock, and a lever-action which, when operated, ejected a spentcartridge and chambered a fresh one. Manual cocking of the hammerthen readied the rifle for firing.
The stage was now set for Spencer's rise to fame. Through thepatronage of Secretary Welles, Spencer's rifle was successfullytested by the Navy, resulting in the purchase of 1,000 guns. Armytrials followed in the spring of 1862, and this resulted in thesale of an additional 10,000 guns. In addition, President AbrahamLincoln also took part in a demonstration of the Spencer, firingseven shots at a target forty yards away. This demonstration tookplace on the Mall, near the site of the Washington Monument, andresulted in Lincoln's personal endorsement of the arm. Spencer nowhad contracts but no manufacturing facilities. Once again, theCheney family would prove to be indispensable to Spencer, asCharles Cheney rented a portion of a piano factory in Boston forproduction of Spencer firearms.
After several delays, the first shipment of Spencer carbines wasdelivered on December 31, 1862. Both Army and Navy placedadditional orders during the summer of 1863, and many other Spencerarms were purchased privately. By the end of the war, more than144,000 Spencer rifles and carbines had been manufactured; overtwo-thirds were purchased by the U.S. government. To keep up withdemand, Spencer subcontracted some production to the Burnside RifleCo. of Providence, Rhode Island.
Spencer rifles and carbines met with high praise from those whowere equipped with them, and with respect from those who faced themin battle. In its first combat test, Spencer-armed Union troopsunder the command of Colonel John Wilder earned the nickname'Lightning Brigade' when they defeated a numerically superiorConfederate force at the Battle of Hoover's Gap, Tennessee on June24, 1863. One week later, Spencer rifles again saw action in thehands of troopers of the 5th Michigan Cavalry Regiment of GeneralGeorge Armstrong Custer's Brigade at the Battle of Gettysburg.Wilder's troops were called on again at the Battle of Chickamaugain September, 1863, when they fought to hold the Union center inthe face of determined attacks by General James Longstreet'sConfederates.
Spencer rifles and carbines also saw service with several otherUnion infantry and cavalry regiments. Although the South lacked thecapacity to manufacture metallic cartridges used by the Spencer,captured arms and ammunition saw service with troops under thecommand of Colonel John Mosby, the famed 'Gray Ghost of theConfederacy,' as well as with other units andindividuals.
The effectiveness of the Spencer was greatly increased by two otherinventions, the Blakeslee cartridge box, and the Stabler cut-offdevice. The Blakeslee cartridge box was invented by Unioncavalryman Erastus Blakeslee and consisted of a leather-coveredwood box containing six to ten tubes, each of which held sevenSpencer cartridges. Troops equipped with these boxes could quicklyreload the gun that, in the words of one awed Confederate, could be'loaded on Sunday and fired all week.'
Later Spencers, beginning with the Model 1865, were equipped with acut-off mechanism invented by Edward Stabler which, when engaged,prevented the breechblock from moving far enough to chamber acartridge from the buttstock magazine. This device permitted theSpencer to be used as a single-shot arm, with a full magazine heldin reserve. Spencer carbines continued to serve on the frontierafter the Civil War, but the firm's prodigious wartime outputcontributed to a large post-war surplus.
Declining sales forced the Spencer Repeating Rifle Co. intoinsolvency, and in October, 1868, all of the company's assets weresold to the Fogerty Rifle Co. of Boston. Within a year, Fogerty'sassets were in turn purchased by Oliver Winchester, and ChristianSpencer agreed to assign all future repeating rifle designs orimprovements to Winchester. Spencer later returned to the firearmsindustry with the formation of the Spencer Arms Co., whichmanufactured his design for the first practical pump-actionshotgun. This firm was later sold to noted arms dealer FrancisBannerman. Christian Spencer died on January 14, 1922.
Spencer repeating rifle | |
---|---|
Type | Lever-action rifle |
Place of origin | United States |
Service history | |
Used by | United States Army United States Navy Confederate States of America France Siam Tokugawa Shogunate Aizu Domain Empire of Japan Empire of Brazil Chile |
Wars | American Civil War Indian Wars Boshin War Paraguayan War Franco-Prussian War Occupation of Araucanía |
Production history | |
Designer | Christopher Spencer |
Designed | 1860 |
Manufacturer | Spencer Repeating Rifle CompanyBurnside Rifle Co [1] |
Unit cost | $40 (1861)[2] |
Produced | 1860–1869 |
No. built | 200,000 approx. |
Specifications | |
Length | 47 in (1,200 mm) rifle with 30 inch barrel 39.25 in (997 mm) carbine with 22 inch barrel[3] |
Barrel length | 30 in (760 mm) 22 in (560 mm)[4] 20 in (510 mm)[5] |
Cartridge | |
Caliber | .52 in (13 mm) |
Action | Manually cocked hammer, lever action |
Rate of fire | 14-20 rounds per minute[6] |
Muzzle velocity | 931 to 1,033 ft/s (284 to 315 m/s) |
Effective firing range | 500 yards[7] |
Feed system | 7 round tube magazine |
The Spencer repeating rifles and carbines were early American lever-action firearms invented by Christopher Spencer. The Spencer was the world's first military metallic cartridge repeating rifle, and over 200,000 examples were manufactured in the United States by the Spencer Repeating Rifle Co. and Burnside Rifle Co. between 1860 and 1869. The Spencer repeating rifle was adopted by the Union Army, especially by the cavalry, during the American Civil War but did not replace the standard issue muzzle-loadingrifled muskets in use at the time. Among the early users was George Armstrong Custer. The Spencer carbine was a shorter and lighter version designed for the cavalry.
