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 Civil War Weapons by Bryce Aron (1)The Civil War Weapons (2)A day in the life of a battleship crewmember (3)Cannons and amazing artillery were a big part of the war (4)Weapons today are better than the Civil War weapons (1)From A 44.revolver to a Huge Iron plated battle ship these were the weapons of the Civil War. The civil war was different from the Revolution. The Civil War was a new age with new weapons. Instead of the old styled musket which was not as deadly as the new rifle. The musket was not as accurate and powerful. The musket shot a round ball the new rifles shot a pointed boilet. Back in the Revolution there was not a variety of pistols. The Civil War had tons of pistols most good some weird and some not so good. Pistols Lets us kick off with the The star army revolver which was a Union pistol. It had a 44.caliber barrel but what let it down was the clumsy arrangement it had this made it not that popular. Another pistol was the Lemat revolver had two guns in it! It had a 40 cal pistol barrel and a 18 gauge shotgun in it. Another pistol was the 44 colt revolver was one of the most popular pistols. The most popular pistols in the war were the colt and remingtons. There wasn’t just little rifle and pistols there were mighty battleships with lots of cannons on them. They were your average boat with a cannon strapped onto them. Most of the battleships were equipped with iron sides so far away cannon balls would not penetrate the boat. But at close range things got ugly the cannon balls could penetrate and catch fire. One boat named the css Arkansa had ten guns! This boat served in the mississippi had iron plates it was a nightmare. But one day the engine broke and the union were coming so the Confederate sunk it. They didn’t want the Union to capture it like how they did to another boat. One time there was a union battleship named the Merrimac it caught on fire and was left behind. Then the Confederate came took it rebuilt it and named it the CSS Virginia. But these ships could be destroyed by mines. These were a piece of wood filled to the top with explosives sometimes ships used a mine catcher. But some of you are still wondering well did the Navy get better by the Civil War. Actually they did they went from sails to steam powered ships. Also they went from older designs to new ones and the guns got bigger. The guns went from smaller to bigger and went from smoothbore to basically a giant rifle barrel which made it more accurate. They even improved shells which tore apart ships. Rifles Next lets move onto the rifles that were used in the Civil war. The rifles were very different from todays guns. The soldier had to by opening gunpowder next put the bullet and the powder firmly into the gun. They pushed it down by using a special tool so the bullet didn’t just go half way. Thats just how they reloaded! The 52 caliber sharps were a good gun for the Union cavalry and were their favorite among them. A southern weapon was called the enfield .577 caliber rifle which was made in Britain. Now those weapons and soldiers are missing there biggest support the cannons. Now the soldiers on both sides had cannons for support these were a big part of the war. the most used cannon was the model 1857 gun howitzer. There were models were there were groves like a rifle but most were smooth bore which is no groves. This gun was named after the dictator of France at the time. One of the rounds it shot was the canister round. What this did was it was like a huge shot gun but it exploded over enemy troops heads. The fragments came down and wounded or killed the enemy. The solid and sabot shells were normal and accurate. But there was a down side when they had to move the guns sometimes they would get stuck in some mud and had to help their horses. This kind of leaves me wondering why didn’t they use tracks. Also the guns were hard to load and took a while. They had a piece of wood to keep it stable. All these weapons were deadly. But I’m wondering why didn’t they think of a tank. The loader had to put his thumb in a thumb stall and put his hand into the cannon to stop any sparks. Couldn’t it burn threw the thumb stall. (2) A day in the life of a battleship crew member Hello this George and Will I Am reporting from the Union Navy fleet. Another beautiful day out until we got to the southern fleets ships. Fire! Fire! we’re under attack were hit Will I Am you have been hit are you ok “just fine’’. He said he was fine so we kept going. The css Arkansa is coming! we’re going to be killed. That ship is good it had ten guns, ten! We have to go now they're getting closer. We fire a shell it sinks one of their ships. Then all of the sudden three south ships come around the corner including the css Arkansas (da da daaaaa!). Then the css Virginia came to that old ship. Then we all stared at one another. Then we said at the same time to the drivers hit it. Every one ran like a chicken with its head off. The css Arkansa fired its guns they missed and landed next to us,Ahhh! there catching up to us. Hurry!,I yelled at the driver why can’t we go fast. He yelled back because earlier we got hit by a shell and it got some of the engine. What does that me? He answered back they can catch up now. We’ll need to get to base before he gets us. Hurry up hurry then lets move it go! go! go! Then we got hit by another shell form