Springfield Armory Museum - Collection Record

SPENCER CARBINE MODEL 1860 .52 SN# 29792
Manufactured by Spencer Arms, Boston, Ma. - Standard breechloading Spencer repeating carbine. Lever-action. 6-groove rifling. 7-round tubular magazine loaded in butt of stock. Iron mountings, blued barrel, walnut stock. Single barrel band. Sling ring bar left side. Blade front, adjustable leaf rear sight graduated to 800 yards. Effective range of 400 yards, maximum range of 1200 yards. Weapon weighs approximately 8 1/4 lbs. Cartridge: .56/56 rimfire (.52 caliber), weighs 362 gr.

Markings:
Receiver: SPENCER REPEATING/RIFLE CO. BOSTON MASS./PAT'D MARCH 6, 1860. 29792.
Barrel: Ordnance bomb/W.D. in oval/1864. This mark denotes a War Department Ordnance Pattern Model firearm.
Stock: R.

1909 Catalog #3143 - "Carbine. Spencer Breech Loading Magazine Carbine. Cal..52. Mod. 1864."

Notes: "This Spencer was one of two that had been submitted as contract sample guns. Thornton sent them (the other was 29752) to the Chief of Ordnance on 6/9/1864 along with his report on them. While both had some defects they were considered to be acceptable and were stamped at the Ordnance Office with the WD 'standard' mark. Given this one was sent to the SA in the 1880s, I suspect it was the one retained at the Ordnance Office while 29752 was sent back to Thornton for him to use as the model for inspection purposes." - Charles Pate

A trained rifleman could fire 7 aimed shots in about 10 seconds, or 15-20 unaimed shots in a minute.

In June of 1861, Navy Captain John A. Dahlgren reported the findings of the Navy Officers Board on the Spencer: "The mechanism is compact and strong. The piece was fired five hundred times in succession; partly divided between two mornings. There was but one failure to fire, supposed to be due to the absence of fulminate. In every other instance the operation was complete. The mechanism was not cleaned, and yet worked well throughout as at first. Not the least fouling on the outside and very little within.
The least time of firing seven rounds was ten seconds."
Other tests soon followed those of the Navy. In August, Captain Alexander B. Dyer, stationed at Fortress Monroe, fired the Spencer eighty times and reported it strong, reliable, and the best breechloader he had ever seen. In November the Navy rendered another favorable and even laudatory report on the weapon. In November, also, McClellan appointed a Board of Officers under Captain Alfred Pleasanton to test and evaluate the Henry and Spencer repeating rifles. These reports were highly favorable to both arms, but favored the Spencer over its competitor largely because it was "less liable to get out of order than any other breech-loading arm now in service."
The Navy had already ordered 700 of the Spencers in the summer of 1861; an impressive set of tests were already available when the Secretary of War asked Ripley opinion. Ripley's unfavorable response may have made the Secretary cautious, but it did not stop an order for Spencers. Ripley's letter notwithstanding, Cameron, perhaps urged by the President, decided to follow the recommendations of the Pleasanton board, with which Kingsbury, McClellan's Chief of Ordnance, concurred. Ripley was told of the decision, and he acted on it immediately. On December 26, 1861, he wrote the Spencer Repeating Rifle Company, ordering 10,000 of the rifles.
The Spencer Repeating Rifle Company leased quarters in the Chickering Piano Company building on Tremont Street in Boston and began to tool for production of its rifles and carbines.

Letter from to General Ramsay from Colonel W.A. Thornton, Inspector of Arms, dated June 9, 1864 - "Barrel #29792 - its caliber is 52/100. Receiver has slag in its materials. Lock is full of slag and should be refinished. Hammer milled roughly inside. Tumbler pivot is milled roughly at its points. Trigger shoulder is too long and it batters the plate. Trigger plate is battered at the front by the trigger shoulder. Butt of stock is coarse grained and soft timbered. Top of stock is coarse grained and of soft timber. Sight leaf is roughThe remaining components of the arms are of first class materials and workmanship. In fact, the workmanship and finish of the samples is the best that has come under my inspection in the examination of samples. I recommend the acceptance of the models as guides for future work, with the understanding that the defects herein specified shall not be allowed to enter into the future manufacture of Spencer carbines." - Marcot


