A RARE “Blakeslee’s Cartridge Box Advertising Card

$950.00

A very rare advertising card well illustrating the box used with Spencer Carbines during the later part of the Civil War and into the early Indian Wars.

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A RARE “Blakeslee’s Cartridge Box Advertising Card

A very rare advertising card well illustrating the box used with Spencer Carbines during the later part of the Civil War and into the early Indian Wars.  The card measures 2 7/8 x 5 inches on a thick card stock with black printing. Both sides are illustrated; the front shows the box and the reverse acts a an abbreviated manual of arms/ and use. The number “82” is written on the front side.  Probably print in year late 1864, but most likely in the beginning of 1865.  The box illustrated was the 10 tube variety.

Colonel Erastus Blakeslee, commanding the 1st Connecticut Cavalry whose soldiers were armed with the Spencer Carbine. Despite the rapid rate of fire produced by the Spencer arms, reloading once the tube in the butt stock was empty became a much slower process, thus Col. Blakeslee saw the need for a method to quick loading, and patented this cartridge box, and offered to sell the U.S. Government a number of these boxes in September of 1864. The boxes first produced had only 6 tubes. Some 32000 of the 10 tube boxes were delivered to the government prior to June of 1866 (how many were delivered during the war is unknown).

These cards were probably sent out to commanding officer of cavalry regiments, or those units desiring the box for use with their Spencer rifles. How many were printed is unknown, but I know of two – this one and the one used for the illustrations in Roy Marcot’s, “Spencer Repeating Firearms”).

A rare printed item from the Civil War era, for a scarce cartridge box to find.

 

Additional information

Weight .5 lbs