Civil War Transportation

The transportation of products, supplies, Natural resources, and people in the North and South was a big factor in who won the war. The attached 1861 railroad map by James Lloyd shows how dense the railroads in the North were compared to the South. The North relied more on the railroad to transport their manufactured goods. The railroads also helped the union by sending ammunition and food quickly, but The there was a fear of being sabotaged. In the map, we can also see the South railroads were very scattered. The South didn 't have much of a need to have as many railroads because they were farming communities. The Union also destroyed what little railroads the South had (Boyer 454). The Confederacy then could not transport supplies nor people to other parts of the South (Beringer 310).

Railroads are not nearly as popular in the United States as they are in European countries. Prior to the American Civil War, railroads were a fairly new, and untried, invention. Compared to carriages and the other modes of transportation at the time, the railroad was far superior. Due to this superiority, they were used to transport soldiers, food, and supplies. A systemic railroad began to spread all across the nation, and both sides of the war used them to their advantage.

The American Civil War took place from 1861-1865 was an inevitable event in the American history. More than 640,000 people were killed and millions more were injured during this massive war. The civil war was between the northern and the southern states where its most leading cause was slavery. Along with that, economic, political and social ideologies caused the civil war. The northern states, also known as the union, were more successful and antislavery compare to the southern confederates states. The northern states were more populated, had more industries, and believed in the Declaration of Independence statement that “all men are

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

The telegraph was first widely used during the civil war it allowed the Union to communicate and coordinate directly with President

The civil war was known as the bloodiest war in the history of the United States and it was fought over 10,000 places. And more than two percent of the population died during the war, and more people died during the civil war than in all wars put together. Twice as many soldiers died during the war than in combat and it was marked improvement compared to the Mexican war that was from 1846 to 1848 where there were 7 to 10 deaths from diseases for every death in the battle and it wasn’t until World War II that weapons killed more Americans than diseases. And this was because a lot of soldiers died from either injuries from the battlefield or

Even though there were progress and the advancement of guns, you still had to reload after every shot, the repeating rifle allowed you to fire of a magazine of ammunition before reloading changed the effectiveness and also the deadliness of wars. The repeating rifle was invented in 1860 by a man called Christian Spencer, a machinist who worked in Hartford. It was the first of its kind, being able to fired tens of rounds in a minute compared to a few shots every minute gave a huge advantage. With the North being able to mass produce this weapon gave a huge advantage on the battlefield. The only weakness of the rifle was the short range. The repeating rifle was only one example of many where the North industrial side show it's overwhelming

The Civil War that occurred was one of the darkest times in our history as a country. It was a time where there was a complete breakdown of social and political systems. Hundreds of thousands were killed and hundreds of thousands more were aversely affected. However, it was also a time of remembrance and significant moral progress. It is remembered as the turning point in American History and would be the foundation for the Civil Rights movement many years later.

Technology has not only significantly improved daily life, but it has also changed warfare. In the 1860’s, controversies of the practice of slavery, westward expansion, and political authorities caused high tensions between the Northern Union and the Southern Confederacy. As the tensions built up, the Civil War began on April 12th, 1861 after the secession of the Southern states. Determining the independence of the Confederacy and the fate of the Union, the Civil War was a period of major technological transformation. In 1865, the Union officially won the Civil War with advantages such as industrialization, a larger population, and most importantly, technological innovations. Advancement in technology, such as the telegraph, railroads, and rifles, effectively changed the Northern military strategies by establishing a rapid network of communication, providing an efficient and safe system of transportation, and improving the performance of the weapons.

All in all, the South was unsuccessful in progressing in a favorable system for intermediate transportation. The South mainly depended on their cotton and tobacco. They were helpless with diverting over to a food management. The fighting from the war destroyed the crops and homes in the South. The North was a diverse society and its foundation focused on an enlarged economy and agriculture. The North had access to machinery and used them significantly. This allowed framers to develop more land and supplied a growth in production. In importance, the factories had a positive impact on the war and were capable of producing guns, ammunition, and clothing more rapidly. The Union tried such methods as borrowing funds, taxing, and printing money to fund their war which in the end worked for them. The Confederacy used the same methods; however, taxing the civilians was rejected by the public and the Congress. To manage the army, the Union passed the Enrollment Act

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

Prior to the start of the Civil war in 1861, the South was still a heavily agricultural based society and remained so for years after the war ended. On the other hand, the North’s economy relied more on manufactured products rather than agricultural products. With the North’s openess to advancements in technology, came advancements in travel and shipping. The biggest advancement in travel at the time was the invention of the railroad system. The North’s percentage of railroad tracks, when compared to the total of railroad tracks located within the North and the South, was about 72 percent (Doc. C). Meaning the South had to rely on the North to transport most of the time so their crops could be transported

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 Civil War was a four year armed conflict between northern and southern sections of the United States. The Civil War cost more American lives than any other war in history. There were bout 3 million people who fought in the beginning of the Civil War and about 600,000 people’s lives were lost at the end of the war. What began for many as a romantic adventure soon became a heartbreaking bitter struggle between the two parts of a divided country. This, however, was more than the industrial North fighting against the agricultural South. There were divided families with brother fighting brother. Some Northerners joined the Southern ranks and some Southerners were in the Union

The civil war was a very deadly war and one of the bloodiest in United States history. The civil war began on April 12, 1865 and came to an end on May 9, 1865. The most important men at the time were the brave men who served and fought for what they believed in. In other words, these men were the soldiers. Over the course of the war, around three million men served. Over 110,000 Union soldiers died during combat and deaths due to other complications totaled to over 250,000 men. The Confederate casualties in combat added up to over 95,000, and the amount that died from disease and other things added up to over 165,000 deaths. Overall, approximately 620,00 men had died by the end of the war.