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Tecnology of the Civil War By Collin
Intro • There were many technologies of the Civil War. • In My time I will present a few that I have gathered information about. • Some of the items I will present will be railroads, the minie ball, the rifled musket, and ironclads, just to name a few.
Railroads • When the Civil War Erupted in1861 it came to pass that the North had 22,000 miles of track.Most of which was standardizded, meaning that the locomotive and its cargo were capable of switching tracks without stopping. • The South came into the civil war with only about 9,000 miles of track. All of which was non­standardized, so if the Confederates wished to switch tracks they had to stop the train and then hand transfer the goods to another train. • The North was able to have so much train tracks and locomotives because it had many more manufacturing facilities and iron deposits at its disposal than the South.The major amount of locomotive production for the South was by Smith & Perkins at Alexandria, Virginia. Alexandria, Virginia was within the are that was immediately taken over by the Federal Army to protect Washington D.C. from the South. By the end of the Civil war the Southern railroads were in terrible shape from so much use and lack of supplies.
The Importance of Railroads • The greatest part of the railroads was their ability to transport vast amounts of armies and supplies within a short period of time.One of the Main things transported was food; since armies traveled in such bulk they needed a lot of food to sustain themselves. • Another Item mainly transported b y train was ammunition. Ammunitiion was heavy and soldiers burned through it at amazing rates during the Civil War so they needed ammunition as fast as possible.
The Minie Ball • A few years before the Civil War the United States adopted the French invention of the minie ball bullet. The minie ball was not even shaped in the form of a ball at all. It was actually shaped more like modern day bullets, which is more cone shaped with a rounded tip. • The minie ball was grooved on the side so it could fit into the rifled musket. It also had a hollow spot on the bottom to allow more gunpowder to help the minie ball reach rapid speeds and sustained rapid reloading.This Special design allowed the bullet to spin through the air at high velocity so that it would shatter bone when they came into contact with each other.
Rifled Musket • The rifled musket was made so it would fire the minie ball. The rifled musket was made with an elongated barrel to help with its precision since their normal precision was terrible. On the inside of the muzzle that was closest to you there were grooves to hold the minie ball in place untill you were ready to fire. When fired the grooves were curved in a corkskrew fashion to give the bullet a spin when fired.
The Rifles Workings • The rifle’s workings were fairly simple actually. When the trigger was pulled it caused the hammer to drop on a small platform. When they collided it caused sparks to form in the barrel. These sparks would ignite the gunpowder therefore sending the bullet flying out of the gun and toward its target.
Rifles • The U.S. rifle models from 1861 and 1863 used what are called barrel bands (bands that are used to keep the barrel and wooden stock together). A later model of the 1863 used band springs (these were actually used before the barrel bands) because the U.S. noticed that after prolonged firing the bands started to come loose.This model also used one barrel band towards the front of the barrel, which did not jar as much as the back, and two band springs.
Ironclads • The ironclad was pretty much an old battleship. Ironclads were steam­ propelled ships that wore plates of iron as armor for defense. • These ships actually led to some of the ships we have today, such as battleships and aircraft carriers with anti­aircraft fire and heavy guns.
Types of Ironclads • Ironclads came in different styles. Though the main designs used were the casemates and the monitors. • A casemate was pretty much an iron box. Occasionaly casemates had slanting sides for protecting the crew and guns from unwanted fire. Casemates were the type mostly used by the South and the Union. However, the South preferred to make the bow adaquet for ramming other ships by making it pointed. Most of the Southern casemates, therefore, were called rams. • Monitors were not as heavily gaurded as the casemates, but were just as deadly. Monitors were low­freeboarding steamships with heavy guns in turrets. Low­freeboarding meant that the deck of the ship close to the water line. A turret was a tough cylinder or box capable of rotating for aiming the heavy guns. The main heavy guns used were cannons and the feared Gatling gun.
Ironclads’ Purpose • Warships, such as the ironclad, were and still are built for two purposes. Bombard land forces and buildings and to destroy other ships if necessary. The first time two ironclads fought was when the Monitor and the Virginia (known by most as the Marimac) fought at Hampton Roads, Virginia. • The Confederacy mainly used their ironclads as defense systems for their harbors and rivers. This was because a single ironclad could easily defeat a score of qwooden ships, for most of the Union ships were wooden. This also means that a Southern ironclad could stay in a single spot doing nothing but waiting for even years without leaving but always there for when it was needed. • For the Union, though, it was the complete opposite. They used their ironclads to go out and fight. Some of the things that the Northern ironclads did were fight Southern ironclads and bombard Southern forts and land forces, therefore doing doing much more than Southern ironclads.
