Civil War Inventions Essay, Research Paper
Civil war inventions
New inventions during the Civil war lead to the development of new weaponry.
Some of the new inventions include the Gatling gun, new bullets, Breech loading
cannon, ironclad ships, Dahlgren gun, and trench warfare.
The Gatling gun invented by Dr. Richard Gatling was a multi-barreled cannon
which allowed troops to shoot multiple rounds rapidly without reloading and
served as the predecessor to the machine gun.
Prior to the war, it was discovered that by giving the bullet spin as it left
the barrel–rifling the bullet-the range of the musket could increase. The new
"rifles" had two problems–the spirals in the barrel would become
clogged with powder and needed to be cleaned after every shot, and the size of
the bullet used prevented rapid reloading
. New bullets were developed to prevent the clogging of the rifle’s barrel
and to increase reloading time during the Civil War. This allowed for troops to
fire several rounds without needing
Weapons like the breech loading cannon sped up the reloading process allowing
troops to fire more rounds per minute. Prior to this technology, troops used
musket loading guns and had to run to the front of the gun to reload thus
wasting time and risking their lives.
In 1861, the U.S. Navy began production of a new type of ironclad, the "Pook
Turtle." The flat bottomed warships with two and one half inch armor and
armed with ten eight inch shell guns were virtually invulnerable.
The Dahlgren gun was a new advance with a large caliber and larger bullets.
It was tested on the faumous ship the merrimac.
A new type of defence strategy used in the civil war is trench warfare. This
can be acredited to the new technology with accurate weapons.
These types of technological advances lead to expansions for weapons
manufacturers and inventors, changes in fighting strategy, and increased death
rates. Also the new Technology is why the American civil war is called the first
modern war