The 2nd Michigan Gets Spencer Repeating Rifles

The book, "A Hundred Battles In The West," was written about the Second Michigan Cavalry's participation during the Civil War. One important development during the Civil War was the advent of the Spencer repeating rifles.

Colonel Smith went to Loudon, Tennessee, where the Michigan 2nd Cavalry's former colonel, Gordon Granger was camped, and made further arrangements for the regiment's Spencer repeating rifles "at that time the newest and most effective weapon in the service."

Below is a picture of the target board used by President Lincoln when he tested a Spencer repeating rifle in Washington, D.C., on August 18, 1863.


An account of the Spencer rifle and the 2nd Michigan Cavalry in battle (at the Battle of Franklin in Tennessee):General Croxton referred to the Michigan soldiers as the "whitefish boys" and said that "you'll hear them speak in a moment or two." The soldiers then "poured into the enemy a sheet of fire which could be hurled from no other arm than the Spencer carbine (a shorter, lighter version)."