I thought I’d take a few moments to give my experiences doing mounted Civil War cavalry reenacting with a .45 S&W Taylor Spencer.
I am a member of Co C., 1st Wisconsin Cavalry. Historically the 1st Wisc. Cav. had an illustrious career, starting with anti-partisan duties in Missouri and ending with the capture of Jefferson Davis in 1865. The unit was uniquely raised by Federal order (not State) under the command of Colonel Edward Daniels in the summer of 1861. Daniels was staunch abolitionist and one of the early members of the Republican Party. I am capable of representing a 1st Wisc. Trooper in during all stages of the war and my persona is also a staunch abolitionist who enlisted in the 1st Wisc. at the time of it’s founding. The 1st Wisconsin used a considerable number of different long arms during it’s career. We went to Missouri carrying muzzle-loading Mississippi rifles. Next we were issued a considerable number of Merrill and Burnside carbines. 1864 saw us using Warner carbines, a unique brass framed breech-loader firing the .56-.56 Spencer cartridge. At the beginning of 1865, just prior to start of Wilson’s raid on Selma, Alabama, we were issued Spencer carbines. It was at the end of this adventure, that elements of the 1st Wisc. and 4th Mich. Cav. were responsible for the capture of the Confederate President, Jefferson Davis.
It became apparent early in the War that Union Cavalry was not yet capable of fighting it’s Confederate counterparts on horseback. Union horse soldiers, however were equipped with much better long arms then their adversaries. In order to make use of their superior carbines, Union Cavalry would dismount before engaging in combat. Perhaps the finest day for Union “dismounted” cavalry was on the first day of Gettysburg when Gen. Buford’s skillful use of dismounted cavalry, firing Sharps and Smith carbines, not Spencers as erroneously reported by Shelby Foote, would determine the site of the battle. Union horse skills would improve and in the last phases of the war, the Union Cavalryman would become an equal to his Confederate counterpart.
Reenactors, who don’t ride, that wish to portray cavalrymen do so by representing dismounted cavalry. This is how I started reenacting. I carried an original Merrill carbine, which Arizona Trooper had given me considerable advice on restoring to shooting condition. The Merrill is fairly strait forward percussion breechloading carbine using paper cartridge ammunition. It’s biggest drawbacks were a fragile, but very effective, locking design and very fragile, much more so then the Sharps, paper cartridge ammunition. For dismounted use, the light, handy, 140 year old Merrill worked very well and its blank ammunition, while time consuming to manufacture, was fairly simple to make: essentially 50-70 grains of FFG rolled in a cigarette paper tube.
Things would change in 2001. Our unit commander has always encouraged members of the unit to learn horse skills and I decided I wanted an opportunity to experience more of the cavalry experience. Under our Captains tutelage, I began riding. I now had to make some decisions about carbines. Carbines were carried by CW troopers on a carbine sling. This is a leather strap that goes over the shoulder, bandoleer fashion, with snap hook on the end. The snap hook snaps into the carbine ring , often mistakenly called a saddle ring, on the carbine. When mounted, the carbine dangles from the sling on the right side and is loosely held in position on the saddle by a leather “strap”, known as a carbine thimble, attached to the saddles rigging. The carbine will bounce up and down as you ride and this will cause a considerable amount of wear on its forearm. This is not something you want to have happen to a 140-year-old piece of history. I got lucky and the new Taylor Spencers became available through Cabelas, right as I getting ready to take the battlefield on horseback. As the 2002 season was starting, I received the opportunity to become part owner in my trusty steed, Lightning Jack – the slowest horse in the west. Jack just can’t understand why folks would want to be fighting, when they could be eating grass instead.
