Download How did the Union use old and new technological advances to its

Technology of the Civil War
Presentation by Alex Cardozo
GPS SS8H6 b.
Research Question
Cause and Effect:
How did the Union use old and new
technological advances to its advantage to win
the Civil War?
Navy—Ironclad Ships
• South built the S.S. Virginia out of an older steam ship to try
and break the blockade of the “Anaconda Plan”
• Union built the Monitor as a counter to the rumors that the
South had an “iron boat”
• These made wood-and-sail ships obsolete
• While the S.S. Virginia attacked mostly by ramming, the
Monitor had a rotating turret cannon.
– This allowed for a large range of fire while allowing only a small target.
Navy—Powering the Watercraft
Type of Ship
Ship with sails
Ship with sails and
steam engine
Ship with steam engine
only
Advantage or
Disadvantage
Advantage
Disadvantag
e
Advantage
Disadvantag
e
Advantage
Disadvantage
Advantages or
Disadvantages
Could sail
long
distances and
could carry
spare sails.
Needed wind
and did not
have a lot of
speed and
precision.
Could sail for
long
distances,
and use the
steam engine
for close-up
speed and
precision. If
one type of
power could
not work,
then the
other could
be used.
When sailing,
steam
equipment
was dead
weight, and
vice versa.
You would
need people
who could
sail and
people who
could work
the engine.
Speedy,
maneuverable,
and the later
models’
propellers
were mush
harder to hit
than paddle
wheels and
sails.
Earlier model’s
wheels were
easy targets
and the engine
needed coal to
function.
Aeronauts—Balloons
These were hot air balloons.
Used for:
• aerial reconnaissance—accurate maps
• directing artillery from above
• spotting armies while miles in the air (innovator Lowe spotted
a rumored Confederate army near Manassas)
• Distraction—many soldiers didn’t know what these were, so
they were often trying to shoot them or puzzling about them
Aeronauts—Physics
Since balloons were giant motionless bags filled with flammable gas, they would seem like
easy targets, but not necessarily…
The thing about balloons is that they can float thousands of feet in the air, easily
out the range of an ordinary rifle or cannon. They can do this because they are
filled with a substance that is less dense than air (hydrogen, in this example), like
how a bag of oxygen floats in water because oxygen is less dense than water.
The reason no bullet or
cannonball could hit a balloon
was projectile motion. Two
forces combine to create
projectile motion: gravity and
the force that originally moved
the object. If there was no
gravity, the bullets and cannon
fire would fly straight into the
balloon. But since we do have
gravity, all the projectiles fell
to the ground before hitting
anything.
Actual projectile
motion
• GPS S8P1 d.
• GPS S8P3 b.
Land Torpedoes (Land Mines)
• While Confederate soldiers retreated to Richmond after the
Peninsular Campaign, the covered their escape by burying 8
and 10-inch bombs in the ground, exploding at a touch.
• These killed and wounded soldiers, but also—most
importantly—panicked people as they puzzled over these
“invisible weapons”.
North’s Industrialization
The North had many factories,
which provided many options for
mass-production. This gave a
huge advantage over the
homemade Southern force.
Another advantage the Union
had was its rails. The Union had
at least twice as much railroad
mileage than the Confederation,
allowing for easy supply and
troop delivering on the Northern
side.
Railroads
• Used to transport soldiers and supplies (guns, food rations,
medicine, sleeping equipment)
• Confederate saboteurs broke rails by bending them and
putting them around trees.
• Naturally, the Union started recruiting track repair teams.
• Different sizes of track created difficulties.
• At one point, several railroads sent 20,000 men and 3,000
horses to Chattanooga, TN.
The Telegraph
• Instantaneous messaging system
• Set up all over the country, so someone could communicate
with someone else who is across the country.
• Used the Morse Code (converted letters and numbers into
dots and dashes)
• Pres. Lincoln used this to get eyewitness accounts of every
battle.
• Could be used to communicate strategies to armies and prep
railroads for incoming loads.
The Telegraph—Secret Codes
• The Union used “sets” of code for its encrypted messages; the
first word in the message would determine which set would
be used to decipher it. For good measure, other nonsensical
phrases were peppered in to confuse rival codebreakers.
 `Southern interceptors could not crack the codes of these messages,
so they published them in local newspapers, in hopes that a civilian
could.
• The South used a cipher code system, where you simply
would switch all characters with others with a wheel.
 These were easy to break, so Northern codebreakers decided to feed
false information (posing as Southern telegraphers) to the South while
simultaneously getting the true intel.
What have we learned?
• The Union used steam and ironclad ships to keep up a
blockade.
• Balloons were used to draw maps and to get a bird’s-eye view
of the battlefield.
• The Confederation buried artillery shells as land mines.
• The Union had a huge industrial advantage over its opponent.
• The North also the railroad advantage, which was crucial
transportation of supplies and soldiers.
• The telegraph was used on both sides to send and intercept
messages.
Standards we have learned
• GPS SS8H6 b. State the importance of key events of the
Civil War; include Antietam, the Emancipation Proclamation,
Gettysburg, Chickamauga, the Union blockade of Georgia’s
coast, Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign, Sherman’s March to the
Sea, and Andersonville.
• GPS S8P1 d. Distinguish between physical and chemical
properties of matter as physical (i.e.,
• density, melting point, boiling point) or chemical (i.e.,
reactivity, combustibility).
• GPS S8P3 b. Demonstrate the effect of balanced and
unbalanced forces on an object in terms of
• gravity, inertia, and friction.
Conclusion
How did the Union use old and new technological
advances to its advantage to win the Civil War?
The Union used many inventions to gain an
advantage in, and to win the war, like the
telegraph, railroad, steam engine, and hot air
balloon.
Bibliography
These are all the sources of my information, and I’d like to thank them.
•
•
•
•
Gaddy, David W. "SCARD- CRYPTOGRAPHY HOME PAGE." SCARD- CRYPTOGRAPHY
HOME PAGE. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Jan. 2015.
Andrews, Evan. "8 Unusual Civil War Weapons." History.com. A&E Television
Networks, 09 Apr. 2013. Web. 23 Jan. 2015.
Allen, Thomas B., and Roger MacBride Allen. Mr. Lincoln's High-tech War: How the
North Used the Telegraph, Railroads, Surveillance Balloons, Ironclads, Highpowered Weapons, and More to Win the Civil War. Washington, D.C.: National
Geographic, 2009. Print. 23 Jan. 2015
Green, James L. "Civil War Ballooning During the Seven Days Campaign." Council
on Foreign Relations. Council on Foreign Relations, n.d. Web. 23 Jan. 2015.
Bye!
Thanks for listening!