Weapon+Technology

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** *~Weapon Technology of the Civil War~* **

"A Very Weapon Centered War"

Introduction
toc Differing weapon technologies between the North and the South affected the outcome of battles greatly. The workings of certain popular guns at the time is also very important, as the difference between the Smooth Bore Musket is very different from the rifle. Batteries and cannons, the 'big guns' of the war were unique from most other weapons and affected the battle in indescribable ways. Weaponry gives an extra edge and is usually the deciding factor in the winning of a battle. After the Battle of Shiloh, the Union began pumping out new weapons. Some examples are the rifle, replacing the Smooth Bore Musket, early gatling guns and land mines.

Civil War Batteries
A Union Battery typically consisted of a gun component, and infantry component and a cavalry component. The gun component of the battery was usually six heavy cannons, and for the cavalry component, six horses pulling each cannon. The infantry component was 100 men per battery, each equipped with a rifle, and occasionally a pistol. Although, towards the beginning of the war, Smooth Bore Muskets were used rather than rifles. For more on Smooth Bore Muskets, see the section below. Each man in the battery had his own duty to fulfill to keep the battery functional. Some of these responsibilities are taking care of and grooming the horses, checking on the ammunition and guns of the soldiers and cleaning and oiling the gun carriages. When a battery walked into battle, the men would usually walk beside the guns so as to maintain order, but if the battery was in a hurry, they would ride the guns. The first to go in battle were typically the horses, killed by either a rifle, or a saber. For more information on sabers, visit Edged Weapons. When the gun had been moved into the most strategic position on the battlefield, the cannon would be unloaded and fired. The Confederate battery was more or less the same as the Union battery described, except for a few things. The first is the number of men. There were roughly forty less men in a Confederate battery, than in a Union battery. But the most affective difference was the cavalry. Because of a shortage of horses in the South, the horses were replaced with mules. Mules were a lot slower and had less stamina than the horses, but it was necessary for the South to use them. //A Small Look At A Battery//

__The Smooth Bore Musket__
The Smooth Bore Musket was the most modern gun during the Revolution, before the Civil War and during the beginning of the War.It had many names, among which is the Civil War musket. The way the Smooth Bore Musket worked was as follows. //A diagram of the hammer of a Smooth Bore Musket// The gun was a muzzle loader, so a soldier had to load the ammunition in down the barrel of the gun. The hammer would then hit the flint which would ignite the powder, causing the bullet to go flying out the muzzle and into the target of choice. The Smooth Bore Musket was a long range weapon, although it was a pain to load. It was designed in such a way that whenever a group of people fired them, they would have to mass together. All infantry tactics planned out before and during the war were based on the use of the Smooth Bore Musket. With the new invention of the 1861 Springfield rifle, the tactics designed were completely inappropriate to the gun at hand. The tactics did not match the guns. The new rifle had grooves cut into the walls of the barrel, so as to make the bullet spin on it's axis. The bullets were on inch long, and because of the spinning motion, limbs were torn apart. After being pumped full of these bullets, the limb or body part that got shot would be completely mangled, and in need of an amputation

Early Gatling Gun Technology
During the war, gatling guns saw little use, but when they were used, they had a large impact on the battle at hand. The Gatling gun was invented by Dr. Richard Gatling, and when he proposed it to the government, they deemed it a crazy idea. Although he was ignored by them, Ben Butler bought eight and brought them on a gunboat for a minor raid on Petersburg. media type="youtube" key="DyEn_xLeAwk" height="385" width="480" //An 1862 Gatling gun in action The Gatling gun was a hand crank weapon with six rotating barrels. As one soldier would crank the handle, the barrels would revolve and rounds would shoot out. The rounds were fed by gravity by a large hopper on top of the gun. As a barrel would empty, it would fill up with a new round from the hopper. The gun would fire 600 rounds per minute. A few major drawbacks included erosion of the barrels, jamming, overheating, a loss of accuracy because of the tapered bores and lack of fire power (fired standard .58 cal rounds). Not to mention they were extremely expensive and fragile. there were so many drawbacks that the gun itself did not interest the government //

Edged Weapons
Edged weapons were used frequently in the Confederacy, and less so in the Union. The most common were bayonets, attached to the end of the users gun, sabers, cavalry swords used by infantry attached to waist and cutlasses. During the war only 922 people died from edged weapons such as these listed above. Sabers were typically 42 inch scimitars which were used to cut at horses and their riders. Although they could be used very often, they were mostly a symbol of power displayed by various officers. The sabers were actually mostly useless because as the horses were killed, they would topple on top of the saber wielder. In the South, the lack of firearms and wealth caused multiple regiments to be strictly edged weapon armed. Twenty regiments of southern pikemen were ordered, and they did surprisingly well. All of the men were viciously trained killers armed with ten-foot pikes. Not only did they strike fear into the hearts of the Union, but there long reach made them very effective cavalry weapons.

Small Arms and Pistols
During the war time, the cap and ball revolver was the most common handgun among civilians and occasionally soldiers. But instead of the cap and ball, soldiers an officers preferred the Dragoon .44. This gun was loaded with a combustible cartridge which blew up on impact. Some war volunteers brought pistols with them, but otherwise they were not so common. The reason is that there was no use for them with the type of warfare which was happening at the time. It was a shoot and get down type of battle, and there was no time to load and tote around a handgun.

//A Dragoon .44// Although when they were used, the powder was sometimes mixed with alcohol to increase combustibility. This practice was extremely dangerous and could cause ignition within the barrel of the gun. On one occasion, a private was forced by his commanding officer to surrender his pistol. After they took it from him he snuck into their tent while they were sleeping and stole it back. It proved to save his life the next day when he had lost his rifle along with his left arm. He withdrew his pistol and at the same time an enemy shot at him. It glanced harmlessly off of the pistol, and the private retaliated with a kill shot to the head. Unfortunately the private died the next week from infection

Picture Sources
http://www.civilwarhome.com/civilwarweapons.htm http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/popular/2/fig2-4.jpg http://www.sailorinsaddle.com/media/images/product/display_951_AMERICAN_ARTILLERY_OFFICERS_SWORD_CA_1830_633819873353890001.jpg http://www.american-firearms.com/american-firearms/z-pic/pics-C/Colt/dragoon-44cal-2nd-model-civilian-right.jpg