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Essay On Civil War Weapons

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Picture rifles being fired, warships prowled up coasts, or locomotives traveled along railroads; all would not be imaginable without the technological advancement in the Civil War era. In 1861 to 1865, the infamous Civil War broke out between the Northern Union and the Southern Confederacy over slavery disputes. Though the war was long and treacherous, several advancements in technology were made in favor of the Union. The changes in technology during the Civil War helped the Union defeat the Confederacy. Prior to the Civil War, wars were fought at much closer range due to the less advanced weaponry. Low accuracy weapons like the musket were used prior to better, well-developed guns like the repeating rifle before the Civil War. The long-standing …show more content…

Rifles were a common choice of weaponry, yet reloading took time away from fighting, which was feeble and perilous. However, in 1863 a new innovation of the rifle changed the war: the repeating rifle. The repeating rifle enabled soldiers to fire several bullets before reloading, which called for an immense amount of efficiency and safety for the men firing ("Civil War Technology." History.com). One repeating rifle in particular was most popular for having the capability to fire seven shots in just thirty seconds; this rifle was known as the Spencer carbine. While repeating rifles were a new source of weaponry, only the Union had availability to this unique novelty. The Confederacy was put at a disadvantage because knowledge on the production of repeating rifles was nonexistent ("5.2 Small Arms in the Civil War"). Factories and mass production of these rifles were located in the North, so the equipment to produce such weaponry lacked in the South. A soldier from the North wrote, “I think the Johnnys [Confederate soldiers] are getting rattled; they are afraid of our repeating rifles” ("Civil War Technology." LessonPaths). The rifles petrified the South, giving the North an advantage. The defeat of the South was plausible due to the Union who had access to produce and supply such

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