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Spencer Rifle Company Research Paper

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By 1860 American inventors like Samuel Colt, Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson, Oliver Winchester, Benjamin Henry, and Christopher Spencer were on the brink of mass producing magazine-fed, lever-action, repeating rifles that fired self-contained metallic cartridges. Once the Civil War began, two companies dominated the competition for lucrative government contracts—the New Haven Arms Company (Henry rifle) and the Spencer Repeating Rifle Company (Spencer rifle). Officers in the Spencer Repeating Rifle Company were politically connected and quickly secured contracts with both the Navy and War departments by late 1861. Two years later the New Haven Arms Company finally won its first government contract. Consequently, the Spencer rifle and carbine

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