Spencer Rifle Cartridge / SOLD
Excavated .56-56 Spencer Repeating Rifle cartridge. The Spencer repeating rifles and carbines were early American lever-action firearms invented by Christopher Spencer. The Spencer was the world's first military metallic cartridge repeating rifle, and over 200,000 examples were manufactured in the United States by the Spencer Repeating Rifle Co. and Burnside Rifle Co. between 1860 and 1869. The Spencer repeating rifle was adopted by the Union Army, especially by the cavalry, during the American Civil War and was in heavy use by 1864. The Spencer carbine was a shorter and lighter version designed for the cavalry. The cartridge is in excavated condition with a crack where the bullet meets the brass. Complete Spencer cartridges are fragile in the ground and rarely dug today.
Inventory Number: BUL 368 / SOLD