Norwich bulletin., 1918-08-19
SHOOTING WITH LINCOLN.
By w. H. Gocher.

Five days a week at S:45 A. NJ. a slimly built, medium sized man with a thin, gray beard and gold trimmed glasses, wearing a dark gray business suit and automobile cap, takes the Blue Hills Avenue car in Hartford, Conn. at Harold Street Almost all of those whe see him daily infer that he is sixty or sixty five years old Still the records of South Manchester, Conn. show that Christopher Miner Spencer was born in that town June 20, 1893, and is, therefore, in his eighty sixth year. This mans in ventive genius and skillful hands have done considerable toward es- tablishing the mechanical ascendancy of Connecticut, not only in the pro duction Of machine made screws but also in improved arms for modern war equipment.
 One evening while in conversation with MT. Spencer I referred to the rifle which he invented and asked him who originated the idea of a re- peater. In reply he said: The first repeating rifle l ever heard of was made by a man named Henry. That was in the fiftIes. He depen6ad on depression in the base of the bullet for the powder chamber and sold his invention to Winchester of New Haven. In 1857 when I began to work on my repeating rifle I was liv ing in South Manchester. After con- sidera ble experimenting I was con- Yinced that it would be necessary to have a shell to hold the charge and I made a few out Of steel. One day while rummaging in Newton's gun shop in Hartford on Kingsley Street where the police station now stands, I found a few brass shells which were made in France and provided for rim fire. Newton did not know where | they came from. He gave them to me and as soon as I perfected the mat | ter of ejecting the empty shell while the loaded one was slipping into it's l place, the Spencer repeating rife was ready for use.
 1 My patent was granted March f, 1860, just one year before President 1 Lincoln was inaugurated, and as did not have the means to manu- 1 facture the weapon, I placed it in the hands of Cheny Bros. to finance. After the Civil War started in 1881, Charles i Cheney made ar appointment with Gideon Wells. who was a resident of | Hartford and at that time Secretary of the Navy, for trial of the rife It proved so satisfactory that he or i dered a thousand.
 With this order a factory was started in Boston, and continued un- til after the war when we sold out to Winchester. During that time the company manufactured and sold over one hundred and fifty thousand rifles to the government. For some time il | experienced considerable difficulty 1T getting orders from the War Depart ment but this objection was. overcome 1 by James G. Blaine as soon as ht was convinced that the Spencer rifle was not only a reliable weapon bu
 that it would also kill a horse at { mile.
 q was superintendent of the Bos
 ton factory and as soon as every
 thing was in running order I de
 voted the most of my time to show ing soldiers and sailors in the serv,
 ice how to use the rife. Whel , Grant was investing Vicksburg 1 hat
 dinner with him on a dispatch boa
 at the mouth of the Yazoo River A that time he was considering the ad
 visibility of diverting the course o
 the Mississippi River and leavinj
 Vicksburg without a water front H decided, however, that it was too mucl
 of an undertaking and sent his boat down the river under cover of dark
 ness two days after I left for tn
 
 north.
 q also arrived at Stone Rive
 three days after the battle of Mur freesboro All of the men slain ha been buried by that time but ther were plenty of dead horses and mule in sight. The Spencer rifle was use in that battle and on Wilder's rec
 ommendation General Rosencranz is sued an order for more of then These were the guns that were use in the battle of Lookout Mountain i front of Chattanooga and they wer
 also ustd to clear the way for Sher
 man when he made his march to tn
 sea-
 While l was at Stone River tn
 surgeon of Pennsylvania regimer
 invited me to go into Nashville an
 have dinner with a lady whose hus
 band and sons were in the souther --larmy. We-were entertaine very hos