AFTE Store - The Lincoln Target Board

On August 18, 1863 President Abraham Lincoln met with Christopher Spencer and test-fired a Spencer rifle behind the White House after a lengthy effort on pencer’s part to gain an audience with the president. Although the Spencer repeating rifles and carbines had been in existence prior to the start of the American Civil War, the Union Army’s Chief of Ordnance, General James Ripley was opposed to the use of cartridge firing guns consequently the war had been fought almost exclusively with muzzle loading firearms prior to the meeting between Lincoln and Spencer. Lincoln was purportedly so impressed with the performance and accuracy of the Spencer that he promptly endorsed it and orders soon followed. This was facilitated by the replacement of the resistant General Ripley by General George Ramsay a month after the shooting demonstration behind the White House. The target shot that fateful day was a wooden board on which a Bullseye had been marked. The board was positioned at 40 yards. Lincoln fired a full magazine of cartridges (7 rounds) and fared quite well according to Spencer’s subsequent account. The board was later given to Spencer on the White House steps upon his departure. The rifle was left with the president who wanted to carry out some more shooting tests with it the following day. Spencer inscribed a brief record of the historic event on the target board and kept it until 1883 when he sent it to Springfield, Illinois to be added to historic relics from the civil war. An article in the 1962 Gun Digest showed a black and white picture of the Lincoln Target Board with the comment that the board had been lost. With the help of Distinguished AFTE member Jim Kreiser, (formerly of the Illinois State Lab in Springfield, Illinois) the board has been found and subsequently examined and photographed by the author. Measurements of the bullet holes and group size were taken and the caliber of the rifle fired by our 16th president determined. Caliber determination was of considerable interest for several reasons. The black & white photograph of the Lincoln Target Board depicted in the 1962 Gun Digest and other sources lacked a scale and there was a serious question as to whether Spencer furnished President Lincoln with a production gun in .56-.56 Spencer or one of the early developmental rifles chambered for either the .38 Long (rimfire) or .44 Long (rimfire) cartridge.