Technological Advances During The Civil War

Both the Civil War and World War I had their respective shares of technological advancements prior to both conflicts taking off. Leadership found the advancements both appealing and appalling. The advancements changed the way the battles were fought, but at what cost in the beginning? With the Civil War edging closer to the horizon in 1861, a new terrifying weapon was being brought to the forefront. This weapon was the rifled musket. When the rifle musket was introduced, it proved to a very agile weapon to utilize. The rifling of the barrel made the musket much more accurate than any of its predecessors. This accuracy was evident in the subsequent battles of the Civil War. Along with the rifling of the barrel, another advancement was adding a repeater to said rifled muskets, making a repeating rifle. When this occurred, it turned an ordinary (for the time) gun battle into a barrage of bullets being flung around like pop rocks.

The repeating rifle not only made fighting a war much easier, it began to change the dynamic of the battle field. This dynamic though was not quickly envisioned during the Civil War, as the combatants in the war continued to use the old age linear style warfare. This new repeating rifle did not have any early effects on politics as it was introduced too late in the war to have a substantial effect on the outcome. The rifle did however cause issues politically later on in its life, as more advanced versions were being made, and the fight for gun rights were coming to the