Well actually General Ripley dispite all his grumbling placed the first order for 10,000 Spencer Rifles with bayonets on 26 December of 1861. They US Navy placed an order for 700 in July of that same year.
First combat use recorded was a private gift from Spencer to a member of the 1st Mass Cav on Oct16, 1862.
The Lincoln story is true to an extent although the Army had already placed an order for 11,000 Spencer Carbines about six weeks before the event on 13 July 1863.
About 7,000 were delivered that year.
With new orders and such about 28, 000 were delivered in 1864.
By the time the contracts finally ran out well after the war (well six months)in October of 1865 a total of 64,685 of the carbines had been delivered by Spencer AND an additional 30,496 from Burnside Arms .
95,000+ is more than a few carbines. Plus Rifles ( about 11,700)
By the end of the war 15 Cav regiments were fully armed with Spencers.
For a comparison, including sales of war contracts through the end of 1865
Sharps sold only 77,330 carbines and only 8,120 rifles
Burside sold only 53,031 of their own carbines in that time.
The Smith only 31,002.
and everyone else fewer.
The Spencer Carbine was the standard for the US cav from 1866 to 1873.
Oddly when the 1873 Trap door replaced the Spencer officially many units received Sharps carbine adapted to the .50/70 cartridge it self obsolete by 1873. Our government in action. The only thing that would have ticked me off as a young trooper in 1873 more than turning in my Spencer for a brand new 1873 .45/70 would have been turning it in for a Bubba-ed .50-70 Sharps!
G.A. Custer was not happy with their replacement as his ACW units beginning in mid 1863 were armed with them as was his 7th US Cav in the west until 1873 (some say 7th had them later than that but had turned them all in before 1876)
Most everything here I swiped from John D. Aulay's "Carbines of the Civil War."
My first experience with playing with a Spencer Carbine was in the early 1960's as a kid. Another kid's family had one great Grandpappy took of a Yankee in The War. I have been interested in them every since.
-kBob