Innovative Technologies during the Civil War

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.

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

A Rifle could shoot a bullet up to 1,000 yards–and were more accurate. However, until the 1850s it was nearly impossible to use these guns in battle because, since a rifle’s bullet had roughly the same diameter as its barrel, they took too long to load. (Soldiers sometimes had to pound the bullet into the barrel with a mallet.)

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.

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.

Following the Civil War, a second industrial revolution in America brought many changes to the nation’s agriculture sector. The new technologies that were created transformed how farmers worked and the way in which the sector functioned. Agriculture expanded and became more industrial. Meanwhile government policies, or lack of them for a while, and hard economic conditions put difficult strains on farmers and their occupation. These changes in technology, economic conditions, and government policy from 1865 to 1900 transformed and improved agriculture while leaving farmers in hardship.

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 Civil War was the first modern war that helped strengthen the technology and industrial system. But their industry and technology distinguished the

Many principal creations were developed around the time of the Civil War. First and foremost was the widespread utilization of railroads for the transport of troops,

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

Amongst the most lasting of factors stemming from the Civil War are the weapons that were developed. Before the Civil War, the weapons used were highly unreliable, and were not advanced enough to provide the needed defense for a young nation such as our own. Innovative minds created many interesting ways to demolish their enemies without ever having to fire a shot or go into full combat through different types of bombs that were in disguise. Among the advancements in the Civil War were the torpedo, the carbine rifle, the minie` ball, several models of rifle-muskets, rocket launchers, rocket bombs, "Greek Fire," and a wide array of other secret weapons.

Along with the longer swords, the cavalrymen and officers in both armies had used a very inaccurate flintlock pistol, which despite its firing speed it was still inefficient as it had even lower accuracy than its musket counterpart. Nonetheless, the flintlock pistol pales in comparison to the larger guns that were used in the war: cannons.

     Weapons have been around from the Neanderthals of the post-ice age, to the Taliban in Afghanistan. Rocks became knives, sticks became spears, and bayonets became AK-47’s. The technology from the French and Indian War was revolutionized and manufactured by the newly opened weaponry companies. Colt

By the time of the Civil War, the technologies upon which the First Industrial Revolution was based were established in the United States. In the years following the war, the nation's industrial energies were focused on completing the railroad and telegraph networks of the North, rebuilding those of the South, and expanding those of the West. Once the devastating depression of the 1870’s depleted, the stage was set for the Second Industrial Revolution.

A pistol, at times, could have decided whether a soldier would live or die in combat depending on the situation. Another factor which made the pistol a very important weapon was the fact that the pistol could be reloaded much faster than a rifle (Slayton 12).