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"I’m going to counter that with rate-of-fire and nominate a Winchester Lever Action...maybe model 1873 or so as the first true “assault rifle.”"

The Spencer repeating rifle was a decade earlier and the Confederates swore that the Yankees "loaded it on Sunday and fired it all week."

[BwanaNdege]

http://www.seabee.info/spencer.htm

Interesting article on one of Spenser’s sons, an aviation pioneer who died in 1995.

This tells a bit about his father demonstrating his repeating rifle to Pres. Lincoln.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Miner_Spencer

“Although the Spencer rifle had been developed as early as 1859, it was not initially used by the Union. On August 18, 1863, Christopher Spencer walked into the White House carrying one of his rifles and a supply of cartridges. He walked past the sentries, and into Abraham Lincoln’s office. After some discussion, he returned the following afternoon, when Spencer and Lincoln were joined by Edwin Stanton, Secretary of War and other officials, and the group then proceeded to walk out on the Mall. Near the site of the Washington Monument, they engaged in target shooting.”

Very interesting to see how much history & technological advancement occurred in the space of two generations!

Now if one of those Yankees had invented a metal detector for the White House first, them ‘d***** Yankees’ would not have had the Spencer rifle and might have lost the War of Northern Aggression!

/s

[calex59]

The Spencer repeating rifle was a decade earlier and the Confederates swore that the Yankees "loaded it on Sunday and fired it all week."

I believe that more Henry repeaters were used than were Spencers, although the Spencer was first on the battle field, and the coffee grinder model was especially popular. The Spencer, IIRC, only held 7 rounds, loaded through the stock and the hammer had to be manually cocked for each shot. The Henry(the later models)had a tube under the barrel for loading and held about 15 rounds and the hammer was self cocking when the under lever was activated. The Spencer used a more powerful round but the .44 rimfire Henry was more popular with the troops. Both models were late getting into the war, mainly because the Union Quartermaster at that time thought that the troops would use up ammo wastefully and wouldn't approve them until Lincoln personally ordered him to accept the Spencer.

[Tainan]

Thanks for the extra info.
IMO, and a few other folks, the term "assault rifle" is just a new term for a tool that has been around for quite a while...;)