Miniè balls, a cylindrical lead bullet and the main source of ammunition during the
Civil War, caused dreadful injuries usually very difficult to be dealt with. The soft lead bullet, capable of killing at over 1,000 yards, caused gaping holes in flesh, crushed bones, and destroyed muscles, arteries, and tissues beyond repair. One confederate surgeon recalls, “The shattering, splintering, and splitting of a long bone by the impact of a minié or Enfield ball were, in many instances, both remarkable and frightful.” With the bullet being relatively large and dense, those hit through the torso or head were not expected to survive; a situation the smoothbore musket usually did not cause. This .58 caliber bullet, besides causing fatal stomach injuries,
The colonel's body had been excavated by grave-diggers and during the struggle of surfacing the body from the ancient grave, the grave robber had accidentally ripped the fragile head off the old body. The most expressive clue to solving this mystery was that the skull had been blasted with a very high powered gun at extremely close range, such a high powered lead musket ball that could only have escaped a gun during the days of the Civil War. The biggest complication of this case was how intact the body still was even after all those years. Even the legendary Doctor Bass had no explaination and was very confused and astonished at how well the body and skin had held together from nineteenth century embalming, thus inspiring him to want to learn more about what toll the body
Calcium floodlights were mainly used by the Union soldiers as made it easy to see and they soldiers were able to blind Confederate soldiers (8 Unusual Civil War Weapons"). One of the more creative weapons was a blanket used by Confederate soldiers (8 Unusual Civil War Weapons"). As strange as this sounds, the Confederate soldiers used the blanket to catch explosives and throw it back in the enemy's direction. My personal favorite weapon used was a hot air balloon. It was shocking when it say that hot air balloons were used to give a large view of the battlefield. (Appendix A) This was more commonly a Union weapon as the Confederacy lacked good, quality materials to build a durable balloon (“8 Unusual Civil War Weapons"). Like the machine guns and swords, rockets were actually used in the Civil War (“8 Unusual Civil War Weapons"). Although there were very few appearances from rockets, they still did help play a part by doing their job! The Confederacy used Congreve rockets as well (“Weapons”). They were around three feet and two inches long and filled with gunpowder. Although they could be powerful, they missed quite often and were pretty useless (“Weapons”). Used by both the Confederacy and the Union, underwater mines were useful to blow up the opponent's ship. Although the Union tried the underwater mines, the Confederacy had more success as they blew up dozens of the Union’s ships while the Union blew up only six Confederate ships (“8 Unusual Civil War
In August of 1861, William F. Ketchum patented the Ketchum Hand Grenade. Shortly after, in the years of 1863 and 1864, the grenade was implemented in the American Civil War.
The American Civil War had as many as 650,000 casualties, naming itself as America’s bloodiest war. The beginning of the end started when Union armies outran Gordon’s regiment and had already captured 6,000 troops prior to the battle at Sayler's Creek. Union troops had overthrew the Confederate capital of Richmond, due to this the North had Lee running for the hills and Grant was not about to let Lee off that easily. It doesn’t help that the Confederates had many soldiers leaving the army, so really there really wasn’t a Confederate army, in all honesty they were a band of jolly old rebels. Grant chased Lee through the backwoods of Virginia and eventually into Appomattox Court House, Lee who was low on supplies, soldiers, and ammunition, he knew that he didn’t have a
The Union army, unlike the Confederates, had multiple companies that provided simple, yet devastating weapons. One of these weapons was the .52 caliber breech-loading Billinghurst-Requa battery; it was produced only 50 times. This weapon consisted of 25 rifled barrels side by side that, when primed, were set off by a lanyard to inflict massive damage over a small range of territory.7
The Union soldiers were more likely to carry the U.S. Model 1861 Springfield Rifle-Musket than any other weapon. These guns were not the easiest or most convenient weapons even if they were the most common. The Model 1861 was a .58 caliber gun, was 58.5 inches long, and weighed in at a heavy 9.25 pounds. This rifle was nicknamed "The Widow Maker." This nickname was made with great thanks to the minie` bullet which was an integral part of this rifle-musket. The combination of the rifle-musket and the minie` bullet forever changed the face of warfare; thus because for the first time ever, men could aim at a distant target, and have a decent chance of hitting it. This luxury allowed the gun-bearers to hide in a safe place, yet still be able to knock down their target. Colonel George Hanger, an American Revolution officer, wrote in 1814:
The American Civil War had a very dynamic effect on the growth of baseball during the 1860s. Before the Civil War baseball was flourishing and was at a point of dramatic growth and widespread popularity. During the beginning of the Civil War baseball was dramatically hampered with personnel issues and while still played, it was reported as more of a recreational, social support play style which was commonly used as propaganda to promote the Union “beating off the rebels who would dismember this glorious ‘Union of States.’ “ . Toward the end of the Civil War baseball seemed to regain much of its popularity through a combination of ruleset changes, and the changes within the economic and political climate. Baseball’s effects on the Civil
The Mine’ bullets were bullets that both the North and the South had carried with them. The bullets were cone shaped like the bullets we have today. In the South, they had the best trained officers since there were seven of the eight military colleges at the time. This also allowed them to have the best trained military and officer. Since the war for the South was a defensive effort, the North did not know what they were getting into. The South only had to do so much damage to the North and because of this they lost their moral to fight the war. The military of the South was vicious. The South had more and better leaders. While having a broader base of recruits. They did not have as many people than the North. And the South’s technology was no match for the North’s (“Strengths
Riffles were another major contribution to the war, as far as weapons were concerned. The union forces had One of the most popular riffles was the Model 1861 Springfield Musket. The Springfield Musket weighed 9.25 pounds, had a twenty-one inch socket bayonet, and fired a .58 caliber mine ball traveling 950 feet per second. Riffled Muskets, which were also known as Enfields, were the second most popular riffles in the war. These Enfields, had a bore diameter of .557 inches, and weighed nine pounds three ounces. They were accurate at 800 yards, and could travel up to 1,100 yards without any difficulty. During the course of the war, 400,000 Enfields were sold to the Union troops, whereas a mere 20,000 were purchased by the confederate army. Although this weapons wasn’t as popular as the Springfield, the Enfield still packed a powerful punch at 1,100 yards (Ripley 43).