"...Meanwhile, a young machinist from Connecticut, Christopher Spencer - Quaker by upbringing, arms enthusiast by choice - had designed a new breechloader that used all-metal cartridges in a seven-round magazine inserted into the stock. A lever below the trigger guard loaded each round into the chamber. In the hands of a skilled rifleman, a Spencer could fire twenty-one rounds a minute.
The Quaker stood no chance of catching Ripley's attention, so he astutely turned to a mutual acquaintance from Hartford to introduce him to Gideon Welles, the Secretary of Navy. Knowing how passionate Lincoln was on the subject of new rifles, Welles introduced Spencer to the President.
Lincoln went down to the Treasury Park one late afternoon in the summer of 1861 with the cavalry carbine that Spencer had developed. 'I believe I can make this gun shoot better,' he told his shooting partner this day, Nate Mulliken.
He had whittled a better sight for the carbine from a piece of wood. After he had it on the weapon and Mulliken placed a paper target against a huge woodpile, Lincoln fired fourteen rounds in rapid succession and hit the target nearly every time.
Ripley was willing to buy some of the carbines - not even he expected cavalrymen to use muzzle loaders - but he refused to authorize the purchase of Spencer's new repeating rifles. Spencer appealed directly to Lincoln, who on December 26, 1861, gave Ripley a direct order to issue a contract for ten thousand. In all, by 1862 the Army had contracted to buy thirty-seven thousand breechloading firearms, and every single one was bought only because Lincoln demanded it." - Perret

"By the beginning of the Civil War, many inventors of breechloaders, of varying merit, were clamoring for Government orders. Though almost any arm that would work was purchased, the outstanding systems of the period - the Henry and Spencer - after being tested in 1861 by the Army and the Navy, were rejected by the former. In a letter to the Secretary of War, dated December 9, 1861, the Chief of Ordnance outdid himself in finding objections to these two weapons: 'Hon. Simon Cameron, Secretary of War: SIR: As directed by the War Department, I have examined the reports upon the Henry and Spencer guns, accompanying the proposition to furnish these arms to the Government, and have also examined the arms. Both of them are magazine arms; that is to say, they have the cartridges for use carried in a magazine attached to or forming part of the arm, and fed out by a spiral spring. They require a special kind of ammunition, which must be primed or have the fulminate in itself. The reports heretofore made are favorable so far as the limited trials went, but they do not go farther than to suggest or recommend the procurement of a sufficient number to place in the hands of troops in the field for trial. Indeed, it is impossible, except when arms are defective in principle, to decide with confidence in advance of such practical trials, on their value, or otherwise, as military weapons. I regard the weight of the arms with the loaded magazine as objectionable, and also the requirement of a special ammunition rendering it impossible to use the arms with ordinary cartridges, or with powder and ball. It remains to be shown by practical trial what will be the effect on the cartridges in the magazine, or carrying them on horseback, when they will be exposed to being crushed or marred, possibly to such an extent as to interfere with their free passage into the barrel; and whether they will be safe for trthe spiral spring of long use and exposure in the field. I do not discover any important advantage of these arms over several other breech-loaders, as the rapidity of fire of these latter is sufficiently great for useful purposes without the objection to increased weights from the charges in the arm itself, while the multiplication of arms and ammunition of different kinds and patterns and working on different principles is decidely objectionable, and should, in my opinion, be stopped by the refusal to introduce any more, unless upon the most full and complete evidence of their great superiority.
In view of the foregoing, of the very high prices asked for these arms, and of the fact that the Government is already pledged on orders and contracts for nearly 73,000 breech-loading rifles and carbines, to the amount of two and a quarter million of dollars. I do not consider it advisable to entertain either of the proposition for purchasing these arms. Respectfully your obedient servant, Jas. W. Ripley, Brigadier-General.

