ipl-logo

Civil War Accuracy

931 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: How technology impacted ww1

During the late 1850’s and early 1860’s, people would gather for a family day at the local battlefield, after all, it was a spectacle. Unfortunately, those people didn’t know of the advancements that were being made in the field of warfare, and they paid a deadly price. The Civil War is best summed up by Christian Wolmar:
By making use of innovations in communications, weaponry and transport, principally the railroads, the belligerents, especially the North, developed a new type of war that was fought with much wider use of technology and in a way that relied on mobility and flexibility far more than its predecessors.
The Civil War was more than just a war between two opposing sides fighting for what they believed in. It was a war that set …show more content…

“The term "couldn 't hit the broadside of the barn" was literally true when applied to the accuracy of smoothbore muskets. At 300 yards, only 1 shot in 20 would hit a target of 18 square feet. The guns didn 't even have an aiming device ” (West). The modern version was called the rifled musket due to its grooves or “rifling” in the barrel, which propelled the bullet much farther and more accurately because it spun the bullet. The issue with the smoothbore was that it was a muzzleloader, which meant you needed to push the bullet down the barrel in the front, which was extremely cumbersome and especially dangerous on the battlefield (Brooks 15). By the start if the Civil war, a number of inventors had developed a better weapon, a breechloader, which could fire much faster and load quicker than its predecessors (16). One especially prominent inventor who shaped the breechloader was Christopher Miner Spencer who created one of the most important weapons of the Civil War, the Spencer Repeating Rifle. At 22 he created the first mechanism for the Spencer rifle, an extremely reliable rotating/ rolling block lever-action that picked up a rim fire cartridge from its magazine (Silva 18). All seven shots could be fired in about 10 seconds, which enabled soldiers with the Spencer to fire 7 …show more content…

Wilson wrote about the Spencers:
There is no doubt that the Spencer carbine is the best firearm yet put into the hands of the soldier, both for economy of ammunition and maximum effect, physical and moral. Our best officers estimate one man armed with it [is] equivalent to three with any other arm. I have never seen anything else like the confidence inspired by it in the regiments or brigades, which have it. A common belief amongst them is if their flanks are covered they can go anywhere. I have seen a large number of dismounted charges made with them against cavalry, infantry and breast-works, and never knew one to fail

Show More
Related
338 Words | 2 Pages

The Civil War. Louis P. Masur’s book, The civil War: a Concise History, Is a book that gives an overview of the civil war from 18 to 1800, Providing multiple causes an consequences that emerged from the war. The book begins by reviewing the origins of the war. Chapter one covers the issues between northern and southern states and the tension over right and slave possession. The tension created a conflict that raised a number of political, social, and military events that then proceeded into a battle to abolish slavery from the colonies.

Read More
1226 Words | 5 Pages

but this time was assigned to the 155 MM “Long Tom” which is a self-propelled howitzer. They found themselves attached to the 5th Artillery regiment that conducted training at the Ft Sill Artillery School. After completing their assignment with the 155 MM “Long Tom”, the 18th Field Artillery was, once again, assigned to the Ft. Sill Artillery School but this time to be assigned to the eight inch howitzer that would be towed behind a military vehicle.

Read More
1091 Words | 5 Pages

The United States Civil War is possible one of the most meaningful, bloodstained and controversial war fought in American history. Northern Americans against Southern Americans fought against one another for a variety of motives. These motives aroused from a wide range of ideologies that stirred around the states. In James M. McPherson’s What they fought for: 1861-1865, he analyzes the Union and Confederate soldier’s morale and ideological components through the letters they wrote to love ones while at war. While, John WhiteClay Chambers and G. Kurt Piehler depict Civil War soldiers through their letters detailing the agonizing battles of war in Major Problems in American Military History.

Read More
661 Words | 3 Pages

Uncompromising differences between the South (Confederacy) and the North (Union) created a civil war that lasted five years. During this war, Abraham Lincoln was president. His election led to the secession of many Southern states. After refusing to recognize the Confederacy as its own nation, the American Civil War commenced in 1861. The three main causes of the Civil War between the North and the South were industrial and agricultural economies, politics, and slavery.

Read More
2187 Words | 9 Pages

The two large wheels attached to a field carriage allowed commanders to position a gun in the field. Gunnery crews fired one of three types of ammunition. The solid ball was primarily used to destroy forts, while both grapeshot and canister shot were used as anti-personnel weapons. The garrison cannon is intended to be more permanently position, distinguished by the four small wheels attached to a bulky garrison carriage. The small cast iron wheels allow for limited mobility of the piece within a fort.

