| Civil War Weapons and Technology
This article contains a list and information about Civil War Weapons and Technology. Military strategy, military tactics, weaponry and warfare were revolutionized by the many developments in new technology during the American Civil War. This article provides details of many of the weapons, war machines and technology that were used by soldiers on the battlefields, and at sea, during the Civil War. The Civil War Weapons and technology include facts about revolvers, muskets, rifles, machine guns, artillery, rockets, grenades, canon and howitzers. New technology was used to develop the ironclads, the submarine, torpedoes, and mines. Civil War Weapons
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th American President who served in office from March 4, 1861 to April 15, 1865. One of the major effects of the Civil War was the introduction of new weapons, ammunition and technology. |
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| Civil War Weapons: The Guns
Interesting Facts and information about Civil War Weapons and Technology are provided via the fact sheet provided in this article. Learn about the weapons generally referred to as guns but comprising of both small and large firearms. Civil War Weapons also included the latest technology that produced land mines, under-water mines, torpedoes, hand grenades, the Minie ball and even rockets. Civil War Weapons: The Small Guns
The small gun weapons include those pictured on your right which include muskets, rifles, repeating rifles, revolvers, carbines and repeating carbines Civil War Weapons: The Large Guns
The large gun weapons consisted of Cannons like the famous Napoleon Cannon, Field Guns, Howitzers, Mortars and the machine guns such as the Gatling Gun and the Williams gun. | 
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Civil War Weapons: Uniforms and Battles
Also refer to the Civil War Sitemap for details of the Civil War Battles, the history of the conflict and Civil War Battles and Battlefields. Civil War Weapons and Technology
Inventions, discoveries and new technology changed the way the American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 10, 1865) was fought and the weapons used. There were military breakthroughs in weapons and technology. Some weaponry ideas were new whilst others were improved by the latest technology. The new, groundbreaking weaponry and technology was developed for the Civil War Battlefields that were used as the test beds to transform the nature of warfare and weapons. Technology was also used to develop the vehicles of war, especially in relation to naval conflicts which saw the introduction of mighty ironclads, torpedo boats and even submarines. Please refer to Civil War Inventions and Technology for additional facts and information. Facts about Civil War Weapons and Technology:
The following fact sheet provides interesting facts and information about some of the most famous Civil War Weapons and Technology. American History for Kids: Civil War Weapons and Technology | | | | Facts for Kids | Facts and Information | | Civil War Weapons & Technology Fact 1 | Rifled Musket Weapons: The Rifled Muskets, such as the Springfield and the Enfield, replaced the smoothbore muskets. Smoothbore muskets were muzzle-loading weapons that fired round balls. Rifled Muskets barrels had grooves cut into the interior wall of the barrel that would cause the bullet to spin as it left the barrel. Ammunition was gunpowder and a Minie ball. Standard muzzle-loaders had a rate of fire of 2–3 rounds per minute. | | | | Civil War Inventions & Technology Fact 2 | The Minie Ball: The Minie Ball was a specific type of highly destructive bullet fired from a rifle. The name of its inventor was Claude Minie. The Minie ball and was about the size of a quarter. | | | | Civil War Weapons & Technology Fact 3 | Repeating rifles: Breech loaded single-shot rifles were replaced in the early 1860s with repeating rifles which provided a much higher rate of fire. Repeating rifles were single barreled, and contained multiple rounds of ammunition loaded from a magazine by means of either an automatic or manual mechanism. | | | | Civil War Weapons & Technology Fact 4 | Sharpe's Carbine Rifle: Sharpe's Rifles were single shot rifles that were designed by Christian Sharps in 1848. The military version of Sharps rifle, used during the Civil War, was a falling block rifle that used a lever | | | | Civil War Weapons & Technology Fact 5 | Spencer Repeating Rifle: The Spencer Repeating Rifle was designed by Christopher Spencer in 1860. The repeating rifles had a manually operated lever-action. The Spencer Repeating Rifles had a rate of fire of 20 rounds per minute. | | | | Civil War Weapons & Technology Fact 6 | Colt Revolver: The Colt Revolver was invented by Samuel Colt in 1836, it was equipped with a revolving cylinder containing five or six bullets. During the Civil War Colt employed over 1,000 people in his Hartford factory | | | | Civil War Weapons & Technology Fact 7 | Remington Army Revolver: The Remington Army Revolver was manufactured by Eliphalet Remington & Sons. It was a large-framed, .44 caliber gun, with an 8 inch barrel length | | | | Civil War Weapons & Technology Fact 8 | Smith and Wesson: Horace Smith and Daniel B.Wesson started the Smith and Wesson company in 1852. The handgun was non-military but was still extensively used during the Civil War | | | | Civil War Weapons & Technology Fact 9 | Winchester Repeating Rifle: The Winchester volcanic Repeating Rifle was another popular weapon used in the Civil War. | | | | Civil War Weapons & Technology Fact 10 | Gatling Guns: The earliest machine guns