Manufactured by the Spencer Repeating Rifle Company of Boston, Massachusetts, this is one of 11,470 Spencer Model 1860 Army rifles purchased by the Ordnance Department during the Civil War. The rifle has a 30-inch round barrel with seven-shot magazine tube in the stock. The barrel has a blade front sight with base doubling as a socket bayonet lug and a dove-tail mounted folding leaf rear sight with 800 yard center notch. Sling swivels mounted on the middle barrel band and butt. The top of the receiver is roll-stamped "SPENCER REPEATING-/RIFLE CO. BOSTON MASS/PAT'D. MARCH 6, 1860." in three lines. The serial number is roll-stamped on the top of the receiver behind the ejector cut-out. Small "S.L" sub-inspection initials marked on the left barrel flat. F.W. Roebling III brass collection tag numbered "257" hanging from the front sling swivel.

Good with silvered out gray patina on the action, brown patina on the balance and some scattered patches of light to moderate pitting indicative of period use. Wood is also good showing extensive usage with scattered dents, a small chip ahead of the buttplate tang, cracks on either side of the toe, and some areas slightly undersized. Mechanically fine. A solid representative example of an early production Civil War rifle!