Civil War Military Technology By Jake Tucker, Tuckerman Wink, Joe Sisti

Ships and Submarines The Confederates created a submarine called the Hunley. The Hunley was powered by eight men who sat on a bench and turned a propeller with a hand crank.  First weapon to sink a iron clad warship was the Hunley which sank the Union ship the USS Housatonic on February 17, 1864.  Torpedoes were invented to combat the Union army ships. “Iron-clad” warships prowled up and down the coast, maintaining a Union blockade of Confederate ports. Iron clad warships were ships that were protected by steel or iron armor plates. They were nearly impossible to sink with conventional weapons and forever changed the way ships were used in battle

Muskets Muskets were the traditional weapon used in the civil war. Each round of the musket needed to be loaded individually. this took allot of time and was not efficient. the musket needed to be used at a close range because they were not accurate. musket technology changed throughout the war with the addition of the minnie balls. Minnie balls did not need a ram rod and they were more accurate. the war changed with the invention of minnie balls the battles were fought from farther away and soldiers dug trenches and built cover to Protect themselves from the more deadly minnie ball

Repeaters repeating rifles were new technology brought into the civil war. repeaters could store multiple rounds in the rifle, most repeaters contained seven rounds in the magazine. repeaters could fire much faster than muskets because they did not  need to be manually reloaded after each shot. some marksmen could fire seven shots in under 30 seconds. repeaters were technology used almost exclusively by the north because the south did not have the technology to produce repeating rifles. the confederate army was at a huge disadvantage because of the lack of technology that the north had easy access to.

Cannons There were 3 main types of cannons used in the civil war, the Napoleon, the Parrott rifle, and the 3 inch ordinance rifle.  The advantage of the Wrought iron 3 inch bore cannon was that it lasted a lot longer than traditional Bronze cannons, which could only withstand 500 rounds at most. The more resilient wrought iron cannons are able to fire at least 500 rounds without showing any sign of wear. The Napoleon gun was used by both the Union and the Confederates, as it was a powerful weapon that could be used effectively at any range. It was also a reliable weapon, which was almost guaranteed to work in any conditions. There were multiple variants based on whether the weapon was manufactured in the North or the South, with northern guns having a differently shaped muzzle, and the southern guns were constructed out of cheaper, more readily available materials. The advantage that the Parrott gun has is that it is a cheap and easy weapon to produce, especially when compared to other cannons used in this time period. The ammunition was also standardized and universal for these cannons, meaning one size could be used for every variant of this weapon. This saved the south a large amount of funds to be used in other divisions of the war.

The Gatling Gun The Gatling gun was a revolutionary weapon that was brought to light in the civil war. It was able to fire up to 600 rounds per minute, and it used 6 barrels which rotated in a circle when they fired. The weapon was operated by a hand crank, and it overcame several of the drawbacks of traditional machine guns, including the main problem of overheating, which was resolved by the addition of more barrels.  It was rarely used, ad there were several drawbacks including a fragile and expensive cartridge system. In the Union battles that it had participated in, it was considered successful.

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