invented were the Gatling Guns. The Rapid-fire Gatling gun was invented by Dr. Richard J. Gatling in 1861. These powerful weapons were six-barreled guns that were capable of firing up to 350 rounds a minute. | | | | Civil War Weapons & Technology Fact 11 | Williams machine gun: The Confederate army experimented with another type of machine gun called the Williams gun. It was classified as a 1-lb cannon but it proved to be too cumbersome for practical use. | | | | Civil War Weapons & Technology Fact 12 | Land Mines: In 1862 General Gabriel J. Rains designed a land mine, called a "Subterranean shell" that would ‘explode from the slightest pressure’ which became widely used during the Civil War. | | | | Civil War Weapons & Technology Fact 13 | Rockets: Rockets and Rocket launchers were first used during the War of 1812. Rockets and their launchers were developed during the Civil War but proved to be highly inaccurate | | | | Civil War Weapons & Technology Fact 14 | Hand Grenades: In 1861William F. Ketchum developed the Ketchum hand grenade which was used at siege battles such as Vicksburg and Petersburg. The Ketchum hand grenade was a cast iron projectile explosive that was thrown like a dart. The Confederate, less effective equivalent type of weapon, was called the Raines Grenade 
| | Facts for Kids | Facts and Information: Civil War Weapons and Technology | Civil War for Kids: Civil War Weapons and Technology Fact Sheet |
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| Civil War Weapons and Technology - Large Guns
Interesting Facts and information about Civil War Weapons and Technology are provided via the fact sheet provided in this article. We now come to the large guns and artillery such as Cannon, Field Guns, Howitzers and Mortars and these have been detailed on the following fact sheet. Civil War Weapons and Technology - The War Machines
The subject of the War Machines must also be addressed when providing a list of the weapons used during the Civil War. This was the time of new technology and inventors put every effort into producing new War Machines such as the Ironclads, the siege weapons, submarines and torpedoes together with their different types of ammunition and weapons in order to gain the advantage over the enemy. |
Facts about Civil War Weapons and Technology
The following fact sheet provides interesting facts and information about some of the most famous Civil War Weapons and Technology. American History for Kids: Civil War Weapons and Technology Fact Sheet | | | | Facts for Kids | Facts and Information | | Civil War Weapons & Technology Fact 15 | Cannon: Many types of weapons referred to as cannons were used in the Civil war. The different types of Cannon included including the 6-pounder Gun, the 12-pounder "Napoleon", the 12-pounder Howitzer, the 24-pounder Howitzer, 10-Inch Columbiad Siege Gun, 14-pounder James Rifle, the 10-pounder Parrott rifle, the 20-pounder Parrott rifle and the 3-inch Ordnance Rifle | | | | Civil War Inventions & Technology Fact 16 | Field Guns: There were the older smoothbore cannon and the newer 'rifled' barrels on cannon used on the battlefield | | | | Civil War Weapons & Technology Fact 17 | Howitzers were short-barreled guns that fired explosive shells in a high trajectory | | | | Civil War Weapons & Technology Fact 18 | Rifled cannon had grooves inside the gun barrel which increased the accuracy of these weapons | | | | Civil War Weapons & Technology Fact 19 | Mortars: 8-inch and 10-inch Mortars were used as siege artillery and 13-inch seacoast mortars were used to defend the coastline. | | | | Civil War Weapons & Technology Fact 20 | Ammunition : The average amount of ammunition for one cannon consisted of 288 shot, 96 shells, 288 spherical cases and 96 canisters. | | | | Civil War Weapons & Technology Fact 21 | Ironclads: The mighty Ironclads were 'war machines' constructed by covering the upper parts of wooden ships with iron and steel. The most famous Battle of the Ironclads was fought between the Merrimack and the Monitor | | | | Civil War Weapons & Technology Fact 22 | Submarines: New designs for made for submarines. A submarine could be submerged and navigated under water. The Confederate Submarine, the Hunley, held a crew of 8 men and was developed by the inventor, Horace Lawson Hunley | | | | Civil War Weapons & Technology Fact 23 | Under-water warfare required weapons with special explosive devices - the Mine and the Torpedo. Mines were stationary, but torpedoes are propelled weapons. | | | | Civil War Inventions & Technology Fact 24 | Torpedoes: Torpedo-boats, 'Murdering Machines', were developed and capable of partially submerging, with only their stacks showing. | | | | Civil War Inventions & Technology Fact 25 | Spar-Torpedo Weapons: The Hunley Confederate submarine was armed with a spar-torpedo that was a bomb propelled at the end of a long pole with a charge attached to the end. 
| | | | Civil War Inventions & Technology Fact 26 | Under-water Mines: Under-water Mines were first demonstrated by Matthew Fontaine Maury in 1861 | | | | Facts for Kids | Facts and Information: Civil War Weapons and Technology | American History for Kids: Civil War Weapons and Technology Fact Sheet |
Civil War Weapons - President Abraham Lincoln Video
The article on the Civil War Weapons provides an overview of some of the important innovations of his presidential term in office. The following Abraham Lincoln video will give you additional important facts and dates about the political events experienced by the 16th American President whose presidency spanned from March 4, 1861 to April 15, 1865. | | |
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