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Exhibit A Rifled Musket Rifling is the act of making grooves in a gun barrel so that the bullet will come out in a spiral, giving it greater accuracy and distance (like a spiraling football). Without these grooves, previous muskets were not likely to hit their targets. In fact, firing one of these guns would be similar to shooting a marble from a modern shotgun. At 40 yards a soldier could usually hit a target measuring 1 square foot, but at 300 yards, only 1 shot in 20 would hit a target of 18 square feet. A British officer, who fought in the American Revolution, wrote in 1814: A soldier's musket…will strike the figure of a man at 80 yards, perhaps even at 100; but as for firing at a man at 200 yards with a common musket, you might just as well fire at the moon and have the same hope of hitting your object. I do maintain and will prove, whenever called on, that no man was ever killed at 200 yards by a common soldier's musket by the person who aimed at him. But armed with a rifled musket, a competent shooter could hit a 27-inch bull's-eye at 500 yards. A trained marksman could consistently hit a 4-inch target at 200 yards and a 6-by-6-foot target at 500 yards. At 1,000 yards, he could even hit an 8-by8-foot target half of the time. Studies done by weapons analysts from the U.S. Department of Defense proved that the rifle-musket was three times more deadly than any other gun up to that point in history. Rifled Gun Barrel Rifled Musket Exhibit B Minié Ball The Minié Ball was not really a ball, but a cone-shaped bullet and it caused a great deal of damage. It was made of soft lead and on impact would flatten out and create an enormous wound inside and out. Abdominal wounds (stomach) and head wounds were almost always fatal. A wound to an extremity (arms or legs) usually shattered any bone encountered. Those shattered limbs often had to be amputated. Surgical tents following a major battle were a nightmare. One witness wrote: "Tables about five feet high had been built upon which the screaming victims were having legs and arms cut off. The surgeons and their assistants, stripped to the waist and bespattered with blood, stood around, some holding the poor fellows while others, armed with long, bloody knives and saws, cut and sawed away with frightful rapidity, throwing the mangled limbs on a pile nearby as soon as removed." The deadly effectiveness of the rifle-musket loaded with a Minié Ball was largely to blame for the Civil War's appalling casualty rates. During the nearly 10,500 skirmishes and battles of the war, more than 110,000 Union soldiers were killed and 275,000 were wounded. On the Confederate side 94,000 soldiers were killed and an additional and 194,000 were injured. Rifle bullets, primarily the Minié Ball, caused 90 percent of all these casualties. Minié Ball vs. Normal Musket Bullet Minié Ball Monument Exhibit C Repeating Rifles Though the rifled musket and Minié Ball were leaps and bounds above previous war-time weapons, the military was still looking for a weapon that could be fired repeatedly without the hassle of reloading. A soldier with a typical rifle could load and fire up to 3 shots per minute. The first repeating rifle to be successfully made was the Henry rifle. It could fire as many as 60 shots in a minute and soldiers often claimed it was “the gun you loaded on Sunday and shot all week.” Unfortunately it cost too much money to make and couldn’t be mass-produced effectively. But new and more affordable repeaters were on the way like the Spencer rifle, which was used primarily by the Union army. Said Brigadier General George Armstrong Custer… “I am firmly of the opinion that 1,500 men armed with the Spencer rifle are more than a match for 2,500 armed with any other firearm.” The Spencer rifle had another distinct advantage. The bullets were encased in copper, and while Confederate soldiers captured many Spencer rifles, the CSA did not have the technology to make ammunition to fire in the Spencer rifle. The Spencer rifle gained its fame at the Battle of Hoover’s Gap on June 24, 1863. One Union regiment was able to push back five Confederate regiments thanks to the superior firepower of the Spencer. *The average soldier carried a rifle that shot three bullets per minute. Spencer Rifle Exhibit D Napoleon Cannon Developed in France during the reign of Napoleon, it became the most widely used cannon of the Civil War. Napoleons were manufactured in both the North and the South. The North made more than 1,000 and the South somewhere between 500 and 600. The inside of the barrel was not rifled, so it was incredibly inaccurate, but it was extremely deadly. Besides shooting traditional cannon balls, this weapon would shoot a canister filled with lead shot (pellets), iron bolts, or rusty nails. Once fired, the canister blew apart, spraying deadly hail of