Christopher Miner Spencer created a pretty good 
rifle, which was one of the first repeating 
cartridge-loaded guns, built a highly profitable 
business, became one of the leading men in the 
machine tool industry, was a friend of President 
Lincoln, and in one sense made "the rifle that 
ended the Civil War." All of which is doing 
pretty well for a young man of 27.

Two basic types of Spencer arms were used during 
the war. The rifle and the carbine are of the 
same design exactly from the breech (rear) of the 
barrel to the butttstock, however, the rifle 
barrel is 30-inches long while the carbine has a 
20-inch barrel. Both were loaded by means of 
inserting a tube holding seven cartridges in the 
buttsock, and when after firing once, a lever was 
pressed down and then pulled back into position, 
thus ejecting an empty cartridge and placing a 
loaded one into the firing position. When the
tube was empty, it was removed and another 
inserted in its place. A soldier carried a 
container holding ten of these tubes over his 
shoulder. Up to now, soldiers were equipped with 
single-shot, muzzloading cap-lock muskets and 
rifles.

It was estimated, rather conservatively but quite 
realistically, in 1872 that over 100,000 Spencer 
arms were used during the war. The first used was
shipped by Spencer, himself, to a friend, Sergeant 
Francis O. Lombard, 1st Massachusetts Cavalry. Sgt. 
Lombard used this gun at Cumberland, MD, in a 
skirmish on October 16, 1862. Eventually, 
Massachusetts ordered 15,000 Spencer arms.

As the word spread of the reliability of the 
Spencer, and its effect in battle, more and more 
troops became armed with them, cavalry, in 
particular. The increase in firepower made the 
enemy hesitant, in some cases, to attack, knowing 
that certain death awaited them.

The Spencer carbine was an ideal cavalry weapon. 
It was easy to carry on a sling across the 
shoulder, could be loaded and fired easily, and 
when dismounted, made the trooper a formidable 
infantryman. It was used impressively in battle 
at Gettysburg, Hoover's Gap, TN, with Sherman on 
the Georgia Campaign, among others,  and in many 
battles and skirmishes in Virginia. While the 
Confederates had many names for it, the name 
which stuck was "That dreaded infernal horizontal 
shot-tower," meaning it held as much as a shot 
tower, a place where bird-shot and buckshot were 
made, and looked like a silo. They said, "It can 
be loaded on Sunday and shot all week."

Spencer was able to get an appointment with 
Abraham  Lincoln to show Lincoln his rifle. 
Lincoln shot it and was impressed with the gun.

In 1864, most federal cavalry troops were armed 
with the Spencer carbine. It allowed these 
soldiers to face much larger forces of the enemy. 
So effective was the Spencer that, of one battle,  
General Wilder stated, "At this point it seemed 
a pity to kill men so. They fell in heaps, and I 
had it in my heart to order the firing to cease 
to end the awful sight."  There is no doubt that 
this factor was important in bringing about the 
end of the war. It truly became the weapon of the 
future. Never again would armiesmeet each other 
equipped with single-shot muzzleloading guns. 
Between January 1, 1861 and June 30, 1866, 
94, 196 Spencer carbines were purchased
for cavalry use for $2,393,633.82.

Warfare, and the world, had been changed forever.

Sources:

Civil War Guns, by William B. Edwards. The 
Stackpole Company, 1962 Weapons of the Civil 
War, by Ivan V. Hogg.The Military Press, 1987

Contributed by:
Mike Slease