The first recorded use of the Spencer in combat was at the Battle of Antietam or Sharpsburg, Md., September 17, 1862, when Sergeant Lombard of the 1st Massachusetts Cavalry used a Spencer rifle presented to him by Christopher Spencer during the battle.
Confederate soliders were impressed with the Spencer. General Horace Porter, one of General Grant's staff officers, recorded an incident of the questioning of a captured North Carolina soldier: "After the provost-marshal's people had been told to take the prisoner to the rear and treat him well, the man, before moving on said: 'Gentleman, I would like mighty well to see that new-fangled weapon o'yourn that shoots like it was a whole platoon. They tell me, you can load it up on Sunday and fiah it off all the rest week.' He had derived this motion from the Spencer carbine, the new magazine gun which fired seven shots in rapid succession. After this exhibition of his talent for dialogue, he was marched off to join the other prisoners."

"The military's choice of a repeater was made essentially on strength, power, and durability, rather than on rate of fire. The Ball entered the competition too late to make serious inroads into the military market. The other two arms were available in the early days of the war, and it was between these arms that the military eventually made its decision. Any lengthy comparison is unnecessary, but it is clear from reports that the Spencer was heavily favored by military men.
The Spencer had a well-protected magazine located in the butt stock, whereas the Henry magazine was under the barrel, where part of the magazine spring was left exposed. The Spencer frame and breech block were thick and and sturdy, whereas the frame and bolt of the Henry, while strong, was less so than the Spencer. The Spencer fired a heavier .56 caliber bullet with a heavier powder charge. The Henry produced only the rifle which was shorter than the Spencer rifle and longer than the Spencer carbine. Some officers considered the Henry too long for cavalry and too short for infantry.
The Henry had four principal advantages. It had a greater magazine capacity, holding sixteen rounds, compared to only seven for the Spencer. Its magazine was somewhat easier to load since, unlike the Spencer, it did not have to be withdrawn for loading. The Henry had a greater rate of fire because, in addition to easier loading and greater magazine capacity, each reciprocation of the bolt for ejection and reloading cocked the hammer, whereas the Spencer had to be manually cocked before each shot. In addition, the .44 caliber ammunition for the Henry was lighter, and the soldier could carry more rounds. These advantages, however, were of slight importance to the Ordnance Bureau and the professional military men of the era, when compared with the strength and durability of the Spencer. It was the ruggedness of the Spencer repeating rifle which made it the best military choice, and put the Henry The Henry had another disadvantage. Oliver Winchester's New Haven Arms Company, which produced it, was never able to manufacture rifles in the volume required for army contracts. Perhaps if Winchester and his associates had been better salesman, or more fortunate in obtaining government contracts, they would have been able to expand their plant and increase their efficiency and production. Even so, the Henry rifle was a difficult and expensive arm to produce, and probably could not have competed on equal terms with the Spencer. Prior to 1863, the Henry could be turned out of the factory at a rate of about 200 a month. By 1865, the rate was only about 260 per month, and could not have exceeded 300.
The government purchased 1,730 Henry rifles during the war. The total number manufactured could not have exceeded 10,000 for the war period. Probably the vast majority of these arms found their way into the hands of Union troops, but even so, the number in use was not large. On the other hand, the government contracted for over 105,000 Spencer repeating rifles and carbines, of which the Spencer Repeating Rifle Company produced over 75,000 at its own works in Boston. More than 60,000 of these Spencers had reached the troops by the end of the war, the remainder being delivered after the close of the conflict.
The number of cartridges purchased for the repeaters during the war also gives a good comparison of the relative use of the two repeating carbines and rifles. The Ordnance Bureau purchased about 4,600,000 Henry rifle cartridges, and over 58,000,000 cartridges in Spencer caliber. Even considering that late in the war several carbines were chambered for the Spencer cartridge, the difference is striking. The chambering of other guns for the Spencer cartridge is indicative of its popularity, and of the Ordnance Bureau's preference for both the cartridge and the gun." - Carl L. Davis