a smaller confederate ship. It hit one of our cannon and knocked it out. Then we all turned are cannons and fired and blew the little boat up into the sky. Then we saw a boat the size of are tinsey union saugus (A little boat that the Union had) that was on are side pull in front of the Arkansa a got blown up. Then I realized that the Arkansa is gaining tremendously on us. We have to hurry up. Then we turned a corner and there was our base. It was a race of time we passed the mine field that could easily destroy are ship. The Confederate ships came around one passed through the mines the other blew up. We were almost there until I saw it for the first time dead on the Css Arkansa we got to base but are problems were not over yet. We were moving about firing at the Arkansas we shot at it to defend are base. Every one from the over ships to soldiers to cannons were firing at the Arkansas. then it got worse the Css Virginia came around the corners. you could not hear anything because of the cannons blasting away they were taking hit and we were taking hits a lot but we were getting hit harder. Then we got hit for the third time that day! We were catching on fire Will I am we're going to die noooooo! We were docked the boat was on fire we had to keep our fight on. We fired some shells one penetrated and caught fire the other bounced off the Arkansas hard whole. It was a big battle like usual we were fighting big boats and small boats some bigger than ours some smaller than ours. We were starting to destroy the Virginia and the Arkansa. They seemed like they were going away infact they were. Then we couldn’t see them any more. But I felt A warm sensation on my back it was fire. I jumped out of the boat right onto the dock. Then soldiers and workers began fixing the boat. Then I realized that was close now we’re going to be doing that again and some were the Arkansa was lurking. (3)Cannons and Amazing Artillery Were a Big part in the Civil War Cannons were a big part in the civil war. These big guns made sure no one was getting past. These supported both sides. Both sides needed support which would do big damage to their enemy and thats where cannons came in to help out. My first reason cannons were a big part of the Civil war is support. Any army needs support even today the best armies need to have support in a war. In the Civil War both sides needed support. Durning Fort Sumter battle artillery (cannons) helped the Confederate they made Fort Sumter blow up they concerned Fort Sumter. Now on to a bigger battle like Gettysburg. Infantry just kept dying they needed something thats when cannons and artillery came in. The artillery did not need to be in the battle. They fired from far away but still were affective. In Gettysburg Cannons helped troops survive. They tore big parts of the enemy up. This weakened enemy lines and made troops lives easier. Back to Gettysburg there were hundreds of thousands of enemy soldiers holded up ready to put up a fight. But they didn’t have a chance to see the cannons coming. When troops needed fire support they had the cannons to help them. My second reason that cannons and artillery were a big part of the civil is their firepower. When someone fired a rifle and it even hit some on it would injure them and maybe kill them in the battlefield that wasn't enough power. They needed bigger guns than rifles and pistols. They needed big guns like the cannons that had power. Pistols and rifles only had so much power. Cannons had tons of firepower they were the biggest guns on the battlefield at the time. Instead of having a small barrel they had huge barrels like the size of my face! They were huge they shot big bullets and they're so big I call them a shell instead of a bullet. A rifle and pistol shot tiny bullets. Shells and bullets Bullets were huge in cannons thats partly why they were so effective on the battlefield. A top of a pistol round (thats how they measure bullets in size) was lets say a around the size of the top index finger. When a cannons shell was the size of my face. But it depends what the bullet can do. I could have a tank like the m1a2 Abrams (modern) and I could be shooting a potato or I could have a pistol with a normal bullet. Back to the cannons they shot a solid and sabot round which would explode when it hit the ground and had a piece of wood to keep it stable and accurate . Another shell called the Case shell blew up in mid air and the fragments from the shell killed or wounded enemy soldiers. Then there was the canister round which was like a huge shotgun. These are some of the major rounds canons shot in the Civil War. Back to the pistol and rifle rounds that were not as good as the cannons. A pistol round was very small. It really didn't have too much explosive power. A rifle was a little more powerful than a pistol round. Pistols and rifles really didn’t have that much power like a cannon. You were showed the effect of cannons and artillery and the magnificent power of them. Now you can see why cannons and artillery made a big affect on the battlefield. (4) Weapons today are better than in the Civil war