Read More
777 Words | 4 Pages

When most people look at the American Civil War they see a disagreement between the Union (which represented the North) and the Confederacy (which represented the South) that could not be solved in a civil matter and escalated into a war. While this is mostly true there were many other factors that led to the Civil War. It is easiest for us to view the situation through the lense of homeostasis. On a large scale there was a country that was split into differing opinions and the only way to obtain internal stability of the country was war.

Read More
1017 Words | 5 Pages

To say the time period following the Civil War in the United States involved a lot of change would be a understatement. Between the years 1870 and 1900 the people of the United States lived through a period of great change. Not only did they witness technological advances that would change their daily lives, they also saw new laws and organizations formed. All of this was done in hopes of improving the country. Many of these changes came about because of the type of businesses that were formed.

Read More
1076 Words | 5 Pages

The 3 in Ordinance Rifle was the second most common artillery piece and it was the most common rifled cannon in this particular battle. This piece was made of wrought iron by the Phoenix Iron Company in 1861. The new cast iron weighed in at 1720 pounds which was a considerable amount lighter than its brass predecessors. It was able to fire accurately out to 1830 yards due to its iron construction and rifled bore. The 20 pounder Parrott was the largest artillery piece in common service (Downey, 1996).

Read More
1105 Words | 5 Pages

The 3 inch rifle was well known for its accuracy, even out to its range limits, and sometimes even sported up to three sights to improve aim. The guns were famously completely reliable mechanically and had a range of more than a mile (Antietam Road and Civil War Artillery, 2016). The core artillery piece that was used in the battle was the 12 pounder “Napoleon” cannon, which there was 108 pieces in battle of Antietam alone. The cannon was capable of firing solid shot for reducing defenses and buildings, exploding shells for artillery duels and antipersonnel, and canister rounds for devastating

Read More
742 Words | 3 Pages

The Civil War is a central event in America's historical background. Though the Revolution of 1776-1783 created the United States, the Civil War of 1861-1865 determined how the nation would pursue its future. The war resolved two questions left unresolved by the Revolution: whether the United States was to be a confederation of sovereign states or an indivisible nation with a sovereign national government, and whether this nation would have the agreement that all men were created with an equal right to liberty, or would the nation continue to exist as the largest slaveholding country in the world. The Civil War consisted of many different battles that impacted both the north and south, such as the Battle of Gettysburg, Battle of Antietam,

Read More
1475 Words | 6 Pages

From 1840 to 1861 the Civil War was unavoidable and was fought due to many circumstances at the time. Two of the main circumstances that helped build up tension and eventually led up to the Civil War was a failure of leadership and extremism on both sides, known as the South and the North. In document 1, it says how it was the abolitionist fault for pushing these ideologies that slavery was wrong and that the abolitionist attempted to agitate and they did agitate the north to go against slavery. This document is an example of extremism because due to the abolitionist trying to abolish slavery and show that slavery was wrong it caused more conflict.

Read More
546 Words | 3 Pages

The Civil War was many battles all together that caused extreme changes. The Battle of Gettysburg, for example, was the bloodiest battle in the Civil War with over 50,000 casualties. The Gettysburg Address was a speech said by Lincoln which stated the battle of Gettysburg and many things he wanted for the country. The Civil War was in the middle of when women didn’t have rights` in the country. Slavery was also the reason for the start of the Civil War .

Read More
587 Words | 3 Pages

During the Mid 1800’s marked a crucial period for our country. It will have a big effect on the development of our country. Throughout this time, our country was split, split into two sections, the North and the South. The Civil war was a war fought against the North and the South, the Union and the Confederates, from 1861-1865.

Read More
1970 Words | 8 Pages

Designers upgraded the L-11 cannon to the F-34 (Tucker-Jones). They added the ZiS-4 57mm anti-tank gun to a few variants of the T-34, which increased rate of fire and massively increased velocity (Military Factory). The previously mentioned larger oval turret

Read More
791 Words | 4 Pages

The War Between the States was one of America’s greatest wars—it was the fight for freedom, but it also impacted the economy. Because of this, America’s labor and transportation systems both took a significant turn during the Civil War, impacting America’s economy forever. In the end, the American Civil War greatly benefitted our transportation system, but devastated the South’s labor force. For a war to be fought strategically well, there first must be a form of simple, yet speedy, transportation. That is where the transcontinental railroad came in.

Read More

More about Civil War Accuracy

Related Topics

Open Document