“Due to the use of the Spencer rifle by part of General Geary’s troops at Gettysburg, a whole division of Ewell’s corps was repulsed by inferior numbers.” Captain Hunt continues: “ Of this action an eye-witness said, ‘ The head of the column ( Confederate), as it was pushed on by those behind, appeared to melt away or sink into the earth, for though continually moving, it got no nearer.'” As we shall see, Hunt’s report made for stirring reading but like many references about Spencers and Gettysburg it had no foundation in fact. wrote in his report on The Ordnance Department of the Federal Army: 1860-1865, about the superiority of the Spencer rifle and its use by General John Geary’s 12th Corps soldiers on July 2nd. The contributions of the Spencer to Union victory are not limited to July 1st however. Numerous authors have suggested that it was the Spencer that helped derail the Confederate attack on the morning of July 1 that General John Buford’s cavalry troopers, armed with their Spencer carbines, repelled wave after wave of Confederate infantry. For many years, students of the Battle of Gettysburg have sung the praises of the Spencer rifle and its contribution to the great Union victory.
