American Rifle - Alexander Rose [78]
At two P.M. the following day (August 18), Spencer accompanied the president, Lincoln’s son Robert, and his private secretary John Hay out for a demonstration on the shooting range at Treasury Park. A wooden plank three feet long and six inches wide to use as a target was set up for them. Lincoln took the first shot, from 40 yards away. It hit five inches below, and somewhat to the left, of the bull’s-eye. His next hit the spot, and by furiously working the lever, he rapidly placed five more in the neighborhood. “Now,” he said, “we will see the inventor try it.” Spencer, “a quiet little Yankee” (in the words of Hay), then performed “some splendid shooting” and beat the president’s score. Lincoln, amused, defended his inferiority by remarking that Spencer was younger than he was. Then Hay had a try, but his efforts were “la mentably bad.” (Being younger than either, he blamed his poor eyesight.) A naval aide brought the board with them back to the president’s office. Bidding farewell to Spencer, Lincoln gave him the target, saying that “it might be a gratifying souvenir.” In his diary Hay echoed his boss’s thoughts on the Spencer: “a wonderful gun, loading with absolutely contemptible simplicity and ease with seven balls and firing the whole readily and deliberately in less than half a minute.” The president liked it so much he went out the next evening and fired off many more rounds.137
Lincoln could not help wondering why Ripley had been so adamantly opposed to this “wonderful gun” and why he was continuing to drag his feet issuing it to the troops. A month after the shooting exhibition, the inevitable decision was made.138 Ripley had to go. This time Lincoln was helped by a recent Act of Congress declaring the president’s power to retire officers of more than forty-five years’ service. With forty-five already on the clock, Ripley knew his day was done, and on September 14 he resigned his commission.139 (Two years later he was breveted a major general for his long and faithful service. Until 1869 the crusty old soldier worked as an inspector of the coastal New England forts, a position that kept him out of Washington politicking. In March of the following year he died at his home in Hartford, Connecticut.)140
Now that Ripley was at long last out of the picture, there remained the problem of a successor. Lincoln wanted Colonel George Ramsay, the wholly uninteresting, dutiful superintendent of the Washington Arsenal who was guaranteed not to cause as much turmoil as Ripley had. Unfortunately Stanton loathed Ramsay, but he also understood that his own ambitious favorite, Captain George Balch, was outranked. Giving in, Stanton accepted Ramsay but stipulated that Balch be made his deputy.
It took six months for Ramsay to realize that Balch had been sending out imperious demands to one and all using his signature. Following a full and frank exchange of views, Balch tendered his resignation, only to be “persuaded” to return to his post. Round one to Balch. Following yet another unpleasant altercation in the summer of 1864, Balch again resigned. Round two to Ramsay. But Stanton refused to accept it. Round three to Balch. Then Stanton fired Ramsay on September 12 and exiled him, à la Ripley, to the inspection of coastal fortresses. Round four and knockout to Balch.
Lincoln had now noticed the distinctly strange goings-on at Ordnance and insisted on Major Alexander Dyer, who was still at the Springfield Armory after previously turning down the post. With Dyer, even Stanton could find little to complain about. Aware of the lion’s den he was entering, Dyer’s first act was to banish Balch to “special duty” at West Point.
Dyer remained as chief of ordnance until 1874, dying in harness. Three years before his appointment he had actually been the first ordnance officer to test the Spencer, which he regarded as the finest breech-loading arm he had ever seen. In October