Spencer Carbine In Use During the Modoc War 1873

[Two Flints]

Hello SSS,

Spencer Carbine during the Modoc War.







Scout Leader Donald McKay, Lava Beds, California 1873



Two Flints

[Arizona Trooper]

There was a very good article in Smithsonian magazine about 20 years ago on the Modoc War. It had these pictures and a lot more. As I recall, many officers complained loudly about the troops inability to hit pretty much anything they were "aiming" at. With the definition of aiming being very broadly interpreted.

[Oregon Bill]

From"The Modoc War," by Erwin Thompson:

Appendix F, Weapons:

It is assumed that the infantry companies and most of the artillery batteries were armed with .50 caliber M 1868 and M1870 Springfields.

"Most of the cavalry troops and probably Battery B, 4th Artillery (which was mounted), carried .50 caliber Sharp's carbines, which fired center-primed ammunition. Troop F was the exception; it carried Spencer carbines, which used rim-primed ammunition. Hardin (not in Troop F) wrote that the Spencers were unsatisfactory: "Several men of that troop told me that the failure of so many cartridges almost caused panic." He said that the Sharp's carbine rarely misfired."

[Arizona Trooper]

I think this is what led to the Goldmark ammo being condemned and recalled. You see a lot of JG headstamped Spencer ammo in collections, because it was widely believed to be junk and never fired.