Find out about the Spencer Carbine on display by clicking/pressing the play button. Scroll down to view the images. At the end there is a video demonstrating the use of a faster loader for the Spencer carbine. You can follow along with the audio's script at the end of the page.
Christopher M. Spencer
Union Soldier with Spencer Carbine on Sling
Union Soldier with Spencer Carbine
Spencer Carbine with Rimfire Cartridges
Blakeslee Loader Catridge Box
.56-56 Spencer cartridge, bullet diameter .546 inches
This is a short YouTube video (produced by I Never Met A Gun I Didn't Like) of someone who makes his own speed loader for the Spencer carbine which operates using the same principle as the one patented by Blakeslee. It will give you an idea of how quickly a cavalryman was able to load his Spencer carbine using the Blakeslee quick loader.
During the Battle of Westport, many of the Federal volunteers had a great advantage during many of the battles because they carried repeating small arms.
Many of the Federal volunteers in Pleasonton’s Division carried the Spencer Repeating carbine. In contrast, many of the Confederate cavalry carried Enfield rifle-muskets, a single shot, muzzle loading weapon.
Because of the repeating carbines, Union forces could direct a much greater firepower against the Confederates. This was evident during the Battle of Westport with several instances where a small force of Union cavalry was able to hold off or attack a much larger force of Confederates.
The Spencer Carbine on display was donated to the museum by Dr. John H. Spencer of Fort Scott, Kansas. It was used during the Battle of Westport. Invented by Christopher Spencer, the Spencer carbine was a lever action firearm and used a rimfire, metallic cartridge. The .56-.56 Spencer rimfire cartridge held 45 grains of black powder with .52-inch caliber bullet. Seven cartridges were dropped into a hollow tube in the carbine’s buttstock. Then a spring-loaded tubular magazine was inserted into the buttstock of the carbine. The trigger guard served as a loading lever. Pulling down on the lever caused a spent cartridge to be ejected and a fresh cartridge to be loaded. Then the hammer had to be pulled back manually before firing the carbine.
Spencer patented his design (US Patent 27393) in March 1860 and received an order for 700 rifles from the US Navy after a successful test in the Washington navy yard. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles placed an additional order for 10,000 guns for the US Army. But adoption by the US Army was impeded by Brig. Gen. James W. Ripley who was serving as chief of ordnance at the time. With Ripley slow walking the rifle’s adoption, Spencer decided to take matters into his own hands. He arranged a meeting in August 1863 with President Abraham Lincoln at the White House and had the president test shooting the rifle himself. Lincoln was impressed and after looking into things, removed Ripley from his position as chief of ordnance. The Spencer carbine became the most popular repeater used during the Civil War. The US War Department purchased 94,196 of them during the war for $25.41 each. A box of 100 cartridges went for $2.44.
The Spencer proved popular with the soldiers. It had a very high rate of fire (14-20 rounds per minute), particularly after the introduction of the Blakeslee Loader cartridge box (US Patent 45469). Though ingenious, its design was incredibly simple, just a tube holding seven cartridges. The Blakeslee Loader was the invention of Col. Erastus Blakeslee, 1st Connecticut Cavalry. It was a leather cartridge box with a wooden insert that held thin metal tubes. Each metal tube held seven .56-.56 Spencer rimfire cartridges. When a cavalryman had fired their last cartridge, he pulled the tubular magazine out of the carbine’s buttstock. Then he grabbed a cylinder from the Blakeslee cartridge box and dropped the seven new cartridges into the butt stock. The last step was ramming the tubular spring-loaded magazine back into the carbine’s buttstock. All loaded after a process that literally took seconds.
Sgt. Maj. William F. Scott, 4th Iowa Cavalry, described the quality of the Spencer carbine used by his regiment in 1864 during Price’s Missouri Raid.
"The Spencer was a … carbine of better range and more certain shot than any other gun they knew, from which seven shots could be fired without loss of time, and without taking the attention off the enemy, was of striking value in heightening the self-confidence and improving the morale of the cavalry. From that time on to the end of the war Winslow’s regiments not only clearly won in every contest, but they expected to win, and even acquired a sort of habit of looking upon every approaching fight as “a sure thing.” And there was a corresponding disheartenment on the part of the rebel cavalry. … The story was popular in the Union camps when the breech-loading magazine arms were introduced, that the rebels were saying that the Yankees had now made a gun that they loaded on Sundays and fired all the week."
References
Pierce, Abial R. “Report of Operations against Price, in Arkansas, Missouri, and Kansas.” In Report of the Adjutant General and Acting Quartermaster General of Iowa: January 11, 1864 to January 1, 1865, 966–69. Des Moines, IA: F. W. Palmer, State Printer, 1865.
Scott, William F. The Story of a Cavalry Regiment. The Career of the Fourth Iowa Veteran Volunteers from Kansas to Georgia, 1861-1865. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1893.
Wikipedia. “Spencer Repeating Rifle,” January 17, 2019. Link.
Walter, John. The Rifle Story: An Illustrated History from 1756 to the Present Day. St. Paul, MN: MBI Publishing, 2006.
Winslow, Edward F. The Story of a Cavalryman: The Civil War Memoirs of Bvt. Brig. Gen. Edward F. Winslow, 4th Iowa Cavalry. Edited by Dick Titterington and Daniel L. Smith. Overland Park, KS: Trans-Mississippi Musings Press, 2016.
Written and produced by Dick Titterington, aka theCivilWarMuse.