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The Spencer rifle was popular with the Union Army, but not too many were adopted for service at first. Spencer set up a personal meeting with Abe Lincoln after being denied a contract for more by the army. He demonstrated the rifle by disassembling it in the White House and showing its operation. He and Mr. Lincoln then went to the area where the Washington Monument stand and they set up a target. Lincoln was a bit off the first shot but the second two were pretty accurate. Spencer shot a little better, and Lincoln was impressed. Lincoln then insisted that Spencer rifles be mass produced for the Army.
The army's thought was that they would rather have a rate of fire that was slower (many times slower with muzzle loaders as opposed to the Spencer) that would cause people to take their time and pick their shots. This, it was thought, would keep the supply of ammo available as opposed to a huge amount of cartridges for heavier rates of fire.
The Union militia units bought and used more Spencer rifles at first than did the Union Army. The secondary advantage of the Spencer as opposed to the muzzle loader was that if captured by Confederate troops or militia, the Spencer would only be used against the Union forces for as long as they had existing ammo. The Confederates had not perfected rolling of brass or copper sufficiently to produce the cartridges necessary to feed the Spencer.
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