Howdy Pards!
One of my Civil War "units" was Company "C," (Barber's then Squire's Sharpshooters) of the 7th Independent Company of Ohio Volunteer Sharpshooters which was formed in the county where I used to live. "C" was detached to be General Sherman's headquarters/personal guard.
They were dressed and equipped as per "federal," with the excpetion of green "branch of service." While it is not obvious in the photo, the sergeant's chevrons are green rather than blue.
The rifle is one of Larry Romano's...
Like Berdan's and Post's U.S. Sharpshooters, Ohio's companies were not "understood'' by the Army brass, and as a result were divided up and parcelled out mostly for skirmishers and scouts- so the rapid fire potential of Berdan's NM1869 Sharps' Rifles and the Ohio SS's Spencers was wasted.
However, in one engagement where they were doing a recon-in-force, they encountered a Confederate unit. At the first volley, the CS commander had his men fall to the ground to avoid the shots. Thinking that the Yanks were empty and had to reload, the rebels popped back up... :-) :-)
Yes, Custer's "Michigan Brigade" was armed with Spencer rifles at Gettysburg. Against Confederates mostly armed with muzzleloading musketoons some of which had been issued just nine rounds. Custer's men later replaced the Spencer rifles with Spencer carbines.
"Out West," the 7th Cavalry replaced Spencers in 1868 with the new M1868 Springfield .50-70 Trapdoor, followed by a mix of
M1870 Springfields, M1870 Sharps, M1870 Remingtons, and I forget the model number of Ward-Burton carbines..
Custer delayed the 1874 Black Hills Expedition so that they could be refitted with the new M1873 Springfield .45-70 carbine and M1873 Colt revolvers.
IMHO, the way the advance of 7th Cavalry troops C, E, F, I, and L toward the middle ford down "Custer Hill" went, against the numbers of warriors swarming to meet and overrun them, it was not so much a rate-of-fire and available ammo issue with the Trapdoor. Had they had their pre 1868 Spencer carbines, it may have prolonded the inevitable a few more minutes- they being piecemeal scattered in advancing skirmish order all over Custer Hill and just overwhelmed.
A view from Custer Hill... June 25th.
Mick Archer