Weapons are different from today in many way. The boats and rifles and pistols and technology are very different. We went from guessing to pinpoint accuracy. Of course we got more deadly a lot more deadly. My first reason that weapons are much better today is accuracy. Weapons today need pin point accuracy or bad things can happen to people. But weapons in the Civil war didn’t have good accuracy. They were just guessing where it would hit. For example a cruise missile hits where it needs to hit and its deadly very deadly. But back in the civil war they didn’t have missiles but they had artillery. They didn’t say ok were going to get a dead on hit on this building in the civil war they said lets hope it hits somewhere over there. But it is very different today very different. Now we have things in our arsenal that are very different. Are artillery today can hit in with three feet of its target with a big big boom. Thats already better than the Civil war weapons. Now we have drones these don’t miss their targets a little bit. In the Civil war they couldn’t fly high in the sky and shoot at their enemy. But now we can fly high in the sky and fire missiles at our enemy. They’re accurate like a missile can’t be destroyed in battle or very hard. My second reason that weapons today are better than in the civil war is size and power. Now you think the cannon is ‘’so scary’’. Wait until you see a aircraft carrier and its fleet. Well thats not it wait till you see the nuclear missile coming to your front door. That must scare you more than a cannon. When you think of a missile if you think it doesn’t make a big boom well you are wrong they can make a very big boom. They can make a bigger boom than a cannon. For example a cruise missile and a well of course a nuclear thermite missile makes a ‘’little bit of a bigger boom’’. A nuke can shake a whole country unlike a cannon. Now instead lets move on to the Civil War cannons. They did damage not like are artillery today. Now what about tanks well there is a sad truth they didn’t have tanks. We have the best tank today it’s the M1a2 Abrams. Well none of anyone wanted to make a tank they didn’t think of it. The first tank came much later in the the First World War. Imagine if we put are M1a2 Abrams into the Civil War the Union would have a easy win. So they couldn’t have a moving cannon ready to go so they just had plane out cannons that were not the best ever. Boat comparison Washington and Arkansas Now onto size in boasts they had a decent array of warships but we today we have a fleet of advanced war ship like are Nimitz class carrier we have six. These ships weigh a lot they probably weigh around 100,000 long tons of ship. Thats more than one million pounds of ship thats a lot of weight! Lets see the difference from both boats in a picture. Uss George Washington This photo was taken by a US Navy sailor/photo name Uss George Washington (cvn 71) This aircraft carrier is in the nimitz class carriers they are the biggest warships in the world and some of the most deadly each ship holds more planes than some air forces. Also it doesn’t need to be refueled for 20 years because its thirteen nuclear power plants. Vs Css Arkansas This was made by a navy sailor/photo name Css Arkansas jpg. The Css Arkansas ended up sinking because a engine broke down and the confederate didn’t want the Union to capture the Css Arkansas so they blew it up. The Arkansas photo was a drawn close up the Uss George washington was a real photo from high in the sky. The Arkansa is s drawing and it is from up close, not a 1,000 feet in the sky. The Arkansa was not that big the George Washington is taller than 215 feet tall from water line maybe even a little taller. The arkansas was probably 10 feet from water line. Thats a huge difference in size and also in power. My third reason weapons today are better is the economy and military power. We need a good economy so we could get more and better weapons. We have a budget defence defence price of over 156,000,000,000,000 dollars or more. Today we have over 450 nuclear missiles. Thats a lot of nukes how much did the confederate and Union have no nukes they didn’t no what a adam was. No How many men and women were in the United states army at the time of the Civil War on the Union side there was 2,128,948 soldiers thought. Now today we have more than 155,000,000 men and women. Now you're wondering what's the are the two army’s ranks. Well today it go’s China in third Russia in Second the number one army is The united states of America this is today. But back in the Civil War they were they were not at the top and the economy was bad because of the war, now we have a better economy to buy weapons. This weapon is much more deadly than a rifle it is the drone. The United States has drones with missiles and the best parts are its deadly its stealth and puts are men out of the way. The Civil war didn’t even have aviation. They didn’t have a ac­130 to cover them. They might have other forces but they didn’t have a weapon that could support without getting evaporated. They didn't have the deadly drones that we referred to today as reapers. I think I got my point across that weapons today are better than the Civil War. Now I showed you old Civil War pistols to modern day aircraft carriers. Also I showed how much more of a difference there is between today and the Civil War I even tried to show you what a Civil War battleship crewmember would have to deal with. But there is one thing you can’t denied I showed you is the Weapons of the Civil War. Where I got some facts I got some of my facts from a book called Civil War by John Stanchak. Also I got some facts from the online Wikipedia.