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Technological Advances In The Civil War

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There were technological advances that helped the North and South fight vigorously in the Civil War in the form of transportation, communication, and warfare. One technological advance was in transportation in the form of railroads. In 1860, the North had 22,000 miles of track and the South only had 9,000 miles. With the North having so many miles of track, President Lincoln decided to utilize them by shipping soldiers via these tentacles. He also used these tentacles to transport supplies and medicine. As a result, what used to be a two month travel to get to the battlefield by foot, now only takes seven days by train. This led to an increase in soldiers fighting and an increase in survival rates due to the mobile hospitals. Another technological advance …show more content…

These telegraphs played a big role in the Union because President Lincoln decided to take advantage of this useful weapon. They allowed Lincoln to communicate with the generals and soldiers on the front on how to fight. It also allowed for the front to give him live updates on how they are holding up down on the battlefield. Without this instant communication, the North would have to depend on horseback deliveries, like the South, which is not that reliable, because if the horseman dies, the information is never delivered. This gave the North the upper hand in the war because they were able to quickly change their battle strategies and adjust to the South’s plays as they deal them. In addition, another advancement was in warfare in the form of weapons. Before the Civil War, soldiers would have to fight with muskets that had a short range of 80 yards. But during the Civil War, the rifle was invented and it had a range of 400 yards. On top of having a longer range rifle, the minie ball was invented. This was a soft lead bullet that provided high accuracy, shorter reloading time, and gave deadly results if

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Even though the railroad existed before the great division between the north and the south and it mainly contributed in providing goods for both sides, the invention of the railroad greatly contributed to the civil war. The first railroad created in the US was in 1827 and their major role was to transport goods from the North to the South and back. As slaves became more abundant in the South and less present in the North a war began on the idea of slavery. The railroad caused this Civil War by bringing goods to only one side and keeping their advantage. It went from having different point of views to all out battles that started with starvation and isolation, but led to death and separation.

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The union had more railroads, horses, food, and supplies to fight with in this war. With the lack of railroads that the south had, they weren’t able to transport their supplies to the soldiers during the war. Since the north had many railroads, they were able to transport

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It allowed the North to trade with the Midwest breadbasket, increasing economic opportunity and prosperity through the construction of railroads. Document H shows the railroad routes in the US in 1860. While the South had just a few railroad

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The three innovations discussed were the automobile, the telephone, and the lightbulb. These innovations allowed travelling and the transporting of goods to be very easily accomplished, made communication between other people simpler and more efficient, and allowed for better and safer ways of lighting to be established. The automobile affected midwestern farmers by allowing midwestern farmers to be able to transport their goods to other cities or to new markets. It affected middle-class urban residents by allowing them to travel to other places more often. The automobile made factory workers have to work harder to meet the expectations of their boss because the automobile could ship out goods made from the factory more quickly.

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The technological advancement of steam power helped command the factories and power ships. Steam power gave the north an advantage in war because it was faster and less labor intensive, therefore the South would need to fight back in a way that was impossible for them to match (Steel). The Ships that the Unions factories began producing consisted of iron plating that made them incredibly difficult to sink (steel). The Union was so superior in the navy because “In the South, where iron was scarce and the ability to make powerful steam engines was virtually nonexistent, Confederates were also forced to seek other methods of protecting their ports from an increasingly armored Union fleet” (Steel). The mixture of the steam power and iron ships made it incredibly difficult for the confederates to have any naval advantages and that was simply because the Northern geographic wealth forced them to make technological advancements for the factories which was later put into use of producing powerful materials for making ships of war (steel).

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Johnson 1). This big accomplishment made hundreds of thousands of Americans, and soldiers' lives easier on a day to day basis. During the Civil War the B & O Railway was used for many different things. From transporting soldiers from place to place, hauling weaponry to battle grounds, and being used publicly. Because the locomotive transported soldiers, it made a fast, less painful way to go from battle ground to battle ground.

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The Union Army believed that the railroads were a lifeline for the Confederate Army because the Confederate used the railroads to transport soldiers, weapons, food, and communicated all

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The Union, that was under Abraham Lincoln, keep the Northern states together and able to operate better. They were able to function as a whole unit rather than separate states like the south had done. By having this, they were able to keep their government together and on the same page. The South wasn’t able to function as a

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Technological advancements like these saved the characters’ lives and gave them hope for a future. As for the military, many different weapons emerged and regressed throughout the novel.

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However, in the Civil War, Lincoln saw an entirely different weapon for information. The telegraph was now seen as a war weapon. Lincoln used the telegraph in many ways. The telegraph allowed him to stay involved with the battles while they were happening. Lincoln found himself becoming more involved in the war after the first year (McNamara).

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As a result, the economy overall became stronger, and they made a large profit. Railroads were the very first pieces of technology to have a major impact on the American economy ("Railroads in the Civil War" 42). Rails transported an unheard of amount of troops and supplies while also introducing the first ironclad railcars, which could carry lots of artillery and massive weapons. As a result, even current militaries in the United States use these types of railcars. If it weren't for the Secretary of War Stanton and his idea of railroads, the Union would have had a slimmer chance of succeeding in their final victory.

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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.

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The development of artillery increased the duration of the war because it with artillery, trench warfare was introduced. Neither side at first had the offensive power to overcome the defensive tactic of trench warfare which often led to many stalemates during battles in this period. At first, when artillery was introduced, infantry tactics had not yet been adjusted to overcome or accommodate artillery. (Plumier) Soldiers on both sides were ordered to attack in the open against artillery and over machine guns. After people realized this would not work, they turned to trench warfare.

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Railroads served to support the armies by defending soldiers from attacks of enemies. According to John Elwood Clark in the article Railroads in the Civil War states, “Soldiers before the Civil War thought of interior lines in terms of space, or distance, although geography sometimes conferred an additional advantage. The Civil War began to modify the concept, increasingly framing the advantage in terms of time, as railroads and steamboats improved travel speed and freight loads; today’s soldiers call it ‘‘superior lateral communications. ’’(Clark 28) Railroads improved war efforts significantly by conveniencing soldiers

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The Union had more railroad lines and they had the telegraph system. The telegraph system was a huge advantage for the Union because they could now send messages thousands of miles away in less than a minute. President Abraham Lincoln could now command the Union’s generals in the safety of his own office. The railroad lines gave the Union a big advantage because they could transport resources faster than the Confederate

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