I have always been enthralled with the Spencer and when the Taylor became available I quickly grabbed one in .45S&W to add to my reenacting and CAS arsenal. Once I had the Spencer, ammunition became the next concern. As it turned out, blank ammo became easier to develop then live. Blanks can be fashioned from .44 mag cases. The cases are filled with around 25 grains of FFg and the powder is held in place with a green florist foam plug. The case is then run into a .45 bullet nose forming swaging die, model 101 from C&H dies,
http://www.ch4d.com/ . This creates a bullet nose on the blank, allowing it to feed through the mechanism. As this is a .44 case, you will get blow back into the action. After 40 rounds the action will get fouled up and get stiff. I recommend carrying a little bottle of ballistol to re-lube the action after it has fouled up, however, spit will also work, just not as effectively.
I would take the field dismounted with the Spencer a few times before I started riding into action. I was able to acquire a Taylor Blakeslee box and it made rapid fire very possible. I would carry 48 rounds in the Blakeslee and another 30 in a Spencer cartridge box on my saber belt. I’d come back with almost no ammo after the battle. I also noticed I almost never need to use my repro DA Starr revolver any more. This was not the case when using the Merrill.
This system seemed to work very well, then something strange started to happen. All of a sudden the breechblock started to over travel the stops in the action and the breech block would pivot out of the action allowing the extractors and the cartridges in the magazine to spill on the ground. Rather embarrassing to say the least. My friend and original Spencer shooter, Pistol Blaine discovered the cause of the problem wrote about the fix he developed in a letter to the “Shootest”:
“There is a slight design problem with the Armi Sport spencers that can be corrected simply. They can develop a problem of overriding the trigger plate stop that limit’s the opening of the breech. The ones I have seen have a 20 thousands gap between the upper and lower breechblocks when in the full open position. The originals do not have a gap when fully open and do not allow the upper breechblock to retract farther causing it to override the trigger plate stop when operated forcefully. The simple fix for this problem is to drill and tap two 8X32 holes in the front and back of the lower breechblock, loctite screws shortened and slotted into place and file to fit (about 20 thousands to close up the gap and provide a positive stop to the upper block.)”We also found that stoning the extractors down a little thinner has solved the noted Taylor extractor problems, with at least my gun.
With my carbine back in order, I seriously started mounted reenacting. One of the quickest things I realized was just how awkward the Blakeslee box can be. It gets in the way while mounting and dismounting. When the support strap is set right for mounted use, its too short for dismounted use, and you do need to be able to get off the horse and fight dismounted, if the order comes. You will also notice that the Taylor Spencer is rather heavy as it hangs on your carbine sling. As I mentioned earlier, the forearm will get beaten up, so if you can’t stand the thought of a weapon getting dinged up, mounted reenacting might not be the best thing for you. While you are mounted, your carbine will become more of a secondary weapon to you, and most of your fighting will be done with your revolvers and your saber. Safety rules do not allow pistols to be used during a saber engagement. My saber is a reproduction 1840 “Old Wristbreaker” heavy cavalry saber, unlike originals, it is not well balanced, but does the job. Reloading revolvers on horseback is rather difficult, especially as cream of wheat is needed to seal the chambers and prevent chain-fires. There are two ways to approach this problem. One way is to carry a repro New Model Army (often incorrectly called a 1858 Remington) Remington revolver and bunch of spare cylinders. While this works, it should be noted that spare cylinders were not carried by troopers and pistols were historically reloaded with paper cartridges. The other method is to carry multiple revolvers. I carry two repro Starr DA revolvers on my saddle in pommel holsters, a third in the holster on my saber belt and a Cabelas “snub-nosed” 1860 in a pistol frog, also on my saber belt. “Hardcore” reenacters will debate if multiple were carried. I have seen good arguments for and against multiple pistols, but the pace of many of our battles just doesn’t allow for safe reloading. In an engagement in Princeton, ILL in 2003, I fired off all of my revolvers and half of my Blakeslee box without ever getting off my horse. BTW, the butt heavy balance of the Spencer is rather handy when shooting it from a horse.
While I can portray a 1st Wisconsin Cavalry trooper in all phases of the war, I especially enjoy the period of Wilson’s raid in Spring of 1865. The 1st Wisconsin and 4th Michigan Cavalry made history by capturing Jeff Davis. The Spencer carbine was a vital part of that history.
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