Civil War Auction
Lot 231:
Description
Spencer 1860 .52 Saddlering Carbine in very good vintage condition with wear and remnants of oxidation. The bore is sharp & shiny with freckles. The magazine is intact. There is probably no one weapon of the US Civil War that is more representative of the overwhelming force of industry and technology brought to bear by the North against the South than the US M-1860 Spencer Carbine. Various single-shot, breech-loading percussion carbines were the standard issue cavalry long arms prior to the war, and most these guns remained in heavy use through the closing days of the war. However, the Spencer firmly established era of the repeating metallic cartridge carbines by the end of 1863. The “horizontal shot tower”, as some affectionately referred to the Spencer, was in essence the original assault rifle. While the Henry Rifle offered more rounds in the magazine, the .44RF Henry round was essentially the ballistic equal to a pistol cartridge. The .52 caliber 56-56 RF Spencer round was much more comparable to a real service rifle load and delivered far greater downrange stopping power. The Spencer was also very fast to reload, with a 7 round tubular magazine that fed through the buttstock, troopers could carry pre-loaded magazine tubes and reload almost as quickly as today’s shooter exchanges them on a modern magazine fed rifle or pistol. While the Spencer shooter did have to manually cock the hammer for each shot (the Henry had a speed advantage here, since the toggle action that operated the bolt to eject and load a new round also cocked the hammer), the robust design and powerful cartridge combined to make it the most prized and most feared cavalry long arm of the American Civil War. Roughly 50,000 of these carbines were produced (in the 11,000 to 61,000 serial number range) between 1863 and 1865 and almost all of them saw service during the war. After the war, many were altered and modified at US armories and many remained in service through the early 1870’s. C&R Eligible S/N:37245
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