Weapons

When we think of the American Civil War, we think of a conflict that was confined to what is now the United States and was not noticed that much by other countries. Nothing could be further from the truth. The American Civil War was the forerunner of many modern weapons and tactics and was watched with great interest by many other countries, especially those in Europe. Many of the weapons that were used were used for the first time, were also used in World War I after being perfected even further and are even used today. We became very proficient at killing people during this war as witnessed by the fields of dead that were seen after every battle. Some ancient techniques were still used against much more modern weapons and this led to unspeakable carnage. Marching across a field when there was a cannon barrage with exploding shells was not exactly a walk in the park, for example.

The American Civil War saw many wonder weapons put into use. While observations balloons were first used in the French Revolutionary War, there was extensive use in the American Civil War. The first balloon was ordered built by the North and a man named John Wise a professional aeronaut built it, but it escaped its tethers and had to be shot down to keep it from falling into Confederate hands. The very first balloon to be used was the Union. The balloons were inflated with gas rather than run on hot air. The Union rose to over 1,000 feet in Virgina and the North was able to shell Confederate encampments for the first time in history, without being able to see them. It wasn't long before both sides had a balloon corps. Soon balloons were rising as high as 5,000 feet. Because of balloons, the Confederate Army was forced to create dummy encampments and black out their camps at night.

Gatling Gun
Photo Source: GNU Free Documentation License

The Gatling gun was another invention that was far ahead of its time. In essence it was a crank controlled gun that had many barrels. The faster you cranked it the faster it could fire and then load another round from a magazine. Because of the many barrels, the problem of overheating was avoided. It is said that the maximum speed for firing this weapon was about 200 rounds per minute. This was fierce in a time when most soldiers fired a single shot rifle. What the Gatling gun really was, was the forerunner of the modern machine gun. It still exists in more modern forms today. During the war in Vietnam a Gatling style gun was created for helicopter use that could fire over 6,000 rounds per minute. This was known as the Minigun. It used a linked belt containing 4,000 rounds. As you can see, it was possible to fire the entire 4,000 rounds in one 40 second burst, so you had to be careful.

Submarines came into real use in the Civil War and the most famous was the Confederate Hunley. Eight men had to turn a crank to power it and the idea was to stick a charge into the side of a ship and slip away. Several crews died trying to get the Hunley to work properly. Lack of oxygen was a very big concern. Even though the South lost these crews, they always seemed to have more volunteers and eventually the sub was used to sink the USS Housatonic off Charleston. Unfortunately for the crew, the submarine never made it back, it too sank. The North never sent a submarine out to battle in the war, but it did have some designed. One was the Alligator and oars were used to power it. It was the first submarine in the US Navy. When it was taken out to be tested in the river, the river was not deep enough for the sub to submerge, so she was taken back to the navy yard with a new mission. That was to sink the Confederate Ironclad, the Virginia II. The ship was deemed unsafe and underpowered and the mission was canceled. In1863 the oars had been replaced with a screw propeller and she was being towed to Charleston for a naval battle, but a storm hit and she had to be cut loose and sank.

For the first few years of the war, the War Department of the Northern Army would not allow soldiers to carry repeating rifles. It was felt that if you issued repeating rifles to soldiers, they would waste too much ammunition. It is hard to believe that we were ever so stupid and foolish, but there you are. In 1863 President Lincoln stepped in and ordered the rifles for the troops. The rifle was the Spencer and was mostly issued in carbine form. It was loaded from the stock which held 7, 54 caliber bullets. This gun had a very powerful muzzle velocity for its time, being 1125 foot pounds. This was 425 foot pounds more than a Henry repeating rifle. It was the most advanced shoulder fired weapon of its day.

Left: Monitor
Right:Crew Of Original Monitor
Photo Source: US Navy

One of the biggest advances in naval warfare took place in the American Civil War. That was the revolving turret. First used on ships like the Monitor. For the first time you didn't have to turn the entire ship around to target another ship. A small agile ship like the monitor could run rings around a Confederate Ironclad while firing all the while. The ship caught on fast and soon navies all around the world were building and using Monitor type ships. The Monitor ships were very shallow draft and could venture into places that the bigger ships dare not enter for fear of being grounded.

Double Barreled Cannon
Photo Source: Public Domain

200 Pounder Parrott Rifled Gun
Photo Source: Public Domain

The American Civil War brought on the advent of huge naval cannons and some strange field pieces. One of the very strange ones was the double barreled cannon. Multi-barreled cannons were used in the English Civil War. One of the most popular large guns of the American Civil War was the Parrott Rifle. It was so popular that both sides eventually deployed it. These guns came in all different sizes, starting with a 10 pounder and going all the way up to a 300 pounder. The 76 mm shell could travel a distance of about 2,000 yards, or well over a mile. A 100 pound Parrott Rifle could fire its projectile a distance of 6,900 yards, or a distance of almost 4 miles. In 1863 General Sherman became frustrated. He was attacking Fort Sumter and the heavily fortified fort resisted all his artillery, which ranged up to 200 pounder Parrotts. He deployed a 10 inch 300 pounder Parrott along with his other guns. The huge gun could penetrate between six and seven feet into the walls of the fort. Sometimes some of these guns were used to fire incendiary shells as was the case when a gun known as the Swamp Angel fired on Charleston.