"There is no doubt that the Spencer carbine is the best fire-arm yet put into the hands of the soldier, both for economy of ammunition and maximum effect physical and moral. Our best officers estimate one man armed with it equivalent to three with any other arm. I have never seen anything else like the confidence inspired by it in the regiments or brigades which have it. A common belief among them is if their flanks are covered they can go anywhere." - Major General James H. Wilson

"Colonel John T. Wilder of the 17th Indiana regiment, Army of the Cumberland, wrote to the Spencer Company describing how, on June 24, 1863, at Hoover's Gap in Tennessee, '... one of my five regiments fairly defeated a rebel brigade of five regiments, they admitting a loss of over 500, while our loss was forty-seven.'
In his experience, Wilder continued, the Spencer ammunition is '...the cheapest kind for the service as it does not wear out in the cartridge boxes and has the quality of being waterproof - the men of my command carry 100 rounds of ammunition in their saddle bags, and in two instances went into a fight immediately after swimming their horses across streams twelve feet deep and it is very rare that a single cartridge fails to fire.'" - Wayne Van Zwoll

Yesterday Colonel Wass and myself went out with our pickets. I took my carbine along, for amusement. We fired at targets at musket range. The target was about 5 feet long 18 inches wide. I hit the target every shot, and put one ball through the very centre of the bullseye, beating the whole party. The little gun shoots most admirably, and is all the Rifle Company claims for it." - Colonel T.E. Chickering, 41st Massachusetts, January 13, 1963

"It is the best arm on the face of the earth." - General Joseph J. Reynolds

"Christopher Spencer and his backers avoided the reef which wrecked the Union Firearms Company. Up in Boston, with the fat purses of Beacon and State Streets to draw on, they organized the Spencer Repeating Rifle Company and rented part of the Chickering Piano Company building on Tremont Street for their factory. Spencer himself became superintendent of the worksAfter Stanton took office, Fisher, like most arms contractors, grew nervous, Assistant Secretary Watson reassured him: the gun was a good one and was needed for Berdan's men (the Sharpshooter mutiny had come to a head). More good news came that same day; the Scientific American had given up two-thirds of its front page to 'Spencer's famous breech-loading rifle, about which so much has been said.' Spencer and Fisher had no trouble raising capital; and by the end of May they had sunk more than $130,000 into what Fisher called 'the most extensive and completely fitted armory in the country' next to the Colt Works and the Springfield Armory." - Robert V. Bruce

