The First Modern War

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.

At 8:15am on July 18, 1863 the second battle of Fort Wagner commenced. It was initiated by four federal land batteries and the Federal Fleet that shelled from the sea using 11 ships to include the “USS New Ironsides, a veritable floating gun platform sheathed in iron.” The Confederate soldiers incased all 14 cannons in sandbags hoping they would last the unrelenting shelling of the Federal Fleet, which hurled shells at the Fort weighing up to 400 pounds. The Confederate men retreated to the belly of the Fort where they held out the shelling suffering zero casualties and amazingly loosing few

The Confederate reinforcements had time to arrive by railroad because the Union 's forces were slow positioning themselves. Even though the Union and Confederate sides had about 18,000 troops in their first battle, they were not trained and they were led poorly. The outcome of this battle was a Confederate victory. The Union forces suffered a disorganized retreat of their troops.

A decade ago naval warfare changed forever in the two-day Battle of Hampton Roads between the Elizabeth and James River. Cannon shots rang out for endless hours and those present on surrounding shores witnessed history when, for the first time, two ironclad ships entered into battle. The Confederates, protecting their naval yard just south of Hampton Roads, decided to place their undefeatable ship, the CSS Virginia, at the mouth of the river. On the first day of battle this ship was responsible for the death of 400 hundred sailors while only losing two of its own. On the second day, hearing the booms of heavy cannon fire up river the USS Monitor, on a test run, changed course and moved to defend the union. The

Both the Confederates and colonists found themselves without navies capable of truly challenging their enemy. This led the Confederacy to the same frantic ship building and disorganized naval efforts as in the American Revolution. And is also the reason the Confederacy used the same tactics against the Union, as the American colonists used against the

Confederates win the battle at Fredericksburg against the Union. The battle was December 13th , 1862. The generals were General Robert E. Lee, Ambrose Burnside, William B. Franklin, Stonewall Jackson, and General Longstreet. After the battle of Antietam, Abraham replaces General Mcclellan with General Ambrose Burnside. General Burnside’s men could not cross the Rappahannock without pontoons. This gave confederates enough time to regroup and prepare a counterattack. The confederates had time to get set up to fire upon the Union as they crossed.Longstreet’s artillery keep the Union at bay. The Union had 13,000 casualties. The confederates only had 5,000 casualties. After the battle the Union was pushed back to where it was. You could truly say

The Union side was led by George G. Meade and the Confederates were led by Robert E Lee. The Union side had 93,921 soldiers and suffered 23,049 casualties. The Confederate side had 71,699 soldiers and suffered 28,063 casualties. The Union won and this was the last battle to ever be fought on Union soil. The loss had a huge impact on the Confederates because they lost all hope of ever being recognized as a sovereign nation. It also had a negative impact on their economy. It put the Confederates in a defensive mode and they would never again invade the Union. If they had won this battle, they could’ve surrounded or even conquer the Union’s capital Washington

The ironclad CSS Virginia began a naval engagement on the Union fleet. On March 8, the battle lasted throughout the day. This engagement was part of a Confederate effort to break the Union blockade of the Southern ports. Unfortunately, the USS Monitor did not arrive in Hampton Roads until later at night, too late to preserve many of the Union ships from destruction.

They were so ill equipped that they had to use small river boats before they could sail out to sea. The first ship that the South made was the Ironclad or Virginia as they named it. The ship itself started off as an old river steamer. Then the Confederates found it, fixed it, and reinforced it with heavy and solid iron plates. When the Union cut off Southern trading, they released their Ironclad on the blockade. It destroyed two ships and managed to get one of the ships to retreat. But the Union counteracted with their own Ironclad named the Monitor. The battle had no winner because neither ship could damage the other. They both gave up but the Union still had their blockade over Southern ports. The Confederacy was angered by this and lost their trading route with Europe. But later in the war they started to increase their navy by moving some army troops to the

The spot in which the invasion of Pickett’s Charge was aimed for was the center of the Union line, commanded by General Hancock. This lead the Confederate line to be exposed to an enfilading fire from the entire length of the Union line. Additionally, the shank bent slightly forward from Little Round Top subjecting the assaulting line to rifled artillery fire. Thus proving that the charging target was poorly chosen.

On March 9, 1862, the battle between the Union’s USS Monitor and the Confederate’s USS Merrimack was history’s first duel between ironclad warships. The cannons bounced effortlessly off the iron armor of the boats. This battle was known as the Battle of Hampton Roads and was part of the Confederate effort to break the Union blockade of Southern ports. This battle ended in a draw where neither side could declare victory, but it started the era of naval warfare. The use of ironclads marked the end of thousands of years of wooden warships.

Firstly, the ironclad ship helped the Union gain power in naval warfare in the oceans and the rivers. One piece of evidence that supports this is “After building just eight paddle steamers between 1837 and 1852, the American navy commissioned none until after the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, when vessels of all types would be added for the blockade of the rebellious

The Union’s monitor was a controversial design. Inside of the monitor was the turrent, which rotted to bring two guns to bear on the target. The designs were very successful. In the early 1800s there was an advancement of early artillery shells. When the first iron clad activities were presented they required too much technology that the South did not have. Architects of the new ship were John Porter, his design was simple and effective, sloped at a 35 degree angle. Throughout the north rumor spread quickly about the Iron Monster. The union set out to create its own iron clad to conquer it. It came down to two or three basic designs, a conventional war ship the galena,

Johnston originally planned to attack Grant on April 4, but delays postponed it until the 6th. Attacking the Union troops on the morning of the 6th, the Confederates surprised them, routing many. Some Federals made determined stands and by afternoon, they had established a battle line at the sunken road, known as the "Hornets Nest." Repeated Rebel attacks failed to carry the Hornets Nest, but massed artillery helped to turn the tide as Confederates surrounded the Union troops and captured, killed, or wounded most. Johnston had been mortally wounded earlier and his second in command, Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard, took over. The Union troops established another line covering Pittsburgh Landing, anchored with artillery and augmented by Buell’s men who began to arrive and take up positions. Fighting continued until after dark, but the Federals held. By the next morning, the combined Federal forces numbered about 40,000, outnumbering Beauregard’s army of less than 30,000. Beauregard was unaware of the arrival of Buell’s army and launched a counterattack in response to a two-mile advance by William Nelson’s division of Buell’s army at 6:00 am, which was, at first, successful. Union troops stiffened and began forcing the Confederates back. Beauregard ordered a counterattack, which stopped the Union advance but did not break its battle line. At this point, Beauregard realized that he could not win and, having suffered too many

Monitor and Merrimac change warfare. These were the first to iron boats in the Union and Confederacy. The battle was a draw, but the world