Why were Ironclads so Important? • There are three reasons: – One, they were the first ships to be steam­propelled and metal armor plated. – Two, They were a major part of the naval battles. – Three is that they were the only ones that looked like and were built like what they were.There was nothing like them and there never will be again.
The Alligator • In 1861, French inventor, Brutus De Villeroi, managed to convince the Union Navy that he could build a ship capable of diving under water where a diver could then leave a charge under an enemy ship. Built in Philadelphia, the Alligator was built to hopefully have an advantage over the deadly ironclad. • De Villeroi was told that he had 40 days and $14,000 to build the Alligator. However the project took longer than expected and costing a lot more than he was given because of long delays. At its completion, the Alligator had to undergo test runs. When tested, the project was proven to be not yet battle ready. In one circumstance, the submersibles air inside became bad very fast and everyone panicked.
The Alligator • While the submersible was grounded,after being decided a failure, it received some modifications. One was a twisting propeller rather than the previous oar system. Another was an air purifier. Six months after being decided a failure, President Lincoln surveyed the improved vessel. • Lincoln decided to bring back the Alligator project. However while being towed to its next mission, it was caught in a terrible storm. The crew of the Alligator was forced to cut it loose. Now noone knows where the Alligator is, but in 2003 some people were hired to find it.
Hand Grenades • During the Civil War, hand grenades were quite advanced, but not as powerful as today’s. These grenades were a lot scarrier than today’s because their fuses took a lot longer to reach the gunpowder. So once a grenade was thrown it was a matter of playing hot potatoe until it burst. • The Union was a lot more interested with working with hand grenades than the Confederates.There were two designs the Union grenades were mostly made of; the Ketcham and the Haynes Excelsior. The Ketcham was an explosive attached to a wooden flight to ensure it hits something with its nose where the fuse was. The Haynes Excelsior was a spiked ball that cam in a coconut like shike. When the Excelsior hit something it would cause the inner ball to push against the sides. This made the spikes go in lighting the explosive and causing utter devastation. • The Confederacy stayed with older, well tested, grenades mostly. They also took some of the ideas from the Union. Such as the Ketcham with its wooden stock and paper flight.
The Gatling Gun • The Gatling gun was the first rapid­fire machine gun. Dr. Richard J. Gatling created this weapon in hopes of creating a gun that would scare everyone enough to stop wars. However, his gun only succeeded in fueling the wars to become more violent, bloody, and dangerous. • Galing’s gun had six barrels that would be able to fire at rapid speeds of 600 rounds/minute. The ammunition was fed to the gun by a sort of funnel and gravity. However, this gun had a few problems. One was the barrels and chambers sometimes didn’t align correctly making its velocity and accuracy waver.
The Gatling Gun • None of the army purchased Gatling’s gun, except Major General Benjamin J. Butler. Ben Butler bought 12 guns for $1,000 each. Ten for ships and two for around Petersburg. The Gatling gun was so successful, that other machine gun designers were at risk of losing their jobs. • The Gatling gun fired at high velocity at sustained amounts of time, causing hazards such as overheating. Dr. Gatling solved this problem merely by adding barrels. This allowed the barrels some cooling before being used again.
Air Balloons • Before the Civil War air balloons were simply used as rides and such. After a while a man by the name of Thadeus Lowe decided to help the Union by riding in his air balloon then coming down and telling the Union about the enemies formations and distance. • Both sides used air balloons for reconnaissance. They would use their air balloons to fly overhead and gather information then send it down to ground troops using the telegraph With this information they could align their cannons to fire on unsespecting troops causing mass havoc up to three miles away.
The Telegraph • My last subject that I will mention is, the telegraph. The telegraph was invented as a means to communicate over long distances. The people using the telegraph decided to use Morse Code as a way to communicate because it was the best alternative. • The telegraph was made so that each time the telegraphers tapped it it sent an electrical current through a set of wires and came out as a set of clicks the decoders could understand. Everytime the electrical current reached a station where other telegraphers and decoders were set, it came out in morse code. The decoders then had the job to decode it then report the news to a commanding or higher ranking officer. • The telegraph was used for the Union Armies to communicate with each other and President Lincoln. This was a way for Lincoln to stay in the battle as well as run the country.
The End