"Christopher Spencer was more than an inventor and a machinist. He was a mechanical genius who understood machine tools as well as their products. Spencer, twenty-seven years of age when the war came, was already a made of wide industrial experience. He had been associated with Lawrence and Robbins, and worked with Colt in arms manufacturing, and with Charles Cheney for whom he designed silk cloth manufacturing machinery. He had already been at work several years on perfecting the design for his repeating rifle. The story of the sale and manufacture of the Spencer arms is all the more remarkable, because at the beginning of the war Spencer had no plant for their production. The early Spencer models, and perhaps the ones he displayed early in the war, were probably produced by Lawrence and Robbins at Hartford. Spencer was a good and persistent salesman. He was, as John Hay, the President's secretary, described him, 'a splendid little Yankee.' Spencer, like most other arms manufacturers, had some political friends, not the least of whom was Charles Cheney. Cheney, a close personal friend and neighbor of Gideon Wells, the Secretary of the Navy, may have been responsible for getting the early navy tests of the gun. But, essentially, it was the arm which sold itself - 'A wonderful gun,' Hay called it.
In the days when the Ordnance Bureau and the War Department were besieged with inventors and would-be manufacturers, Spencer and his chief business associate, Warren Fisher, had something else to sell. They had to market the idea that they could produce the arm quickly, economically, and in sufficient numbers. They had to convince the War Department that Spencer's superior skill as a gun designer was equaled by his skill as a manufacturer. His quiet self-assurance surely helped.
The Spencer Repeating Rifle Company leased quarters in the Chickering Piano Company building on Tremont Street in Boston and began to tool for the production of its rifles and carbines. The first order of 700 from the navy came in July of 1861. The army ordered 10,000 the following December. These were heavy orders for Spencer to meet at such an early time.
Spencer, with his machinist's eye for production shortcuts and design simplicity, patterned the machinery for the Boston works. The machiners were designed not for the production of arms in general, but exclusively for the production of Spencer arms. This specialized machinery, Fisher later testified, could produce no other kind of arm. Failure to get contracts would have resulted in a loss of more than $75,000 in machinery alone.
The company, wrote Fisher, recruited workers 'on account of their superior skill, to come from distant parts of the country, and to give up situations in which they might have continued had we not made them offers of permanent employment and liberal compensation.' Including the salaries of these workers, the building, and $135,000 in machinery, the company had already invested $200,000 by May of 1862. Fisher's claim that the armory was exceeded in size by only the government armory at Springfield and the Colt armory at Hartford was very close to the mark.
Fisher had promised that deliveries on the government contracts would In late December of 1862, the arms for the navy contract were filled, and the first 500 on the army contract were delivered. The 7,500 arm contract with the Ordnance Department was completed in June of 1863, by which time the plant's production had risen to about 1,500 arms per month. A second contract, this one for carbines, was issued to the company in July of 1863, with deliveries to begin in October. The delay between contract date and delivery date was probably due to other contracts, perhaps with Massachusetts, which the company had to fill.
These carbine deliveries began on schedule, and the company had no difficulty in filling them. Even before the contract was completed, the Ordnance Bureau, in December of 1863, issued Spencer another contract, this one 34,500 carbines, with delivery schedules to run as high as 3,500 per month. Again, the company had no difficulty in meeting its contract obligations.
With growing demands in the army for Spencers, and with increased approval of the arm by ordnance department, the reluctance to purchase them faded. In May of 1864 the company was given an open-end contract to deliver to the government all the Spencer carbines they could make until September 1, 1865. The company was allowed a grace period in which they were required to deliver only 1,500 per month, probably to let them fill other contractual obligations, but after September of 1864 they were required to deliver not less than 800 a month per week.
With the popularity and demand for the Spencer overwhelming, the War Department decided to give the Burnside Rifle Company a contract for up to 30,000 Spencer carbines. Burnside would discontinue the production of its own carbine and convert to the production of the repeater.. Burnside would pay the Spencer company a royalty on each gun they produced. The first deliveries under the contract were to begin in November of 1864. Burnside, too, had difficulty in retooling for the Spencer, and none was delivered to the government until April 15, 1865.
The production of Spencer rifles and carbines during the Civil War is a remarkable accomplishment. With no plant or production facilities in 1861, the Spencer Repeating Rifle Company grew to be the largest producer of government carbines by 1864, and ranked second only to Sharps for the entire war period.
It is not definitely known how many Spencers were produced during the war. Some estimates run to 200,000 or better, but this seems on the basis of delivery figures to be much too high. The ordnance purchase list shows that by the end of the war the company had delivered just under 60,000 rifles and carbines. In addition, some state contracts were filled. By looking at the government delivery figures for the war, it is logical to assume that while the government contracts were in force that the government took most of the plant's production. These figures suggest that the plant's capacity for 1863 could not average over 2,000 arms per month; for 1864 it would not have averaged more than about 3,500 per month; and for the first three months of 1865, not more than 4,000 to 4,500 per month. From these figures, it must be concluded that Spencer's wartime production could not have exceeded 100,000. This figure, although falling far short of some estimates, is still spectacular, and it gave the Union, particularly its cavalry, a decided advantage in the last eighteen months of the war." - Carl L. Davis

"Christopher M. Spencer, inventor of the Spencer carbines, after much difficulty in getting his product before officials, finally got a hearing from Lincoln himself. An amusing incident occuSpencer at once proceeded to organize a company of which James G. Blaine was a stockholder. Blaine was then Congressman from Maine, later he was to be Senator from the same state, Secretary of State in two cabinets, and even Presidential nominee of his party. Blaine was 'our most prominent political leader between Lincoln and Roosevelt' and an idol of the peace movement. As stockholder in the Spencer Arms Company he was apparently not very conformable, since he inscribed on the letters which he wrote to the secretary of the company a note reading: 'Burn these letters.' This little known side of Blaine's life harmonizes rather well with his other shady dealings with western railroads and land schemes, for which even his own partisans bitterly denounced him." - Engelbrecht & Hanighen

