* this is a paper I just turned in for History. Enjoy.* The Civil War was one of the bloodiest periods of American History. Of course what do you expect when the only people getting killed are other Americans? Like all times of conflict, the period between the siege of Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861(Fort Sumter) and the signing of the surrender at Appomattox court house on April 9, 1865 (Surrender at Appomattox, 1865)was a great time of innovation for the engines of death. Fearsome beast made from steel and lead stalked the land, the air, and the water, ending the lives of men who had once been country men and in some cases, brothers. But, what were these monsters? Where did they come from? And why were they made? These were questions I asked myself for a long time, and decided that, using market formulas, that if I had questions, that a hundred thousand other people must have the same questions I do. So I decided to read up on the subject and share my findings with others, and to finally answer the question of what were the new weapons that were being used during the American Civil War.
The Air
Just like during all battles since the inception of war, information was a commodity more precious the gold during the American Civil War. The old G.I. Joe slogan of “knowing is half the battle” is more accurate then those old Saturday cartoons made it out to be. Prior to the American Civil War, scouts or men in trees were the only way to get battle field information. These men were easy shots for sharp shooters and even if they survived, their information may have been too late to be useful. But, in January of 1862, a civilian balloonist name Thaddeus Lowe was given permission by the union army to operate some of their balloons. Using a telegraph wire attached to the balloon, he reported on enemy troop movements to officers on the ground that in turn used the information to direct artillery. Though Successful, the military use of balloons floundered causing the Union army to disband the Union balloon corps in 1863, before the beginning of the Gettysburg campaign. Confederates had a similar idea for a military use for balloons, but (forgive the pun) the idea didn’t quite make it off the ground. (Innovation in Military Battle.)
The Water
By the 1860’s Americans were still using wooden ships to transport cargo, people, and to wage war with. That was until the Confederates seized the Norfolk Navy Yard on 20 April 1861. While they were poking around, they found a lot of valuable salvage, among which was the scuttled remains of a steam frigate, the USS Merrimack. Though she was burned and sunk, most of the machinery was still operable. After two months in dry dock, the USS Merrimack was resurrected as the CSS Virginia. Far from her original wooden construction, she was given a new type of iron shell. “She carried ten guns of her own, a seven-inch pivot-mounted rifle at each end and a broadside battery of two six-inch rifles and six nine-inch smoothbores.” (CSS Virginia (1862-1862), ex-USS Merrimack). Not only was she freakishly armored and bristling with weaponry, The CSS Virginia had another deadly surprised for waiting union ships, an iron battering ram, turning the ship itself into a weapon of total destruction. The Union army, aghast after the CSS Virginia sunk the USS Cumberland, and slapped the USS Congress into submission sent out their own “iron clad” The USS Monitor. Though similarly armored, The USS Monitor had the distinction of having both a revolving turret carrying two cannons and the nickname “cheese-box on a raft”. On March 9th of 1862, the two ships met at Hampton Roads, and fought each other for three hours, ultimately ending in a draw. The two metal hide beasts kept each other in check till the CSS Virginia was destroyed when the Confederates abandoned the Norfolk Navy Yard and the USS Monitor sank in stormy seas a few months later (Innovation in Military Battle.)