The Civil War of America has been discussed as the first modern war of the new industrial age. Army’s of such a large size had yet to meet head on, face to face in the battle field with weapons of such mass destruction and deadly force. America had not yet seen casualties of this magnitude to
Around noon, Union and Confederate cavalry troops battled three miles east of Gettysburg but Stuart was eventually repulsed by cannon fire led in part by Gen. George Custer and the Union Cavalry. The diversion attempt failed. Back at the main battle site, just after 1 p.m. about 170 Confederate cannons opened fire on the Union position on Cemetery Ridge to pave the way for the Rebel Charge. This was the heaviest artillery barrage of the war. The Federals returned heavy cannon fire and soon the battlefield was covered in smoke and dust. Around 2:30 p.m. the Federals slowed their rate of fire, then stopped firing, to conserve ammunition and to fool the Rebels into thinking the cannons were knocked out-and that's exactly what the Rebels thought too. But as the Rebels got within range, Federal cannons opened fire using grapeshot which is a shell containing iron balls that flew apart when fired, and they also used deadly waves of rifle fire. Soon the Rebel army was torn apart but they still moved forward. Pickett’s charge was almost more after the once majestic army of 13,000 had its numbers of troops dwindle.. The Rebels still move forward, shooting then charging with bayonets. The battle lasted for about an hour mostly of hand-to-hand combat. Finally what was left of Pickett’s charge (5,500) retreated. Lee admitted this was his mistake and the tide of war now turned in the North’s favor. The Union lost (either dead, wounded, or missing) about 23,000, and the Confederates lost about
The Civil War was fought with much carnage, and was one of America’s most ‘uncivilized’, wars with a soldier’s chance of survival about twenty-five per cent. While many were killed by other soldiers, usually through bullets, a large portion died as a result of disease such as: dysentery, mumps, pneumonia, typhoid fever, measles, and tuberculosis, diseases that are curable today. These diseases were spread through the horribly sanitized camps found on both sides of the war: Confederate and Union. And while many died from disease, some died from other soldiers’ bullets; these deaths may have been prevented if the technology, or overall techniques used by surgeons, during this time period were more up-to-date, as amputations were the main procedure
In the mid-late 1800s, the US was in an awkward place where finally, for an extended period of time, they were not at war with anyone. Americans could go home and not have to worry about sending their boys off to the army or navy in order to preserve their nation. However it was strange due to the fact that Americans did not yet have an identity, a true American culture. The free time given to them was met with revelation and the realization of things needing to be created in the US not only to serve as something to do and look forward to but also a social event and get together. Things like baseball started to really catch a flame, however more was needed to bring the country together, something more exciting. Finally, a man named Walter Camp
Have you ever seen hot air balloons in the sky? Well I’m going to tell you what it was like in the Civil War. The first attempt was in 1783. Who developed hot air balloons? Well there two men named Joseph - Michel and Jacques Etienne Montgolfier. How did it affect the civil war? Hot air balloons were used by both for reconnaissance missions.
In total, there were over 370 Union Army artillery units at Gettysburg during the battle on November 19th, 1863 (Newton, 2005). This gave the Union Army a stout advantage over the Confederate Army, who only had about 280 artillery unit’s available (Newton, 2005). Of the different pieces used, the 12 pound smooth bore Napoleon was the most common. With a range of 1,300 yards, this artillery piece was used for direct fire on enemy troops and advancing artillery (Newton, 2005). In most cases, the Napoleon used a canister shot, which consisted of one round and one charge (Newton, 2005).When massing artillery fires on enemy artillery, it was common for artillery sections to use a double canister, a canister with two rounds and one charge (Newton, 2005). This was done to increase the chance of critical damage to enemy pieces. Often times when engaging enemy artillery directly, Union artillery would focus the battery on one enemy piece at a time, using the double canister (Newton, 2005).