Improving warfare technology was an extremely important aspect of the Civil War. Gunpowder or black powder played an important role in the Civil war and gunpowder involves a great deal of chemistry. It consists of three ingredients sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). For only three ingredients the chemical reaction is a very complicated and its chemical equation is 4 KNO3 + C7H4O + 2 S ------> 2 K2S + 4 CO2 + 3 CO + 2H2O + 2 N2. The KNO3 is potassium nitrate, the C7H4O is charcoal, and the S is sulfur. What many people don’t know is that black powder doesn’t cause an explosion. The explosion is actually caused by the buildup of gases released during the chemical reaction. This hot rapid release of gas is what propels a bullet forward (Dunn, 2009). Instead of explosion, the word combustion will be used to not cause confusion. Gunpowder was used in their cannons, guns, and other weapons of war. Black powder and its chemistry were extremely important to the Civil War.
The first crucial ingredient is sulfur and not just any sulfur, but elemental sulfur (S). Sulfur is one of the few elements that occurs naturally in nature. Until about the twentieth century, 95% of all sulfur was mined in Sicily and is still mined there today, just not in such quantities (Dunn, 2009) It can be extracted from a variety of minerals. In the northern Alps of France and Germany, sulfur was actually extracted from pyrite (FeS2) or “fools gold”. The sulfur was extracted by heating the pyrite to 450ºF represented by the chemical reaction
2 FeS2 ----> 2 FeS + S2 (Bretscher, 2009). Sulfur is a “matrix constituent” in the black powder. This means that it allows the powder to be a hotter and more stable burning powder which is imp...
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...remely influential throughout history, but it had an even bigger impact on the Civil War. Each ingredient played its part in creating the weapon of war and its chemistry was a game changer in the Civil War. Of course now we have moved on to more powerful and advanced things, so much so that black powder is now considered a low explosive. Even so, it still should be respected and not many people know what goes on on a chemical level. Chemistry certainly changed gunpowder and was crucial to the Civil War.
Works Cited
http://www.civilwarartillery.com/disarm/blackpowder.htm http://cavemanchemistry.com/oldcave/projects/gunpowder/ http://chemistry-and-edu.blogspot.com/2009/09/chemistry-of-gunpowder.html http://www.musketeer.ch/blackpowder/bp_menu.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmtK2BgmGCw The Science of Fireworks! Royal Institution 2-23 min.
The Civil War was unlike any other war ever fought in America and had many effects on the home front for both the North and the South. It is stated to be the first ever total war, which is a war against not only the civilians but also the armies. The Civil War is also considered the first modern war fought by the U.S. troops. Lincoln asked volunteers to sign up for only three months. Many people thought the war wouldn’t last long. However, the war continued on for four years. The Union armies had around 2,500,000 to 2,750,000 men and the Confederate army had approximately 750,000 to 1,250,000 men. The entire North and South society was affected by the war and desired for many social and economic assets. The Civil war brought new military techniques which caused the armaments to be more destructive. Ironclad ships and railroads were sufficiently used within the war. The north had a motive; they wanted to weaken the South’s longing to victory. The North tried to achieve this last motive by inflicting wholesale destruction upon the South (Janda, 1995). More than a hundred people seemed to be spies or secessionists in Maryland. In time, they were arrested due to not being faithful to the union and their state. Pro-secessionist newspapers were shut down, and telegrams and mail were censored (Perret, 2004).
The Civil War, also called The War Between the States, was one of the bloodiest wars in American history. What made the Civil War such a massacre? The Civil War was such a bloodbath because the technological advances were so far superior to the tactics of the infantry, that the weapons virtually obliterated the soldiers. Soldiers would form lines known as a battalions. In these battalions, soldiers would basically march to their deaths. In addition to weapons doing so much damage, fortification on the battlefield was far more advanced than had ever been before. The Cheveau-de-frise was the main focus of armored fortification in the Civil War. This fortification consisted of 10 to 12 foot logs with large spiked-shaped, wooden stakes attached to the top of them. The Cheveau-de-frise would hold soldiers at bay while the opposing soldiers dismantled the battalion with cannons and rifles. Between the fortification and the weapons, humans did not have the slightest chance of survival.1
The Civil War had a very large affect on all of the States. It changed men from gentlemen that went to church every Sunday and never cussed to people who rarely went to church and cussed all the time. Some of the people in the war were also very corrupt and did not do things as they should be done. The way that the enemy was looked at was even changed. All of these things were talked about in "The Civil War Diary of Cyrus F. Boyd".
In conclusion, throughout the Battle of Antietam you will notice how significant it was to the Civil War and even to our country. It brought us a great deal of relieve from the rebellion of the southern states, it gave the African Americans the freedom they had always hoped for with the Emancipation Proclamation, and it had a huge impact with the Civil War because it was the first battle to ever be fought on northern soil, and it became known as the bloodiest battle ever fought in American history.
The Civil War impacted the course of history forever. But it had to start somewhere and the Battle of Fort Sumter marked the start. The Battle of Fort Sumter had various causes and effects.
