 Both the Union and Confederate armies used balloons for reconnaissance during the American Civil War, marking the first time that balloons were used in the United States for reconnaissance. The professional aeronaut John Wise was the first to receive orders to build a balloon for the Union army.  Thaddeus S.C. Lowe was an American aeronaut who attempted to cross the Atlantic and also introduced the use of balloons into the U.S. Civil War.  Air Balloons were shot down if seen  President Lincoln made a balloon corps for secret reconnaissance team.

 An ironclad was a steam-propelled warship in the later part of the 19th century, protected by iron or steel armor plates The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships to explosive or incendiary shells. The first ironclad battleship, La Gloire, was launched by the French Navy in November  Ironclads were designed for several roles, including as high seas battleships, coastal defense ships, and long-range cruisers.  Ironclads were some of the first ships in history to be armored with metal and propelled by steam instead of by the wind.  John Ericsson made invented the USS Monitor  Impacted on the civil war because it was the first metal armored naval ships

 The telegraph was emerging as a means of sending messages from one location to another electronically. Telegraph corps followed troops and erected telegraph poles and wires to provide communication from the battle front.  Tall signal towers were used to send messages short distances.  Telegraph helped communicate with soldiers around the battleffields

 In 1861, Doctor Richard Gatling patented the Gatling Gun, a six-barreled weapon capable of firing a phenomenal 200 rounds per minute. The Gatling gun was a hand-driven, crank-operated, multi-barrel, machine gun.  The first machine gun with reliable loading, the Gatling gun had the ability to fire sustained multiple bursts.  Richard Gatling created his gun during the American Civil War, he sincerely believed that his invention would end war by making it unthinkable to use due to the horrific carnage possible by his weapons.

 A repeating rifle is a single barreled rifle containing multiple rounds of ammunition.  These rounds are loaded from a magazine by means of a manual or automatic mechanism, and the action that reloads the rifle also typically relocks the firing action.  It was adopted by the Union Army, especially by the cavalry, during the American Civil War.  Impacted the battlegrounds because instead of shooting once then reloading you were able to shoot a number of times then reload

 The United States Military Railroad supplied more than 100,000 troops and more than 65,000 horses and mules with food, equipment, and supplies from the waterfront docks on the navigable portion of the James River at City Point.  The railroad began by assuming the eastern portion of the nine-mile long City Point Railroad, which extended to Petersburg.  It branched off with new track and ran behind union lines, eventually extending 21 additional miles and partially encircling Petersburg.  25 steam locomotives and more than 275 pieces of rolling stock were used, operating a total of 2,300,000 miles.

 1. Zuniga, Christopher. "Hot Air Ballons during". 11/29/09.  2. T. Marck, John. "John Ericsson". 11/29/09.  3. Taylor, Howard. "THE CIVIL WAR: THE FIRST MODERN WAR". 11/29/09.