Weapons, Machine Innovations, and War tactics of the Civil War. -Youssef Elbehri
The American Civil war period was a time of great change in America. So many changes were happening during this time in the types of weapons and war tactics. Many inventions came along in these fields and changed war forever. Because of these new innovations, the military had to change their battle tactics to accommodate the new and more powerful weapons. Many historians consider this the first modern war because of the new innovations in weaponry, war tactics and machinery.
Before the Civil War, firing weapons were very inaccurate. The bullets would spin in the air making them hard to hit the target. They were also very clumsy in that they took a long time to reload after one shot. Plus, the soldiers had to carry around heavy loads of gun powder for their weapons. The Civil War was the war in which the most Americans died or had been wounded. In addition, most of those wounded eventually died. In total 625,000 Americans were killed. Although this was the bloodiest American war, more than half of these deaths weren’t caused by bullets and weapons directly but from the infections and disease from their wounds. For the Union, around 250,150 were dead because of disease and for the Confederates about 164,000 died of disease.
One type of bullet that caused many infections was the Minie ball, invented by the Frenchman Claude-Etienne Minie. The bullet was different than the older lead balls; the Minie ball was longer and had a coned side at the top. This bullet was easier to load into the rifle and could be loaded 2 to 3 times per minute into the barrel of the gun. However medical facilities didn’t realize how dangerous the Minie ball was. It caused a great deal of infection. Most times when fired at with the Minie ball you would have to get your arm or leg, amputated (cut off).
Other new weaponry were springing up during this time. Samuel Colt created the Colt revolver in 1836. He is credited with the popularization of the revolving gun (a gun which held a cartridge of six bullets), earning the nickname “Father of the Revolver”. He had 200,000 of his guns made and shipped to the Union during the war. It was the most popular gun of the war. A Colt, at the time, cost $25. But there were other revolvers very popular during the Civil War. The LeMat revolver was one of them. Jean Alexander LeMat of New Orleans created the LeMat revolver. It had nine shots, instead of 6 like the Colt and was very similar to a shotgun in firepower. Since Jean Alexander was from New Orleans he sided with the Confederates who bought 3000 revolvers from him for $50 a gun.
Before the Civil War, firing weapons were very inaccurate. The bullets would spin in the air making them hard to hit the target. They were also very clumsy in that they took a long time to reload after one shot. Plus, the soldiers had to carry around heavy loads of gun powder for their weapons. The Civil War was the war in which the most Americans died or had been wounded. In addition, most of those wounded eventually died. In total 625,000 Americans were killed. Although this was the bloodiest American war, more than half of these deaths weren’t caused by bullets and weapons directly but from the infections and disease from their wounds. For the Union, around 250,150 were dead because of disease and for the Confederates about 164,000 died of disease.
One type of bullet that caused many infections was the Minie ball, invented by the Frenchman Claude-Etienne Minie. The bullet was different than the older lead balls; the Minie ball was longer and had a coned side at the top. This bullet was easier to load into the rifle and could be loaded 2 to 3 times per minute into the barrel of the gun. However medical facilities didn’t realize how dangerous the Minie ball was. It caused a great deal of infection. Most times when fired at with the Minie ball you would have to get your arm or leg, amputated (cut off).
Other new weaponry were springing up during this time. Samuel Colt created the Colt revolver in 1836. He is credited with the popularization of the revolving gun (a gun which held a cartridge of six bullets), earning the nickname “Father of the Revolver”. He had 200,000 of his guns made and shipped to the Union during the war. It was the most popular gun of the war. A Colt, at the time, cost $25. But there were other revolvers very popular during the Civil War. The LeMat revolver was one of them. Jean Alexander LeMat of New Orleans created the LeMat revolver. It had nine shots, instead of 6 like the Colt and was very similar to a shotgun in firepower. Since Jean Alexander was from New Orleans he sided with the Confederates who bought 3000 revolvers from him for $50 a gun.
During the Civil War not just small arms were being redesigned. In 1855 the Springfield armory in Massachusetts created the Springfield rifle, the most widely used rifle of the time. This gun had spirals inside the barrel making the bullets go straight enabling it to be more accurate. It cost around $13.93 for a Springfield at the time and was an innovation because it had changing parts which made it easier to clean and manage on the battle field. Another rifle, or musket, that was important was the 1853 version of the commonly used Enfield musket. It was imported from England and was used mostly by the Confederates. It differed from the Springfield rifle because it had a new type of firing method called the ‘Caplock’. It was the second most used rifle in the American Civil War and was only surpassed by the Springfield rifle.