Submarines first showed up during the American Civil War as well. The first successful submarine, The CSS Hunley, though poorly built, was a marvel of engineering. Using its only weapon, a torpedo on a stick called a "Lee Spar Torpedo"; the CSS Hunley destroyed the USS Housatonic. Though successful with its mission, the CSS Hunley was also destroyed, along with the entire crew. (CSS H.L. Hunley, 2000)
Small Arms
At the beginning of the American Civil War, flintlock muskets were the standard weapon for the infantry of both the Union and Confederate armies. These were mostly foreign made army issues copies of the British “Brown Bess” or the French “Charleville”. If you’ve never seen a flintlock musket, imagine a tube of metal with a hole on one end and another smaller hole on the other. By pouring gunpowder down both of these holes and using a small piece of flint to ignite the gunpowder on the smaller end, the musket was able to propel a small metal ball great distance until it’s stopped by the gravity, a tree, or on occasion another human body. They took about a minute to load and fire, but being that muskets were smoothbore weapons; they were horribly inaccurate, if they fired at all. During the American Civil War, a new type of gun and ammunition were introduced. The practice of “rifling” or cutting spiraling grooves down the bore of a musket to increase its accuracy had been in place since colonial times, but due to the considerable amount of time it took for rifled musket to be loaded, they were almost wholly a civilian weapon until 1849. In 1849, a French army officer created a conical shaped bullet that took advantage of spinning effect that a rifle’s grooves had on the ammunition as it was fired. This greatly extended the range of rifles, as well as making them extremely accurate. A further advance was the practice of combining both the projectile and the propellant into one piece. The new cartridge type ammunition made the average infantry men able to fire multiple rounds before reloading and able to reload in a position other then shoulder to shoulder with their comrades. (Military Technology)
The famous Gatling Gun was also introduced during the Civil War, though there are no recorded uses of it in action. Created by Richard Jordan Gatling and patented on November 4th, 1862. The Gatling gun had from between six to ten barrels on a round frame connected to a base and a crank. By loading in a magazine of cartridge style bullets, an average rate of 300 shots per minute could be attained by a trained gunnery team. (Gatling Gun)
Artillery
During the beginning of the American Civil War, The United States of America was one of the world’s leaders in the production of artillery weapons. Artillery pieces were sorted into three separate groups based on their uses: Guns, howitzers, and mortars.
Guns did what they do today, fire projectiles great range with little too no firing arc, which is basically saying they shoot what they’re looking at. These were the cannons that were seen on the high seas or as coastal defense groups, where one shot could make all the difference and accuracy is key. The major change that Gun type artillery went through during the American Civil War was the addition of conical projectiles and rifling that small arms also received.
Mortars during the American Civil War were huge monstrosities that weighted tons. They are high trajectory weapons, which severely limits their range but allows mortars to be fired over walls and into the middle of groups of men. During the American Civil War, mortars were added to costal defense groups as close proximity weapons as well as being placed on ships, giving the mortar deadly maneuverability.
Howitzer is a catchall term applied to artillery pieces that were neither gun nor mortar. Howitzers were mostly antipersonnel weapons that relied on line of fire aiming.
Artillery ammunition also advanced. Explosive shells were used to a great degree, as well as new antipersonnel rounds that worked the same way as claymore mines work today.
The years of 1861 to 1865 were the bloodiest in American history because of the advancements made in weapon technology. Men were slaughtered at a rate that staggered the mind because of Gatling Guns, ship captains became wary of the very water that they traveled in, wondering if it shrouded unseen enemies in submarines, and the very skies were turned against your opponents when they could be seen from balloon. Because of the innovation that weapons received during this time, the number of men killed during war rose steadily higher.
Work Cited
"Fort Sumter." Fort Sumter National Monument (National Park Service). National Park Service. 30 Nov. 2005 .
"Surrender at Appomattox, 1865." Surrender at Appomattox, 1865. 1997. EyeWitness to History. 30 Nov. 2005 .
“Innovation in Military Battle.” American Journey Online: The Civil War. Primary Source microfilm, 1999. Reproduced in the History Resource Center, Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group. Http://galenet.galegroup/servlet/HistRC/
"CSS Virginia (1862-1862), ex-USS Merrimack." Confederate Ships--CSS Virginia (1862-1862). 19 2001. DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER. 30 Nov. 2005 .
"CSS H.L. Hunley." CSS H.L. Hunley. 2000. DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER. 30 Nov. 2005 .
“Military Technology.” Encylopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth Century. 3 vol. Charles Scribner’s Son’s, 2001. Reproduced in History Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group. Http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/HistRC/
“Gatling Gun.” Dictionary of American History. 7 vol. Charles Scribner’s Son’s, 2001. Reproduced in History Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group. Http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/HistRC/
