This is a nice Model 1860 Spencer carbine, serial number 21,506, dating around April 1864, by Marcot’s production tables. The buttstock has good deep brown color, showing scattered small scratches on the right and some saddle wear on the left, where it would have rubbed and bounced against the saddle and horsegear while carried on the cavalry trooper’s carbine sling, and with marks around the sling ring bar and wrist where the carbine snap hook and roller would have moved against it. Nevertheless, the color is very good and the cartouches are present, though faint. The forestock matches in color and is likewise tight to the metal and has good edges, with just one pressure dent on the right, just forward of the rear sight, and just a couple of tiny dings on the left.

The metal is very good. There is a little light pitting around the muzzle. The rest of the barrel is smooth metal and shows a thin bluish plum color. Both sights are present. The rear sight has the ladder and bar. The receiver is a muted silver gray with brown spot. The serial number on the wrist and manufacturer’s stamp on top are sharp: “SPENCER REPEATING / RIFLE CO. BOSTON MASS / PAT’D MARCH 6, 1860,” in three lines. The mechanics are good and the breechblock when lowered shows smooth metal, silver gray in color with typical thin brown stains. The bore is very good. Sling bar and ring are in place, as are the barrel band, swivel on the bottom of the buttstock, intended to enable the carbine to be used also with a sling buckled around the barrel, and the magazine tube, loaded through the buttstock and holding seven cartridges.

Spencer carbines arrived in the field starting in October 1863 and quickly outclassed other arms by their rapid fire and sturdy construction, and their use of waterproof and resilient rimfire cartridges. They were in high demand and just as some Spencer army rifles were carried by mounted troops, some infantry outfits got carbines as well, but they are best known for the edge they gave Union cavalry in the last half of the war. Confederate cavalry got them by capture when they could, but obtaining ammunition proved to be a stumbling block to active use in the field, except, it is reported, by Mosby, who managed to resupply sufficiently by raiding Federal depots and supply trains. By war’s end some 50,000 had been produced, in addition to the rifle version. This one follows the standard configuration of the Model 1860 with 22-inch barrel in .52 caliber (.56-.56 the Spencer brochures, referring to the copper case.) And, it is early enough in the run to have seen lots of action in the many cavalry battles, raids, and expeditions that took place from mid-1864 to the end of the war in all theatres.

This is a nice Spencer that would dress up any cavalry display and is a key Civil War arm.    [sr]

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