Overview[edit]
Diagram of the Spencer rifle showing the magazine in the butt
The design for a magazine-fed, lever-operated rifle chambered for the .56-56 Spencerrimfire cartridge was completed by Christopher Spencer in 1860. Called the Spencer Repeating Rifle, it was fired by cocking a lever to extract a used case and feed a new cartridge from a tube in the buttstock. Like most firearms of the time, the hammer had to be manually cocked after each round in a separate action before the weapon could be fired. The weapon used copper rimfire cartridges, based on the 1854 Smith & Wesson patent, stored in a seven-round tube magazine. A spring in the tube enabled the rounds to be fired one after another. When empty, the spring had to be released and removed before dropping in fresh cartridges, then replaced before resuming firing. Rounds could be loaded individually or from a device called the Blakeslee Cartridge Box, which contained up to thirteen (also six and ten) tubes with seven cartridges each, which could be emptied into the magazine tube in the buttstock.[8]
Unlike later cartridge designations, the .56-56 Spencer's first number referred to the diameter of the case just ahead of the rim, the second number the case diameter at the mouth; the actual bullet diameter was .52 inches. Cartridges were loaded with 45 grains (2.9 g) of black powder, and were also available as .56-52, .56-50, and a wildcat .56-46, a necked down version of the original .56-56. Cartridge length was limited by the action size to about 1.75 inches; later calibers used a smaller diameter, lighter bullet and larger powder charge to increase power and range over the original .56-56 cartridge, which was almost as powerful as the .58 caliber rifled musket of the time but under-powered by the standards of other early cartridges such as the .50–70 and .45-70.
History[edit]
At first, the view by the Department of War Ordnance Department was that soldiers would waste ammunition by firing too rapidly with repeating rifles, and thus denied a government contract for all such weapons. (They did, however, encourage the use of carbine breech loaders that loaded one shot at a time. Such carbines were shorter than a rifle and well suited for cavalry.)[9] More accurately, they feared that the Army's logistics train would be unable to provide enough ammunition for the soldiers in the field, as they already had grave difficulty bringing up enough ammunition to sustain armies of tens of thousands of men over distances of hundreds of miles. A weapon able to fire several times as fast would require a vastly expanded logistics train and place great strain on the already overburdened railroads and tens of thousands of more mules, wagons, and wagon train guard detachments. The fact that several Springfield rifle-muskets could be purchased for the cost of a single Spencer carbine also influenced thinking.[10] However, just after the Battle of Gettysburg, Spencer was able to gain an audience with President Abraham Lincoln, who invited him to a shooting match and demonstration of the weapon on the lawn of the White House. Lincoln was impressed with the weapon, and ordered Gen. James Wolfe Ripley to adopt it for production, after which Ripley disobeyed him and stuck with the single-shot rifles.[1]
The Spencer repeating rifle was first adopted by the United States Navy, and later by the United States Army, and it was used during the American Civil War, where it was a popular weapon.[11] The Confederates occasionally captured some of these weapons and ammunition, but, as they were unable to manufacture the cartridges because of shortages of copper, their ability to take advantage of the weapons was limited.
Gettysburg was the first major battle of the war where Spencer rifles were used, as they had recently been issued to the 13th Pennsylvania Reserves. They were used at the Chickamauga and had become fairly widespread in the Western armies by 1864. Repeater rifles for comparison were rare in the Army of the Potomac.
