Upon returning from veteran furlough in the spring of 1864, the Seventh Pennsylvania Cavalry was issued Model 1860 Spencer carbines. A few days later, on the skirmish line, the men noticed a number of hogs rooting in the woods in front of their position. Before the officers could stop the firing, a number of pigs became supper for the men. A few troopers were arrested for killing the pigs, not because of the consumed swine, but because it was against orders to fire at any object other than a “gray-jacket.” On a more serious note, simply put, the .52-cal. M1860 Spencer carbine was the most advanced carbine in service during the American Civil War.

United States Patent No. 27,393, dated March 6, 1860, was granted to Christopher M. Spencer for his breechloading, repeating design. The tubular magazine, located in the buttstock, held seven rimfire cartridges. Lowering the operating lever, which also served as the trigger guard, ejected the fired case and automatically fed the next round into the chamber from the magazine. With the action closed, the hammer was then cocked, and the Spencer was ready to fire again.

The wartime Model 1860 Spencer carbine weighed 8 pounds, 4 ounces and had an overall length of 39 inches. The 22-inch-long blued barrel, secured to the stock by a single band, had a brass blade front sight, and the folding rear sight—secured by a curved spring base—was graduated out to 800 yards. A sling swivel was located on the buttstock, and there was a sling ring and bar on the carbine’s left-side grip area.

The serial number is found at the rear of the breech. On the Model 1860, the flat top surface of the receiver was stamped:

SPENCER REPEATING
RIFLE CO. BOSTON MASS
PAT’D MARCH 6, 1860

As the Spencer Repeating Rifle Co. was completing its contract with the U.S. Army for 7,500 30-inch-barreled Spencer rifles in June 1863, the company requested a contract for an additional 11,000 carbines at $25 each, which was awarded on July 13, 1863. Deliveries started in October, and by the end of the year the government received 7,000 carbines. In December, the contract was revised to state that the U.S. Ordnance Dept. would take delivery of 34,500 carbines in 1864 at the same price of $25. Another wartime contract of May 24, 1864, stated that the Army would take the entire production fabricated by the Spencer factory through Sept. 1, 1865. The accoutrements included in the contracts were a cleaning brush and thong, plus screwdrivers to take the gun down. By the time the wartime contracts were completed on Jan. 1, 1866, the Spencer factory had delivered 64,685 carbines.

Field Service 1863-1865
The first Spencer carbines did not reach the field until late 1863, at which time three cavalry regiments reported having nearly 1,000 Spencer carbines, but, by the winter of 1864, several Army of the Potomac cavalry regiments had been rearmed with M1860 Spencer carbines. In the failed Judson Kilpatrick-Ulric Dahlgren attempted raid on Richmond in February 1864—in which Dahlgren was killed—59 Spencer carbines were reported lost.

The firepower of the Spencer carbines was apparent in the action at Parker’s Store in the densely wooded area of the Wilderness on the morning on May 5, 1864. The 500 members of the Fifth New York Cavalry dismounted and formed a loose skirmish line, and there they were attacked by a division of Confederate infantry. For three hours the men of the Fifth held off the Southern attacks until they started to run out of ammunition for their Spencers, which forced the Federals to pull back. The Confederates opposing them believed that they had been fighting an entire brigade. The Fifth New York suffered about 80 casualties in the action.

By September 1864, 9,000 Spencer carbines were in field service for the Union, and they were highly regarded. The field reports from 10 officers of the Fourth U.S. Cavalry rated the Spencer carbine the best arm in cavalry service. Brevet Maj. Gen. James Wilson felt that the Spencers were the best firearms ever put into the hands of the soldier. He stated that the Spencer “excels all others in use in durability, rapidity of fire, and general effectiveness.”

In Wilson’s 1865 raid through the Deep South, his men were mainly armed with Spencers and equipped with Blakeslee cartridge boxes. Late in the war the Ordnance Dept. placed orders for 32,000 Blakeslee cavalry cartridge boxes, which were the invention of Col. Erastus Blakeslee of the First Connecticut Cavalry. They were designed to carry 10 tinned tubes containing seven Spencer cartridges each, giving cavalrymen an additional 70 cartridges at their fingertips. This gave soldiers tremendous potential firepower, and prior to the raid Wilson requested that his men be issued a quantity of the Blakeslees.

Late on the afternoon of April 2, 1865, 1,550 Union cavalrymen, armed mainly with Spencer carbines and rifles, waited for the order to attack the Confederate defensive positions at Selma, Ala. The attack was being made by Brig. Gen. Eli Long’s Division of Wilson’s Cavalry. Before the attackers even reached the Confederate defensive positions, they had to cover 600 yards of open fields. In front of the Confederate positions was a stockade of cedar posts 5 foot high, sharpened at the top. They then had to cover additional open space before coming to a 5-foot deep ditch and then climb a 15-foot embankment, all the while being fired on by the Confederates. They were commanded by one of the South’s best generals, Lt. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest. At 5 p.m., the order was given to advance. The enemy opened fire with artillery and musket fire, but the cavalrymen marched steadily forward in a single line firing their Spencers as rapidly as possible. The command was given to charge when within 150 yards of the Confederate works. With a cheer the cavalrymen started on a run for the Rebel lines. Up and over they went, capturing the positions within 25 minutes of the action’s start, and in which the attackers suffered about 300 casualties. After the capture of Selma, Wilson’s Cavalry continued on to Macon, Ga., where they were informed that the war was over.

The spring of 1865 found the Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac located around Petersburg, Va., and it reported 5,300 Spencer carbines in field service. On the last day of March, Sheridan’s cavalry was attacked by Confederate infantry and cavalry at Dinwiddie Court House. On the march to the court house, the troopers found the roads nearly impassable. Conditions were so bad, a private from the Second Ohio Cavalry nearly drowned when his horse fell in a water-filled hole in the middle of the road. The trooper—loaded down with his Spencer carbine, 40 rounds of ammunition and full haversack—disappeared entirely in the mud and water, and only the quick help of his friends saved him. The archives remain silent on the fate of his horse. The Confederates were in the process of flanking the First New Jersey Cavalry during the battle, and Sgt. John Wilson from Company L and one other trooper slowed the rebel advance long enough to allow the withdrawal of the lead horses. Sgt. Wilson shot two of the rebel color bearers, and for his actions was awarded the Medal of Honor. Yet another trooper had a cartridge jammed in his carbine, rendering it useless, so he took a Spencer and ammunition from a wounded soldier going to the rear, and continued the fight.

That battle and the next day’s action at Five Forks—plus the breakthrough around Petersburg—forced Lee to evacuate Petersburg and Richmond. The war in Virginia was over a week later on April 9, 1865, with Lee’s surrender to Grant at Appomattox Court House.

Model 1865 Spencer Carbines
The fall of 1864 and the early months of 1865 saw three major changes to the Spencer carbines being delivered on existing Army contracts, resulting in a nomenclature change to the Model 1865. In November 1864, the Ordnance Dept. directed that the carbines be chambered for the new standard rimfire round, .56-50, replacing the .56-56. The new .56-50 ammunition could chamber in the older M1860 carbines, but the earlier .56-56 would not chamber in the new carbines. The .56-50-chambered guns were stamped on the receiver “Model 1865,” and the barrel length was shortened to 20 inches.

One final improvement was the March 1865 incorporation of the Stabler cut-off attachment, which was invented by Edward Stabler of Sandy Springs, Md. It allowed the carbine to be fired as a single-shot with the seven cartridges in the magazine being held in reserve. Stabler was paid a royalty of 25 cents for each carbine fabricated with his magazine cut-off device.