Spencer Serial Number Information Requested

[Nlneff]

I have my eye on a nice 1860 Spencer Rifle, serial number 8494.  I understand the difficulties and uncertainty that goes with any attempt at getting more information, but does anyone have any information on this gun?

Thanks.

Nathan.

[Two Flints]

Hi Nineff,

Please respond to my PM/Email.

Regarding your Spencer Rifle Serial # 8494.  Here's that disclaimer

First of all,  you really have to read and understand my standard disclaimer that I print out for everyone, who requests Spencer serial # information.  So, here it is:

Some time ago I acquired the four volume set of the Springfield Research Service (SRS) Serial Numbers of U.S. Martial Arms. I purchased the set so I could maybe help SSS members identify which unit their original Spencer Carbine or rifle was issued or assigned to during, and perhaps, after the Civil War.

Unfortunately, not all the Spencer serial numbers are listed in the four volume set I own.  And, to make identification even more difficult, there are huge and multiple  gaps between indicated serial numbers. This paragraph is a DISCLAIMER of sorts. As a courtesy to SSS members, I am happy to reveal to you the information I have regarding the serial number of your Spencer carbine or rifle. But, please remember, I am just regurgitating what I read in my SRS volumes with some "unscientific conjecture" on my part. What I do is the following: I take your Spencer serial number and try to place it in between the two closest serial numbers I find listed in my SRS volume(s).  In most cases, if the serial numbers for the Spencer before and after your own serial number were issued to the same unit, I assume your Spencer  MAY  have been assigned to the same unit.  Or, if your Spencer serial number is very, very close to another Spencer serial number in my SRS volume(s),  I assume your Spencer MAY have been issued to the same unit.

I call this "unscientific conjecture" the "Two Flints guesstimation".  I'm guessing and estimating at the same time on what I believe to be correct  information based upon the information I find in my four volume set of SRS.   I certainly and absolutely make no claim to the accuracy of my "unscientific conjecture" and you should use the information I offer only if you want to, and not to accept it as "Gospel".  

Other SSS members and even guests of SSS may post a comment suggesting that my serial # information is completely inaccurate,  but haven't I already done that with my disclaimer?  

In any case, the serial # information I provide is only a starting point, at best, and you should perhaps research the history of your Spencer Carbine with whatever resources you can find on the Internet or else where.

Now, regarding your Spencer rifle, serial # 8494, according to my SRS Volume, I find that your Spencer may have been issued to a member of Company B, 8th Indiana Volunteer cavalry between June-August, 1863.  The closest serial # match to yours is 8475, another Spencer rifle, also issued to the same unit.  Hope this is of some value.

Further information may be of some help.

This unit started off as the 39th Indiana Infantry  http://civilwarindiana.com/reg_history_cav.html#reg008c  It became the 8th Indiana Cavalry in Oct of 1863.

According to Steven Woodworth in  Six Armies in Tennessee: The Chickamauga and Chattanooga Campaigns,
The 39th was armed with Spencer Rifles during the Tullahoma Campaign in July of 1863. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tullahoma_Campaign (read references to the 39th in this article)


At the Battle of Chickamauga the 39th Indiana was recorded as having Spencer Rifles. http://www.civilwarhome.com/hillatchickamauga.htm

(2) James Burns, 39th Indiana Mounted Infantry, writes to the editors from Harper, Kansas :

"Wilder's brigade, with Colonel T. J. Harrison's 39th Indiana Mounted Infantry regiment, Which was ordered to report to Colonel Wilder about 9 o'clock A. M. of the 20th of September, was stationed on a hill about one-third of a mile in the rear of the line of battle, the 39th on the left of the brigade. A few minutes after 11 o'clock A. M. the brigade was ordered to advance across the valley where the ammunition train was stationed, and up the hill to the support of Captain Lilly's battery, and to hold the hill at all hazards until the train was got out of the way. My company, ` A,' 39th Indiana, was in advance, and on reaching the brow of the hill Major Evans gave tho commands, `39th Indiana on left into line' ; `Fire at will.' At a distance of less than fifty yards six solid lines of gray were coming with their hats down, their bayonets at a charge, and the old familiar rebel yell. Our first volley did not check their advance, but as volley after volley from our Spencer rifles followed, with scarce a second's intermission, and regiment after regiment came on left into line on our right, and poured the same steady, deadly fire into their fast-thinning ranks, they broke and fled.

"Colonel Wilder and Colonel Harrison rode along our lines, directing that if they charged us again, no shot must be fired until the word of command was given. In a few moments those lines of gray once more emerged from the sheltering timber on the opposite side of the field, and steadily, as if on parade, they advanced to the charge till the line had reached to the point at which they broke before, when the command ` Fire' was given, and again they broke and fled in wild confusion. Three times more did those brave men advance at a charge, and each time were they hurled back. A lieutenant of the 17th Indiana went down with a few men under cover of the fire of the brigade, and brought in the flag of an Alabama regiment. We then received orders to move off, remount and guard the ammunition train to Chattanooga, which we did successfully."

On page 290 of the book Southern Storm by Noah Andrea Trudeau it records that on Nov 28, 1864 that the 8th Indiana Cavalry used Spencers in combat.



Two Flints