"The rebs we took while on a scout from Rossville (Va.) said they dreaded to come across our brigade, for we kept shooting all of the time, when they see our guns (Spencers) they say 'no wonder yourns shoot so fast if we uns had such guns we'd fight longer.'" - a cavalryman in the Fourth Michigan Cavalry, March 1, 1864

Units who were issued Spencer carbines included: 6th Ill. Vol. Cav., 12th Ill. Vol. Cav.; 6th Ind. Vol. Cav., 7th Ind. Vol. Cav.; 14th Kansas Vol. Cav., 18th Kansas Vol. Cav. (post-war); 3rd Ky Vol Cav., 4th Ky Mtd. Inf.; 2nd Mich. Vol. Cav., 6th Mich. Vol. Cav., 11th Mich. Vol. Cav.; 2nd NJ Vol. Cav., 3rd NJ Vol. Cav.; 1st NY Mtd. Rifles, 5th NY Vol. Cav., 19th NY Vol. Cav.; 11th Ohio Vol. Cav.; 7th Penna. Vol. Cav., 19th Penna Vol. Cav.; 2nd Wisc. Vol. Cav.

At the Battle of Little Big Horn, June 25, 1876, U.S. Cavalry troopers were armed with the Model 1873 Springfield carbines. Chief's Sitting Bull's Sioux warriors were armed with an assortment of weapons including at least 25 to 30 Spencer carbines. This was the last important battle in which the Spencer saw significant use.
The Spencer Company was purchased by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company in 1869. It is alleged that Winchester purchased the company in order to eliminate the competition.

LOAN HISTORY OF THIS WEAPON:
Army #0426 - Loaned to Captain O.A. Patterson, Schenectady General Depot, Schenectady, NY. from 19 April to 27 May 1960.

DISPOSITION OF OTHER SPENCER CARBINES THAT WERE IN MUSEUM COLLECTION:
Army #424 - SPENCER SN# 60174 - Transferred to Ft. Myer 2 June 1958.
Army #844 - SPENCER SN# 39093 - Destroyed in 1931 Museum fire. Surveyed 25 January 1932.
Army #845 - SPENCER M1865 SN# 73 - See, Disposal Record, pg. 6

See, Marcot, SPENCER REPEATING FIREARMS. pg. 73.

References:
Bruce, Robert V. LINCOLN AND THE TOOLS OF WAR. University of Illinois Press. Urbana, Il. 1989.
Coco, Gregory A. THE CIVIL WAR INFANTRYMAN. Thomas Publications. Gettysburg, Pa. 1996.
Davis, Carl L. SMALL ARMS IN THE UNION ARMY, 1861-1865. University Microfilm International. Ann Arbor, Mi. 1979.
Edwards, William B. CIVIL WAR GUNS. Castle. Secaucus, N.J. 1982.
Engelbrecht, H.C. & F.C. Hanighen. MERCHANTS OF DEATH. Dodd, Mead & Company. N.Y., N.Y. 1934.
Flayderman, Norm. FLAYDERMAN'S GUIDE TO ANTIQUE AMERICAN FIREARMS...AND THEIR VALUES. Krause Publications. 7th Ed. Iola, Wi. 1998.
Marcot, Roy. SPENCER REPEATING FIREARMS. Northwood Heritage Press. Irvine, Ca. 1990.
Perret, Geoffrey. LINCOLN'S WAR: THE UNTOLD STORY OF AMERICA'S GREATEST PRESIDENT AS COMMANDER IN CHIEF. Random House. N.Y., N.Y. 2004
Reilly, Robert. UNITED STATES MILITARY SMALL ARMS. The Eagle Press. Baton Rouge, La. 1970.
Van Zwoll, Wayne. AMERICA'S GREAT GUNMAKERS. Stoeger Publishing Company. South Hackensack, N.J. 1992.
Wiley, Bell Irvin. THE LIFE OF BILLY YANK

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