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LOT 3234
Exceptional Civil War
U.S. Spencer Model
1860 Army Repeating
Rifle with Bayonet - Serial
no. 23315, 52 RF cal., 30 inch
round bbl., blue/casehardened finish, walnut
stock. 11,471 of these innovative rifles were
purchased by the Ordnance Department in 1863
and 1864, primarily within the 700-11000 serial number range as well as the 22,000 to 24,000 range. Rifles of
this model were with Colonel Wilder’s “Lightning Brigade” at Hoover’s Gap where they successfully drove the
Confederates back and then held the gap despite being massively outnumbered. Wilder wrote, “No line of
men who within 50 yards of another force armed with Spencers can either get away alive or reach them with a
charge as in either case they are certain to be destroyed by the terrible fire poured from the ranks by cool men
thus armed.” Colonel James Connolly of the 123rd Illinois stated of the battle: “Presently the enemy got near
enough to us to make a charge on our battery, and on they came; our men are on their feet in an instant and
a terrible fire from the Spencers causes the advancing regiment to reel and its colors fall to the ground, but in
an instant their colors are up again and on they come, thinking to reach the battery before our guns can be
reloaded, but they “reckoned without their host,” they didn’t know we had the Spencers, and their charging yell
was answered by another terrible volley, and another and another without cessation, until the poor regiment
was literally cut to pieces, and but few men of that 20th Tennessee that attempted the charge will ever charge
again. ” The Spencer was capable of 14-20 aimed shots in experienced hands versus just 3-6 shots per minute
fired by troops armed with muzzle-loading rifle-muskets. This model was also famously used General Custer’s
Michigan “Wolverines” at Gettysburg where again the Spencer allowed the outnumbered Union troopers to hold
off multiple attacks. When their enlistments ended, many cavalrymen and soldiers elected to purchase their
trusty Spencers for a tiny fraction of the cost the government had paid.
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