1860’s Spencer Calvary Repeating Rifle

This Spencer rifle bears serial number 23483 was manufactured in 1860 at Burnside Rifle Company, in Providence Rhode Island NY.

The Spencer was initially produced as a carbine, chambered for the .56-56 Spencer rimfire cartridge. Firing forces are contained by the receiver at the rear of the breechblock. Actuating the loading lever causes the breechblock to fall. Once the breechblock is clear of the receiver, the carrier “rolls” downward, ejecting a spent cartridge from the chamber and collecting a fresh round from the tubular magazine in the buttstock. Closing the lever chambers the new cartridge and the breechblock then rises vertically to close the breech. The hammer of the Spencer needs to be manually cocked after each loading cycle.

Its inventor, Christopher Spencer, was a native of Connecticut and a former employee of Samuel Colt. His design was one of the most technologically-advanced arms of the Civil War era, but because of the time required to sell both his idea and his guns to the U.S. government, they were not available until 1863.

These modern arms, in both rifle and carbine configuration, were more than a match for anything that the Confederates could muster. The firepower of the Spencer was used with devastating effect on many Civil War battlefields. In its first combat test, Spencer-armed Union troops under the command of Colonel John Wilder earned the nickname “Lightning Brigade” when they defeated a numerically superior Confederate force at the Battle of Hoover’s Gap, Tennessee on June 24, 1863.

This rifle is 161 years old in good conduction, there is no record when the rifle was fired last the firing pin is not included, the rifle is for display only.