Notable early instances of use included the Battle of Hoover's Gap (where Col.John T. Wilder's 'Lightning Brigade' of mounted infantry effectively demonstrated the firepower of repeaters), and the Gettysburg Campaign, where two regiments of the Michigan Brigade (under Brig. Gen.George Armstrong Custer) carried them at the Battle of Hanover and at East Cavalry Field.[12] As the war progressed, Spencers were carried by a number of Union cavalry and mounted infantry regiments and provided the Union army with a firepower advantage over their Confederate adversaries. At the Battle of Nashville, 9,000 mounted infantrymen armed with the Spencer, under the command of Maj. Gen. James H. Wilson, chief of cavalry for the Military Division of the Mississippi, rode around Gen. Hood's left flank and attacked from the rear. President Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth was armed with a Spencer carbine at the time he was captured and killed.[13]
Spencer 1865 Carbine .50 caliber
The Spencer showed itself to be very reliable under combat conditions, with a sustainable rate-of-fire in excess of 20 rounds per minute. Compared to standard muzzle-loaders, with a rate of fire of 2–3 rounds per minute, this represented a significant tactical advantage.[14] However, effective tactics had yet to be developed to take advantage of the higher rate of fire. Similarly, the supply chain was not equipped to carry the extra ammunition. Detractors also complained that the amount of smoke produced was such that it was hard to see the enemy, which was not surprising since even the smoke produced by muzzleloaders would quickly blind whole regiments, and even divisions as if they were standing in thick fog, especially on still days.[15]
One of the advantages of the Spencer was that its ammunition was waterproof and hardy, and could stand the constant jostling of long storage on the march, such as Wilson's Raid. The story goes that every round of paper and linen Sharps ammunition carried in the supply wagons was found useless after long storage in supply wagons. Spencer ammunition had no such problem.[16]
![Repeating Repeating](http://www.american-firearms.com/american-firearms/z-pic/pics-S/Spencer%20Repeating%20Rifle%20Company/spencer-model-1860-right.jpg)
In the late 1860s, the Spencer company was sold to the Fogerty Rifle Company and ultimately to Winchester.[17] Many Spencer carbines were later sold as surplus to France where they were used during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870.[18]
Even though the Spencer company went out of business in 1869, ammunition was manufactured in the United States into the 1920s. Later, many rifles and carbines were converted to centerfire, which could fire cartridges made from the centerfire .50-70 brass. Production ammunition can still be obtained on the specialty market.[19]
See also[edit]
Notes[edit]
- ^ abWalter, John (2006). The Rifle Story. Greenhill Books. p. 69. ISBN978-1-85367-690-1.
- ^Purchase of arms, House Documents, 1861, P. 168-170.
- ^'www.romanorifle.com'. www.romanorifle.com. Archived from the original on 7 September 2012. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
- ^The M-1863 version
- ^The M-1865 version
- ^Walter, John (2006). The Rifle Story. Greenhill Books. pp. 256, 70–71. ISBN978-1-85367-690-1.
The fire-rate of the Spencer was usually reckoned as fourteen shots per minute. The Spencer rifle with a Blakeslee quickloader could easily fire twenty aimed shots a minute
- ^'The Spencer Repeater and other breechloading rifles of the Civil War'. Retrieved 2011-02-23.
- ^'Blakeslee Cartridge Box'. National Museum of American History. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2008-06-12.
- ^Philip Leigh 'Lee's Lost Dispatch and Other Civil War Controversies' (Yardley, Penna.: Westholme Publishing, 2015), 25-36
- ^Davis, Burke (1982). The civil war: strange & fascinating facts (1st ed.). New York, NY: Fairfax Press. p. 135. ISBN0517371510.
- ^'Spencer Carbine'. CivilWar@Smithsonian. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 9 September 2010.
- ^Rummel III, George, Cavalry of the Roads to Gettysburg: Kilpatrick at Hanover and Hunterstown, White Mane Publishing Company, 2000, ISBN1-57249-174-4.
- ^Steers, Edward (12 September 2010). The Trial: The Assassination of President Lincoln and the Trial of the Conspirators. University Press of Kentucky. p. 93. ISBN0-8131-2724-6.
- ^'The Spencer Repeater'. aotc.net Army of the Cumberland. Retrieved 9 September 2010.
- ^'More on Spencer's Seven Shot Repeater'. Hackman-Adams. Archived from the original on 17 April 2010. Retrieved 9 September 2010.
- ^Pritchard, Russ A. (1 August 2003). Civil War Weapons and Equipment. Globe Pequot Press. pp. 49–41. ISBN978-1-58574-493-0.
- ^Houze, Herb (28 February 2011). Winchester Repeating Arms Company. Iola, Wisconsin: Gun Digest Books. pp. 69–70. ISBN1-4402-2725-X.
- ^Tucker, Spencer (21 November 2012). Almanac of American Military History. ABC-CLIO. p. 1028. ISBN978-1-59884-530-3.
- ^Flatnes, Oyvind (30 November 2013). From Musket to Metallic Cartridge: A Practical History of Black Powder Firearms. Crowood Press, Limited. p. 410. ISBN978-1-84797-594-2.
Further reading[edit]
- Chris Kyle and William Doyle, 'American Gun: A History of the U.S. in Ten Firearms'.
- Earl J. Coates and Dean S. Thomas, An Introduction to Civil War Small Arms.
- Ian V. Hogg, Weapons of the Civil War.
- Barnes, Cartridges of the World.
- Philip Leigh Lee's Lost Dispatch and Other Civil War Controversies, (Yardley, Penna.:, Westholme Publishing, 2015), 214
- Marcot, Roy A. Spencer Repeating Firearms 1995.
- Sherman, William T. Memoirs Volume 2 - contains an account of the success of the Spencer on combat (pp. 187–8) and reflections on the role of the repeating rifle in warfare (pp. 394–5).
External links[edit]
- The patent drawing for the Spencer action
- Description and photos of Spencer rifle, serial number 3981
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