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was fortunately enough to be able to acquire this Peabody rifle when it surfaced recently in New England. To date, it appears to be the earliest known example of a Peabody rifle extant. It is essentially a custom-made sample or prototype. The Peabody design was patented by Henry 0. Peabody of Boston in 1862, and the patent was bought by the Providence Tool Company, of Providence, Rhode Island, in 1864. Though samples were made by the Providence Tool Company for the U.S. Army Trials of 1865, no standard contract arms were manufactured until the Canadian contract of 1866.

Note the contour of the receiver, which differs significantly from later standard production models, but more closely resembles the original patent drawings. The receiver markings on standard Peabody rifles include "PEABODY'S PAT./JULY 22,18621MAN'F'D BY/PROVIDENCE TOOL CO./PROV, R.I.". The markings on this rifle include only "H.O. PEABODY/PAT'D JULY 22, 1862/ BOSTON", indicating that it predates the sale of the Peabody patent to the Providence Tool Company in 1864. The entire barrel assembly, including sight, forearm, and bands, appear to be from a Spencer rifle. This certainly makes sense, because a gun inventor lacking his own facilities would likely have a working sample made by an existing firearms manufactory, and the Spencer Rifle Company was located in Boston. Furthermore, according to his obituary, Peabody was employed "in an arms factory in Boston" (likely Spencer) at the outbreak of the Civil War. In order to minimize the number of custom-made parts, the ancillary parts of the gun (barrel, stocks, etc.) would be made from existing parts on hand. This is most likely one of a small number of samples or prototypes that the inventor had custom-made. This may very well be the rarest and most historically significant example of a Peabody rifle yet known.