Confederate Ordnance During the War

[Two Flints]

Hello SSS,

Interesting comments regarding captured Spencer Rifles by Confederate troops:

The difficulty of obtaining ordnace during the war, a comment by William Le Roy Broun, President Alabama Polytechnic Institute, Auburn, formerly lieutenant-colonel of ordnance of the Confederate army, commanding the Richmond Arsenal,

"I remember on one occasion-the last year of the war-that a large number of Spencer breech-loading rifles, the result of a capture, were turned over to the arsenal, and though greatly desired by the troops, could not be issued for want of ammunition. In the effort to make the cartridges for the Spencer rifles, in the first place tools had to be devised, with which to make the tools used for making the cartridges. Hence the surrender of Richmond came before the cartridges were made."

Two Flints

[5judge]

In April of '65, the guard fleeing Richmond with Jeff Davis, various rebel cabinet members, and the remnants of the Confederate treasury were armed with Spencers. So was much of Mosby's cavalry at that time.

[Tuolumne Lawman]

IIRC, Mosby captured the Spencers from a supply wagon train of the California Battalion of 2nd Mass Cavalry, who were dueling back and forth with him.  California Battalion were issued Spencers in 1864, though I can not remember which month.

[Arizona Trooper]

Much of the ANV cavalry corps was from time to time armed with Spencers, which they would turn in when the ammo ran out. The 35th Va. Cav. was even armed with Henrys briefly, after capturing the 1st DC's rifles on the road between Richmond and Fredricksburg.

The lack of Spencer ammo was a bit of a scandal in the South. There are a few very pointed editorials in the Richmond Times about the inability of the Confederate government to produce Spencer ammo. I'm sure they weren't the only ones to comment! The fact is, even if they had the machinery, copper was in such short supply late in the war that Richmond was having trouble keeping up with percussion cap demands, never mind producing copper cartridges.

There is some evidence that James Burton was trying to set up a cartridge manufactory in England through a series of sham operatives. The main product was to be Spencer ammo. Nothing ever came of it. Interestingly, after the war Burton represented Spencer as a European agent.