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This came out in 1956, so it has taken me a LONG TIME to read. Seriously, it was hard to find, and my local library had to take it out of storage.
Overall an interesting take on how the Spencer was made, adopted and used. The title refers to a quote from W. O. Stoddard, assistant private secretary and sometime shooting partner to Lincoln, who stated “His (Lincoln’s) choice is a kind of Spencer, neatly finished at about sporting range.”
Written in a somewhat flowery and dramatic style more common 60 years ago, the story moves along at a moderate pace. The first half deals with Spencer’s efforts to get the rifle made and adopted. The second half shows the Spencer in action at various battles. Always the physical and psychological impact of the firearm is emphasized, as are its image as a reward for battlefield valor much more valued than any medal by those who received it.
A chapter contains a detailed account of the Spencer-Lincoln shooting demonstration from Spencer himself. A Navy officer named Middleton is mentioned as being there. The only reference I could find was an Edward Middleton, but he was posted to the Pacific coast during the war. A target for future research.
There are some interesting turns of phrase. Referring to Sheridan’s Shenandoah campaign, the author writes “Along the way his cavalry column stripped the Valley as cleanly as a giant tobacco worm let loose in a field of unsprayed burley” (p. 117). Much is made of the “feminine” appearance of the Spencer. “Its magazine was concealed, womb-like, deep within the stock. Other repeaters of the era, and since, have kept their germs of pain and death on the outside, in a male structure. The style seems appropriate, as that sex has led in causing wars as well as fighting them. The revolutionary Spencer design eliminated the ramrod assembly of the muzzle-loader, permitting clean lines and curves. Curiously, immediately above the Spencer trigger guard was a single Amazonian protuberance not found in other rifles. This was the rounded, steel housing for the shell-handling mechanism. If there ever was a female rifle, it was the Spencer, deadliest of its species and era” (p. 7). Kind of makes me want to say “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.”
The author often uses carbine and rifle interchangeably, even referring to carbines being used at Gettysburg, where only rifles were present. This approach limits the usefulness of the book to determine which units had rifles and which has carbines.
Where the Fort Fisher attack is covered, the book says that the sailors carried nothing except revolvers and cutlasses. But a list of arms lost or destroyed in the attack contains at least 8 Spencers, along with a number of Sharps rifles and Sharps& Hankins carbines. The Sharps & Hankins used the same round as the Spencer. Certainly at least one command, of Marines from the USS Ticonderoga, was Spencer rifle armed. It also says “the Navy owned 10,000 Spencer carbines,” when in fact they owned almost none – they were all rifles. These corrections are according to “Civil War Small Arms of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps” by John McAulay.
There are a number of errors in typography and some in fact. Many sources are later memoirs, with few written at the time of the conflict. Still, this volume is useful as a springboard for future research and as historical entertainment. If you can find it, it is worth a read. A more detailed review will be coming out in the Camp Chase Gazette sometime soon (I hope).
Overall an interesting take on how the Spencer was made, adopted and used. The title refers to a quote from W. O. Stoddard, assistant private secretary and sometime shooting partner to Lincoln, who stated “His (Lincoln’s) choice is a kind of Spencer, neatly finished at about sporting range.”
Written in a somewhat flowery and dramatic style more common 60 years ago, the story moves along at a moderate pace. The first half deals with Spencer’s efforts to get the rifle made and adopted. The second half shows the Spencer in action at various battles. Always the physical and psychological impact of the firearm is emphasized, as are its image as a reward for battlefield valor much more valued than any medal by those who received it.
A chapter contains a detailed account of the Spencer-Lincoln shooting demonstration from Spencer himself. A Navy officer named Middleton is mentioned as being there. The only reference I could find was an Edward Middleton, but he was posted to the Pacific coast during the war. A target for future research.
There are some interesting turns of phrase. Referring to Sheridan’s Shenandoah campaign, the author writes “Along the way his cavalry column stripped the Valley as cleanly as a giant tobacco worm let loose in a field of unsprayed burley” (p. 117). Much is made of the “feminine” appearance of the Spencer. “Its magazine was concealed, womb-like, deep within the stock. Other repeaters of the era, and since, have kept their germs of pain and death on the outside, in a male structure. The style seems appropriate, as that sex has led in causing wars as well as fighting them. The revolutionary Spencer design eliminated the ramrod assembly of the muzzle-loader, permitting clean lines and curves. Curiously, immediately above the Spencer trigger guard was a single Amazonian protuberance not found in other rifles. This was the rounded, steel housing for the shell-handling mechanism. If there ever was a female rifle, it was the Spencer, deadliest of its species and era” (p. 7). Kind of makes me want to say “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.”
The author often uses carbine and rifle interchangeably, even referring to carbines being used at Gettysburg, where only rifles were present. This approach limits the usefulness of the book to determine which units had rifles and which has carbines.
Where the Fort Fisher attack is covered, the book says that the sailors carried nothing except revolvers and cutlasses. But a list of arms lost or destroyed in the attack contains at least 8 Spencers, along with a number of Sharps rifles and Sharps& Hankins carbines. The Sharps & Hankins used the same round as the Spencer. Certainly at least one command, of Marines from the USS Ticonderoga, was Spencer rifle armed. It also says “the Navy owned 10,000 Spencer carbines,” when in fact they owned almost none – they were all rifles. These corrections are according to “Civil War Small Arms of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps” by John McAulay.
There are a number of errors in typography and some in fact. Many sources are later memoirs, with few written at the time of the conflict. Still, this volume is useful as a springboard for future research and as historical entertainment. If you can find it, it is worth a read. A more detailed review will be coming out in the Camp Chase Gazette sometime soon (I hope).