Every war, though happens for a reason and bring a better change, is often gruesome. The Civil War broke America in two groups and, at the time, was the war with the most casualties and injured men. As the fight to preserve the Union progressed, so did a number of other areas, such as weaponry and artillery. The advanced technology produced through the Civil War assisted in increasing number of casualties. The North was more fortuitous than the South in multitudinous ways. One of which includes the fact that their industrial society allowed them to produce a larger amount of weapons of a higher quality. One of the major reasons the Union triumphantly defeated the Confederate army was because of their more superior types of weapons.
African Americans helped shape the Civil War from various perspectives. Actually, they were the underlying foundation for the war if you think about it in depth. African Americans were slaves and had been dealt with like property since they arrived in America. The likelihood of opportunity for these slaves created an enormous commotion in the South. The issue of equal rights for African Americans brought on a gap between the states. The United States Civil War began as an effort to save the Union, and ended in a fight to abolish slavery. The Civil War, frequently known as the War Between the States in the United States, which was a Civil War battled from 1861 to 1865, after seven Southern slave states proclaimed their severance and framed the Confederate States of the United States. More Americans died in the Civil War than in World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War combined. Two thirds of the individuals that were killed in the Civil War died of disease. The medical world at the time of the Civil War and advanced disinfectants, did not exist which could have enormously lessen the spread of disease and illnesses. After years of bloody combat that left over 600,000 soldier’s dead and destroyed much of the South's infrastructure, the Confederacy collapsed, slavery was abolished, & the difficult Reconstruction process of restoring national unity and guaranteeing rights to the freed slaves began. By December 1865 the 13th Amendment had abolished slavery throughout the United States (Waldstreicher).
Following the American Civil War, the whole nation was forever changed and was the result of many good and bad things. Although it was a very costly war and was So, the Civil War did define us and made us the good and the bad things we are and led to an extremely significant change because slavery was abolished once and for all and African American rights followed many years later, the Federal Government imposed more power over the states, our country was divided for a while, and it left the nation in debt due to the fact that we fought each other.
Sulphur is a pale yellow colour after the reaction. sulphur stays in the same container as the other products, meaning. that the solution will be a pale yellow colour. Na 2 S 2 O 3 + H + Cl - [ IMAGE] 2 NaCl + S + SO 2 + H 2 O Sodium thiosulphate solution Hydrochloric acid Sodium chloride solution Sulphur Sulphur dioxide Water "The sulphur does not start to form immediately, but begins to appear after a short time, turning the mixture into cloudy. You cannot tell precisely when the reaction has stopped."
...t got turned into a civil war because one state did not agree with the government. If it wasn’t for Clay to draw up the bill, South Carolina would have seceded from the Union and Civil World would have come earlier. All these events will eventually lead to bloodshed and that’s the last thing we want.
War from the 16th Century to the Invention of Gunpowder The invention of the powerful artillery guns would change man’s role in warring engagements. The artillery guns at first were very limited by their own design. The guns were very heavy and had to be transported by water, which meant that only towns and fortresses that were close to a body of water could be attacked with artillery also known as the cannon. There were also some fortresses that were impervious to the early cannon attacks based on strong designs or natural defenses.
The Civil War, one of Americas greatest and deadliest wars in American History. Is the Civil War still relevant in today’s society? It could be argued both ways, and really depends on how you look at the war, and how you compare that with society today. There are many aspects of the Civil War that can be looked at, and that can be relatable today. From the current ongoing election in the Country, that is causing extreme havoc with both the Democrats and the Republicans. This also is due to the fact that there is a wealthy business man running who does not know much about running a country, and a former first lady, who pretty much is a disgrace with her lies. There are also extreme racial differences that are happening within the Country as well. Not only racial issues, but the issues involving race, the police, and sexual orientation between people. There is always going to be a divide in the country, from the North and South, White and Black, Republican or Democrat, there will always be some relevance in the world surrounding the Civil War.
...n his volunteer-troops, rather than an “exceptionally well drilled and experienced army.” The Civil War required a “quickly improvised…realistic standard for mid-nineteenth century America.” Which, as Griffith points out, they either did “ineffectively or reverted to outdated tactics disastrously.” The developments of technology certainly had a very large role in the way the war was fought but what truly caused the shift from Napoleonic to modern warfare was the fact that America was not Europe and the battle was for a cause much more powerful than land acquisition and discourse with another nation, but rather ideological dissonance within. Both authors analyzed how the United States’ differed from the countries across the Atlantic in order to provide some explanation regarding the nature of the Civil War and why it took so many lives before it came to an end.
..., and meat. Protein foods are the main source of sulfur. Sulfur plays a major role in the activities that protect the cells and cartilage. Sulfur can also be used in home remedies such as those for acne, and dandruff and can help with the healing of wounds. Sulfur has a charge of 2-.
... that involves crushed limestone being mixed with water. This forms a slurry. It is then sparayed into the area containing sulfur dioxide. This reacts to form a aqueos slurry of calcium sulphate. Compressed air is then blown into this slurry. This oxididses the calcium sulfite to form calcium sulphate. The product is treated to remove excess waterand is disposed in land fills.