flying metal over a wide area. This was known as canister shot. Though the speed of the projectile was slower than some other artillery, canisters still traveled out of the gun barrel at 1,485 feet per second (1,012.5 miles per hour). Because of the devastating effectiveness, more casualties were caused by canisters than all other artillery projectiles combined. Napoleon Cannon Canister Exhibit E Gatling Gun Richard J. Gatling took a patent out on his gun in 1862 and while it became the model for future machine guns it was far from perfect. The guns were very heavy, had a tendency to jam and continued firing created a great deal of smoke which sometimes made it difficult to see. However, it still provided the Union with superior firepower. Other large, rapid-fire guns had problems overheating because they only had one gun barrel. The Gatling Gun solved this by having projectiles fired from six rotating gun barrels, lessening the chance for overheating. The additional gun barrels also allowed the weapon to shoot between 200-400 shots per minute (or three to six bullets every second). Despite its destructive power, Gatling couldn’t convince the Union to buy his gun. Instead, General Benjamin Butler decided to use his own money to buy 12 Gatling Guns for his company and used them during the nine-month Siege of Petersburg. This weapon proved useful and helped the North capture Petersburg and the Confederate capitol Richmond. The use of the Gatling gun directly led to the surrender of the South. Below is an excerpt of a letter written by Galting citing the reasons he invented the gun. It may be interesting to you to know how I came to invent the gun which bears my name… It occurred to me if I could invent a machine--a gun-- which could by its rapidity of fire, enable one man to do as much battle duty as a hundred, that it supersede the necessity of large armies, and consequently, exposure to battle and disease be greatly diminished. Yours truly, R.J. Gatling Gatling Gun http://science.howstuffworks.com/machinegun4.htm Exhibit F Poor Medical Technology One of the biggest problems of the war was the lack of quality doctors. When the conflict began, the U.S. Army medical staff consisted of only the Surgeon General, 30 surgeons and 83 assistant surgeons. Of these, 24 left to work for the South. Besides the lack of trained physicians, there was also a lack of technology. For instance, Harvard University did not own a single stethoscope or microscope until after the war. While some 110,000 Union and 94,000 Confederate men died of wounds inflicted during battle, disease was actually the biggest killer during the Civil War. Infection caused by bullets carrying dirt, fabric, and germs into a wound was just part of the problem. The lack of advanced medical techniques also played a role in who was treated. Wounds to the head, neck, chest and belly were considered fatal and doctors did not treat the wounds of these soldiers till all of the other injuries were dealt with. Therefore, gunshots to the extremities (arms and legs) were handled first. Seventy-one percent of all gunshots hit soldiers in the arms or legs and since doctors didn’t have cutting edge technology; most limbs had to be amputated. Civil War Amputation Kit Amputation in Progress Exhibit G Bad Diet and Hygiene It may be surprising to learn that for every man killed in battle, two died from disease. Many of these diseases dysentery, diarrhea, typhoid and malaria, were caused by overcrowded and unsanitary conditions in the field. One problem that soldiers had to deal with was the lack of proper sanitation. Each company in the army was supposed to have a place to put their waste in-- an eight feet deep by two feet wide trench called a sink. It was to be covered every day by at least six inches of dirt. But some companies dug no sinks. That caused an infestation of flies that spread to the soldier’s rations. Often the rations themselves were part of the problem. The food was high in calories but low in vitamins. There were few fruits and vegetables available, and the bulk of the ration was fresh or preserved beef, salt pork, navy beans, coffee, and hardtack (large, thick crackers that were often inhabited by worms-- soldiers nicknamed them “worm castles). Sometimes they were able to supplement their diet with fruit found growing in the countryside. In fact, during General Sherman’s famous march from Atlanta to Savannah, it was part of his plan to forage for food to supplement his company’s diet. The following is an excerpt from his field orders... The army will forage liberally on the country...each brigade commander will organize a good and sufficient foraging party...who will gather...corn, or forage of any kind, meat of any kind, vegetables, corn-meal, or whatever is needed by his command. During this time, Sherman’s men had never been healthier. Hardtack Civil War Rations