Before the Civil War, muskets were pre-loaded with just one bullet. During the war an entirely new weapon innovation took place. Rifles began to be designed to quickly repeat firings from cartridges within the rifle. ’Repeating rifles’ now had self contained cartridges (rifle that had all the bullets inside them). The Henry rifle was a popular version and was invented by Oliver Winchester. It was used by both the Union and the Confederates. It sold for $40 a piece and was nicknamed “The rifle you load on Sunday and fire all week long.” It was able to shoot up to 60 shots in a minute which was extremely fast for the time. Another self contained cartridge weapon was a gun made by Christopher Spencer and named for him; it was stronger and was simpler than the Henry rifle. Plus, it could be made easily and in more bulk than the Henry gun. The Spencer was used by the Union and especially by the Cavalry. The Confederates had a disadvantage in that they didn’t have as many powerful weapons as the North, so when the Union troops retreated, Confederates captured their falling weapons like the Spencer rifle. They tried to create a replica of it but didn’t have sufficient technology and didn’t have the right strength of metal to make the cartridge.
Along with rifles and revolvers, innovations in artillery (cannons and larger weapons) were moving along with everything else. The Napoleon Cannon named after the French military and political leader Napoleon Bonaparte, was a popular artillery unit in the Civil war. Another artillery unit was the Williams machine gun, The Confederates used 42 of these. But out of all the artillery made or improved upon during this time, the Gatling Gun stands out above the rest. It was invented by Richard J. Gatling of North Carolina in 1862. It was the first rapid firing gun and would shoot 200 – 400 rounds per minute. It was used by the Union during the Civil War. The Gatling gun changed warfare forever and the Gatling gun descendents in weaponry are used today on military planes by the Air Force.
Before the Civil War, muskets were pre-loaded with just one bullet. During the war an entirely new weapon innovation took place. Rifles began to be designed to quickly repeat firings from cartridges within the rifle. ’Repeating rifles’ now had self contained cartridges (rifle that had all the bullets inside them). The Henry rifle was a popular version and was invented by Oliver Winchester. It was used by both the Union and the Confederates. It sold for $40 a piece and was nicknamed “The rifle you load on Sunday and fire all week long.” It was able to shoot up to 60 shots in a minute which was extremely fast for the time. Another self contained cartridge weapon was a gun made by Christopher Spencer and named for him; it was stronger and was simpler than the Henry rifle. Plus, it could be made easily and in more bulk than the Henry gun. The Spencer was used by the Union and especially by the Cavalry. The Confederates had a disadvantage in that they didn’t have as many powerful weapons as the North, so when the Union troops retreated, Confederates captured their falling weapons like the Spencer rifle. They tried to create a replica of it but didn’t have sufficient technology and didn’t have the right strength of metal to make the cartridge.
Along with rifles and revolvers, innovations in artillery (cannons and larger weapons) were moving along with everything else. The Napoleon Cannon named after the French military and political leader Napoleon Bonaparte, was a popular artillery unit in the Civil war. Another artillery unit was the Williams machine gun, The Confederates used 42 of these. But out of all the artillery made or improved upon during this time, the Gatling Gun stands out above the rest. It was invented by Richard J. Gatling of North Carolina in 1862. It was the first rapid firing gun and would shoot 200 – 400 rounds per minute. It was used by the Union during the Civil War. The Gatling gun changed warfare forever and the Gatling gun descendents in weaponry are used today on military planes by the Air Force.
During the Civil war, battles weren’t just fought on land, but also at sea. The North had a larger navy than the South. Its navy was much smaller and was not, initially, as well equipped. At sea the Confederates were getting beaten, loosing many battles, until they took an abandoned union ship and covered it all around with 4 inch thick iron sheets. They called it the Merrimack. When they sent it out to sea it sank a Union ship, forced another Union ship to surrender and drove one aground, forcing it to go back to a Union port. Bullets would bounce off its walls and cannon balls couldn’t penetrate it. This became the south’s main naval weapon -until the north found out about it and counted the south’s ironclad (the name for ships covered in iron sheets) with their own, called the Monitor. This ironclad had less firepower but was easier to maneuver because it was designed with the intent of covering it with iron sheets, unlike the south’s Merrimack. Both sides ended up making more ironclad ships. The ironclad ships changed the naval war tactics forever because over time these ironclads became the norm for naval boats.
