Essay On Civil War Weapons

Early bullets were designed to be placed in this new loading system. The classic way of having the powder and pellets separate was too slow and messy. This early design of the bullet is very similar to the simple modern one. It had a metal casing with powder placed behind the pellets or in some cases one large pellet (Hogg 54). With these being loaded from the side on the new rifles they were capable of firing a shot much faster then the gun of a hundred years earlier. Even though the gun had become more powerful the Civil War was still a political war.

During the Revolutionary War we do not see much advancement in weaponry, but we do see a wide array of weapons such as Artillery, Rifles and Muskets, Pistols, Swords and Sabres, Ship classes, and even Submarines. Although there was not a huge technological leap in weaponry, the weapons were very interesting and effective at the time.

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

Like many other Civil War technologies, these weapons were available to Northern troops but not Southern ones: Southern factories had neither the equipment nor the know-how to produce them. “I think the Johnnys [Confederate soldiers] are getting rattled; they

A few years ago I was curious and did a free name search on Ancestery.com , and what I found was that hundreds of people with the Ellison last name served on both sides in the Civil War. In honor of this interesting fact I would like to explore this time period in American history to see how my ancestors lived. In this paper I am going to primarily put my focus on the people of this war , and what technology used during this period of dramatic change in american history.

Rifling was lining inside the barrel of the gun which made the bullet go much farther and faster. Rifling made the bullet not move in the barrel of the gun. With muskets, the soldier had to push the bullet into the barrel of the musket, taking a large amount of time because the musket and the ammunition was the just about the same size. While with the minie ball fit easily into the gun because the diameter of the bullet was smaller than the barrel. Some of these guns also had different technology. The Spencer Rifle had a very quick reload, and was very dangerous in war. There were also repeating rifles, these could shoot multiple bullets in a row. This was an upgrade of the Spencer Rifle and the musket because it was the first gun to be able to shoot more than one bullet in a row. Most of the repeating rifles that were used in the Civil War could shoot up to seven bullets, making it not just a skill of who could reload faster, but who had a better shot. The Union in the north had repeating rifles, while the Confederates in the south did not have them. This is because the North was much more industrialized than the South, so the North could make many more guns than the South. Ships were also used in the attack at some points, but sips were mostly used for transporting cargo and blockading the

The Union forces also produced many long range artillery weapons. Unlike the Confederates, who used Howitzers; the Union Army used mortars. The short-squat mortar, as it was called, was originally used by the Ottoman's in 1453. The mortars operated by the Union were primarily used to hurl shells over walls or into large concentrations of enemy soldiers. In addition to lobbing bombs over walls, the mortars were also extremely effective in dismantling naval forces. The mortars could be shot from miles inland, therefore Confederate naval forces never saw the bombs coming. The mortar weighed 17,120 pounds and could fire a 220 pound bomb 4,325 yards. There were smaller versions of these mortars (the 300 lb Coehorn mortar with a 5.8 inch bore that hurled an 18 pound shell), but they saw very little activity on the battlefield.8

The Confederates has forty-seven guns at their disposal and pummeled the fort for thirty-four hours. It took some time for the Northerners to fire back and some Southerners grew concerned they would not have a proper battle, but their fears dissipated when Abner Doubleday fired the Unions first shot of the war a few hours later. The Union would fire back occasionally but they tried to conserve their ammo and not waste it idly firing back, due to lack of munitions in the garrison. Despite the hours of bombardment from the Confederate guns Fort Sumter was taking little damage because of its twelve-foot thick

The small arms that the army did have were often defective and gunpowder was scarce. The standard musket used by the militia was inefficient in terms of fighting on the larger scale battle fields. Not only were the bullets completely inaccurate at 300 yards but they were also no longer lethal at that distance. Additionally, the rifles the militia used were their own and not available to the Continental Army as a whole. Therefore, the Continental Army began using the “Brown Bess”, the musket with bayonet attachment that the British Army used. They became available as the Patriots would capture British troops and were also shipped in from European manufacturers. Although it was highly inaccurate and was very time consuming in terms of reloading, considering it was used in mass in the linear formation of the ranks and file of the standing armies, it was highly effective in terms of the volleying of the rounds. At fifty yards, the “Brown Bess” would have an eighteen inch variance. However, in linear formations, this variance could be overcome and injury could still be imposed as soldiers were closely filed together. The musket weighed approximately 13 pounds and released a large amount of smoke after it was fired. Therefore, the linear tactics had to be employed to allow for repeated volleys, firing rank by rank, and thus unleashing more damage at approximately nine rounds per volley. Furthermore, the “Brown Bess” had the capability of attaching bayonets, which were also necessary on the battlefield. The bayonet was inserted down the barrel of the musket, which was imperative for close quarter hand to hand combat when time did not allow to reload the musket and the enemy was too close. Linear tactics also allowed Washington’s use of artillery, although it was limited. Washington utilized light, mobile cannons and field artillery to push back the

General John Burgoyne commanded 4,000 English regulars and 3,000 German Mercenaries. The British force possessed 52 cannon to ensure they could defeat American fortified positions. The American forces led by General Horatio Gates were comprised of 6,500 Continentals and 1,500 Militia. This number grew as time went on. By the end of the Campaign, the local Militia grew to 14,000 troops. The American forces rifleman utilized the Kentucky rifle that had a slower rate of fire then the commonly used smoothbore musket, however it was capable of very accurate, aimed shots at great range. (Furneaux, 1971)

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:

In wars prior to the Civil War, soldiers wielded weapons such as the musket which shot only one bullet at a time. Though these types of weaponry could shoot as far as 250 yards, they were inconvenient and wasted time. To even aim at the target accurately one had to be 80 yards away. Similarly to muskets, rifles were inconvenient because they took a while to reload because the bullet was almost the same size of the barrel and again, wasted time. Bullets with a pointed tip were created in 1848 by Claude Minie. Because the diameter of the bullets were smaller than the barrel, soldiers could put them into the gun quicker and more effectively. With Minie’s bullets, rifles were simpler to reload but still had to be reloaded with one bullet at a time. That unprotected gap of time made soldiers more vulnerable so in 1849 a repeating rifle called the Volitional Repeater was patented by Walter Hunt. They were popularized in 1863 during the Civil War. By this time many models were being sold but the most common one was the Spencer Carbine which could shoot seven bullets in just 30 seconds. These, like most Civil War era weapons, were produced and used by the North, but not

The American Civil War was a turning point in American history. Not only for the United States government and shifts into more progressive values, but also the advancement of military weaponry used in the armed forces. Perhaps the most progressed branch during this time was the field artillery. The field artillery of the well-funded Union army was not accomplishing the extensive damage that was expected of it but under the faith of Union Captain Quincy A. Gillmore (Lane, 2001), the 30 pound Parrot Rifled Cannon was deployed specifically for use against the impenetrable walls of Fort Pulaski. For the Union army, the capture of Fort Pulaski was an important battle that utilized the technological advancements of rifling of field artillery cannons in order to render the stone walls of the fort indefensible.

     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).

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).