The Spencer repeating rifle was a manually operated lever-action, repeating rifle fed from a tube magazine with cartridges. It was adopted by the Union Army, especially by the cavalry, during the American Civil War, but did not replace the standard issue muzzle-loading rifled muskets in use at the time. The Spencer carbine was a shorter and lighter version.
Famous quotes containing the words spencer, repeating and/or rifle:
“Divine right of kings means the divine right of anyone who can get uppermost.”
—Herbert Spencer (1820–1903)
“I have met few men in my life, worth repeating eight times.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)
“Many times man lives and dies
Betweeen his two eternities,
That of race and that of soul,
And ancient Ireland knew it all.
Whether man die in his bed
Or the rifle knocks him dead,”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)