The war tactics for the north and south differed. The north used a more offensive style of warfare while the south played a more defensive role. The north planned three major ways to reunite the old union:
I. They wanted to stop confederate trade with Europe and hurt the south’s economy. So, they wanted to blockade the south’s port.
II. In the west, the Union wanted to seize control of the Mississippi river, which would separate the confederate in two, Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas from the rest.
III. In the east they wanted to seize control of Richmond, the south’s capital.
The Confederates plan was to defend the south from the northern invaders. They thought the northerners would get tired of fighting and would back down. Both sides thought the war was going to be easy to win. But clearly, neither side backed down. In fact, another new form of battle fighting was coming into play. It was called ‘Total War’. This meant that the army would, according to Ulysses S. Grant, leading commander of the northern forces, “Leave nothing to invite the enemy to return. Destroy whatever cannot be consumed”-Both sides, pretty much destroyed livestock, farms and villages. These new battle tactics were very good for the North because they made the southern economy suffer. The southern economy was very bad: Inflation was huge in the Confederate states, which used the CSA dollar. They had to put a tax on farmers for 1/10th of a farmer’s crop. This was extremely hard on the people because the blockades by the north had already caused food shortages. The north’s battle tactics were working. But the war was costing the north a lot of money. And so to raise money the north collected taxes on their people’s wages. They also taxed other luxury items of the time such as carriages, jewelry and billiard tables. They also issued bonds. They also had to print more money causing their own inflation. So in all the war tactics of the north worked because it weakened the south but they also didn’t work because the war itself cost the north a lot of its own money.
During this time of the American civil war, fought by the United States of America and the Confederate States of America, changed war far forever because of its innovations in weaponry machinery and war tactics.
The war tactics for the north and south differed. The north used a more offensive style of warfare while the south played a more defensive role. The north planned three major ways to reunite the old union:
I. They wanted to stop confederate trade with Europe and hurt the south’s economy. So, they wanted to blockade the south’s port.
II. In the west, the Union wanted to seize control of the Mississippi river, which would separate the confederate in two, Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas from the rest.
III. In the east they wanted to seize control of Richmond, the south’s capital.
The Confederates plan was to defend the south from the northern invaders. They thought the northerners would get tired of fighting and would back down. Both sides thought the war was going to be easy to win. But clearly, neither side backed down. In fact, another new form of battle fighting was coming into play. It was called ‘Total War’. This meant that the army would, according to Ulysses S. Grant, leading commander of the northern forces, “Leave nothing to invite the enemy to return. Destroy whatever cannot be consumed”-Both sides, pretty much destroyed livestock, farms and villages. These new battle tactics were very good for the North because they made the southern economy suffer. The southern economy was very bad: Inflation was huge in the Confederate states, which used the CSA dollar. They had to put a tax on farmers for 1/10th of a farmer’s crop. This was extremely hard on the people because the blockades by the north had already caused food shortages. The north’s battle tactics were working. But the war was costing the north a lot of money. And so to raise money the north collected taxes on their people’s wages. They also taxed other luxury items of the time such as carriages, jewelry and billiard tables. They also issued bonds. They also had to print more money causing their own inflation. So in all the war tactics of the north worked because it weakened the south but they also didn’t work because the war itself cost the north a lot of its own money.
During this time of the American civil war, fought by the United States of America and the Confederate States of America, changed war far forever because of its innovations in weaponry machinery and war tactics.
The mechanics of an original Colt Revoler.
1860 Henry Rifle used in The American Civil War.*
An 1865 Gatling Gun
*Courtesy of (account name) Hmaag on Wikipedia.
Citing
--Elbehri, Youssef. "Weapons, Machine Innovations and War Tactics of the Civil War " (An American Frontier.com) 5-10-2010. <http://www.anamericanfrontier.com/weapons-of-the-civil-war.html>
--Elbehri, Youssef. "Weapons, Machine Innovations and War Tactics of the Civil War " (An American Frontier.com) 5-10-2010. <http://www.anamericanfrontier.com/weapons-of-the-civil-war.html>
