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Austin Davis English 1102 Professor Raymond 3/10/2014

The First Modern War The civil war was known as the first modern war mainly because of the new technology introduced during this time. One of the most important technologies that were introduced during the Civil war were the new weapons that were used. The civil war occurred during an Industrial Revolution in America, during this time there were so many new inventions and weapons created for the civil war. Some of the creations were simply improvements to weapons that the soldiers already had, and some were new weapons entirely created to try and give one side the edge over the other. One of the most dreaded weapons of the civil war was the artillery or cannons used throughout the entire Civil war by both sides, even the first official shot of the civil war was cannon-fire that rained down over Fort Sumter in 1861. When Fort Sumter finally fell it had been under continuous artillery fire for 34 hours before Major Robert Anderson of the Union surrendered to his former student from West Point, Brigadier General P.T. Beauregard (Adler). While many new designs of artillery were not introduced until after the war had begun it would become the most important part of both sides arsenal, and not having enough artillery could mean losing the battle. It was thought that the artillery was needed in order to win battles. Union General William T. Sherman once said A battery of artillery is worth one thousand muskets. Many generals on both sides believed that artillery was a necessity when engaging in any type of battle. While artillery was needed soldiers with muskets were what made up the armies not just cannons. Both weapons were essential to both the union and the confederacy and both were very lethal. Since before the American Revolution muskets were the main weapon used during any type of engagement (not counting swords) and the Civil war was where the musket evolved

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into a much more deadly weapon. The muskets were very inaccurate for a variety of reasons, one of the biggest reasons was because of the ammunition used at the time muskets fired round ball shot which is exactly what its name suggests a round ball of metal shoved into the barrel of the rifle then propelled forward using gunpowder. This was one of the first things that was fixed on the outset of the civil war, the ammunition soldiers used were called minie ball . The Minie ball was a cone shaped soft lead bullet with grooves in it, the grooves would help the bullet spin when fired from the rifle improving the accuracy. It was the main source of ammunition for both armies and was so popular because of its very fast load time and the vastly improved range and accuracy that the bullet gave (The Lead Minie Ball). To compare the range of a musket during the American Revolution was about 40-50 yards if the person shooting was a good shot. The same person would be able to hit something between 300-500 hundred yards away during the Civil War (Musket). This shows how much more effective the new rifles were compared to the colonial muskets. This was one reason why there were so many more casualties during the civil war, because soldiers were actually hitting their targets during an engagement. Another lethal weapon that was created during the civil war was the Gatling gun created by Richard Gatling in 1861, this weapon was used by the union forces during the Civil war. The gun is operated by one soldier who only needs to crank the gun to continue firing so this was not a fully automatic gun but it was still a weapon that could fire up to 200 bullets per minute. This was a devastating gun on any battlefield and there were none other like it during the time. This gun gave the north a very distinct advantage on the battlefield when it was used in combat. The weapon operates using 6 barrels attached on a cylinder that is connected to a crank at the back. The barrels are evenly spaced apart so that it is easier for them to cool more quickly and also so that spent bullet cartridges do not interfere with the guns rotations . Each barrel fires a single bullet then dispenses the cartridge and turns to the next barrel repeating the process until it needs to be reloaded. One very important aspect that would be used in many other designs is that the bullets are fed down inside steel tubes through a hopper set at the top of the gun. This is the first design of its kind and allowed for much longer fire because of the larger number of bullets able to be fed through (Gatling gun).

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Another new weapon that was used during the civil war that manly people do not realize was the grenade. While the grenades used during the civil war are not nearly as reliable as the grenades made today they were still effective when used during combat. The first incident of grenade like weapons being used were modified artillery shells. Confederate soldiers lobbed them at union soldiers hiding in a hole where a mine had went off. Soon after this grenades were in production and by 1862 grenades were being used at almost all land engagements. One of the first official grenades used during the war was the Ketchum grenade which was a cast iron cylinder filled with gunpowder and tapered on both ends, with one end fitted with a plunger and percussion cap to detonate on impact. The design also featured four arrow-like vanes added on the other end to help with the flight of the grenade. While they were one of the first official grenades used they were not very reliable. They were unreliable because if the plunger did not hit hard enough the grenade would not go off, if they did not go off usually the soldier who had been the intended target would throw the grenade back. This is why some more unconventional methods were used such as artillery shells. During the battle of Vicksburg when General Ulysses S. Grants men began assaulting the city the confederate soldiers were using grenades which were actually 6-12 pound artillery shells with short fuses attached and then rolled down the hills at the union forces, One Colonel Ashbell Smith of the 2nd Texas Infantry stated to clear the outside ditch, spherical cases were used as handgrenades when talking about the artillery cases being used (Bilby). The Civil war was known as the first modern war because of the new technologies introduced at the start of the war that would change everything about war. The biggest change in warfare were the weapons and the new lethality many of the new inventions brought to the field of battle. During this time in America many of the older weapons also were improved upon to be even more deadly than before. This is the reason why the Civil war was also known as the bloodiest war in the western hemisphere.

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Works Cited
Adler, Dennis. Guns of The civil War. Minneapolis: Zenith Press, 2010. eBook. Bilby, Joseph. "Grenade! The Little-Known Weapon of the Civil War." American Civil War Magazine. November 11, 2007: n. page. Web. 11 Mar. 2014. www.historynet.com/civil-war-weapons Melton, Jack. "Basic Facts Concerning Artillery." Civil War Artillery. N.p.. Web. 7 Mar 2014. www.civilwarartillery.com "The Lead Minie Ball." Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian. Web. 8 Mar 2014. www.civilwar.si.edu/weapons_minieball

"The First Gatling Gun -Model of 1862." Anti-Torpedo Boat and Machine Guns of the Victorian Era. N.p. Web. 8 Mar 2014. www.victorianshipmodels.com/antitorpedoboatguns/Gatling/gatling1862"The Rifle Vs. The Musket." The History of American Technology. N.p. Web. 8 Mar 2014. web.bryant.edu/~ehu/h364/materials/musket/rev_gun5