The Spencer Rif le
Game-changer in the American military mind
PU ED BY TILE native Indians, Major
Geo Forsyth his command retreated to an i d in the ey of the Arikaree River. The san rip o rth about 60 yards long and 20 yar ide was covered with low brush and a sing ottonwood tree. Here, Forsyth and his 50 me stily used tin plates and knives to dig in then braced themselves to receive the attack they knew would come. And it wasn’t long before 600 Cheyenne and Sioux warriors, mounted on their war ponies, thundered down on the small force of cavalrymen.
However, the soldiers were all battle-hardened fighting men who, like their leader, had served during the recent Civil War. Ordering his men to hold their fire, Forsyth waited until the warriors were 50 yards away before he yelled, “NOW!” A sheet of lead struck the enemy front ranks and dozens of horses went down, throwing their riders under the sharp hooves bringing up the rear. Still the leaden hail kept flying until the enemy withdrew to regroup out of range. Again the fierce warriors of the plains charged and again they were repulsed.
For the next ten days the besieged soldiers were pinned down eating strips of rotting meat cut from dead horses and drinking the muddy bloodstained river water – and all the time they prayed that their four scouts, who had slipped out at night, would make it to Fort Wallace, 110 miles away. Mercifully, the scouts did get through and a relief column finally arrived. The Battle of Beecher’s Island took place in September 1868, and the action was named after Lieutenant Frederick Beecher who was killed in the fight. Thankfully, the besieged cavalrymen were all armed with one of the first repeating weapons to take self-contained cartridges ever used on the battlefield – the seven-shot Spencer carbine.
The Spencer rifle was the brainchild of 20-year-old Christopher Spencer who had worked at the Colt factory where the idea for a new type of repeating rifle germinated. Leaving Colt in 1855, Spencer began work on his rifle while in the employ of the Cheney Silk Mills where he used the plant machinery to develop his invention. With his first prototypes ready, he applied for and was granted a patent in March 1860. Spencer’s new rifle was an under-lever operated breech-loader that received seven cartridges fed from a magazine situated in the butt-stock. This was a better system than that of the Henry rifle whose flimsy under-barrel magazine tube could easily be dented, cutting off the flow of ammo.
EVEN THOUGH THE American Civil War was in full swing, it was difficult to convince the Ordnance Department that a fast-firing breech-loader taking metallic cartridges was superior to the tried-and-tested muzzle-loaders. Fortunately, Charles Cheney, Spencer’s friend and owner of the Silk Mills, knew people in high places and he organised a demonstration for the Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Wells. So, in the local navy yard, Spencer fired his rifle for two days without fault and, in front of the observers, also demonstrated how he could get off 21 shots in one minute. This impressed the Navy guys and they immediately ordered 700 rifles. Later, the Spencer rifle was also torture-tested by a naval officer named Dyer who buried it in sand and also submerged it in water, then fired it faultlessly more than 80 times. Afterwards, Dyer reported, “The Spencer is one of the very best breech-loading weapons I have ever seen”. His only suggestion was to make the extracting ratchet of tempered steel to reduce wear.
The copper-cased rim-fire cartridges made for the Spencer rifles used in the Civil War were referred to as “56-56”. I found this confusing until I discovered that the figures referred to the straight-walled case which was .56'' in diameter at both ends. The bullet diameter was .52 calibre and the barrels made by the Sharps Company were .50 calibre. And if you think that’s
confusing, subsequent cartridges were referred to as the 56-52 and the 56-50. The Civil War load was a pointed lead bullet weighing 350 to 360 grains with powder charges of 42 to 45 grains depending on who produced the ammo. Spencer later produced what he called a hunter’s rifle that took a bottle necked 56-46 cartridge.
SPENCER TRIED IN vain to interest James Ripley, Chief of Ordnance, in his rifle, but Ripley refused even to examine what he called any “new-fangled weapon”. In desperation Spencer toured the Union Army camps demonstrating his rifle and succeeded in picking up orders from various regiments who purchased Spencer rifles with their own money. Spencer’s big break came in 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln asked to see a demonstration of the “new-fangled weapon” he had heard so much about. This was just after the battle of Gettysburg where three northern regiments armed with Spencer rifles had played a big part in defeating Robert E Lee’s southern army that had invaded northern soil.
On 17th August 1863, Spencer met the President at the Whitehouse. After Lincoln had examined the rifle, they walked to a nearby park where Spencer loaded up with seven cartridges. The rifle was handed to the President who fired his first shot. Seeing the bullet hit low, Lincoln adjusted his aim and scored a bull’s eye with his second shot then hit closely around it with the next five. Lincoln was so impressed with the rifle that he immediately passed on his personal recommendation to the Ordnance Department, with the result that Spencer received more orders than he could fill. By the end of the Civil War, the US Ordnance Department had purchased a total of 106 000 Spencer rifles, and thousands more had been independently bought by various regiments and also some northern states to arm their home guard or ‘militia’.
In April 1865, when the Civil War ended, big orders for most types of weapons abruptly dried up. Because the Sharps factory made the barrels and many of the other parts for his rifles, Spencer’s firm was little more than an assembly plant. With no more military orders, and unable to pay his suppliers, Spencer was soon bankrupt. His business went on auction and was bought by Winchester who, with great joy, had eliminated another rival. At the time, there were 30 000 Spencer rifles in stock and all were sold to the Turkish government. However, with so many Spencer rifles in private hands, rimfire ammo was still being offered in catalogues as late as 1920.
Interestingly, most Spencer rifles ordered during the Civil War were carbines issued to cavalry units for close-quarter action. Because the Spencer, like the Henry, took a long time to fully reload, it was deemed unsuitable as an infantry weapon – and, of course, the stubby underpowered cartridge was certainly no longrange number. However, it wasn’t long before loading the Spencer was speeded up by the invention of the Blakeslee tube system. Soldiers were issued with a leather-covered wooden container holding ten pre-loaded tubes. All they had to do was slip out the empty tube and replace it with a full one. The operation took a trained man mere seconds.
It is not known which Spencer model was used by Forsyth’s men on Beecher’s Island. The rifles were being made by outside contractors in addition to Spencer’s firm – one being the Chickering Piano Works, believe it or not! Thus barrel lengths often differed and some had six grooves, others three. Also, in 1865, a Stabler cut-off was installed on some Spencers to block the magazine, enabling the rifle to be fired in single shot mode. It was reported that a company of 4th US cavalry was saved by this device when attacked by a large party of Comanche warriors. Initially, the soldiers fired single shots until the warriors closed in for the kill, then switched to repeater mode, their torrent of fire shattering the Indian attack at close range. According to Flayderman’s Cartridges of the World, Spencer-armed troops fighting Indians on the frontier after the Civil War used the 56-50 cartridge, so it is fairly certain this was the ammo used by Forsyth’s gallant men during the historic battle of Beecher’s Island.
Christopher Spencer went on to manufacture drop forgings and sewing machine shuttles. He also invented the world’s first automatic screw machine that was essential in the mass production of practically all metal items. Spencer died in 1922, at the ripe old age of 89.
Most Spencer rifles ordered during the Civil War were carbines issued to cavalry units for close-quarter action