By utilizing the technological developments such as the railroad, the telegraph, naval improvements, firearms, and photography, despite the fact that many of these new technologies were being created for different purposes, the War organizers from the North used them to their advantage in securing a victory; almost every new invention during the time period was utilized and played a part in the war, regardless of whether or not it was made specifically for it. The introduction of Mr. Lincoln's High-tech War By Thomas B. Allen and Roger MacBride Allen says in the intro that, “In 1809 Abraham Lincoln was born in to the last generation of Americans who did not expect technology ever to change”. Before Abraham Lincoln’s time, technology was growing at a slow rate so slow that no one expected any of it to change. This all changed at the start of the Civil War. As new technologies began to develop, Lincoln and his team of generals put them to use in the War. While some technologies were designed specifically for the war such as guns and submarines, many were designed for other purposes but were artfully put towards helping the war effort such as the railroad or the telegraph. While there was no specific invention that occurred during the time of the War, the already quite new technology went through improvements and transformations to be used in the war. Because there was little change, the Civil War was very similar to the Napoleonic Wars that were almost half a century before. However, by the end of the War technology had progressed to an astounding level.
The railroad system greatly increased the North’s success in the War. Before the War, the Union had over 22,000 miles of railroad in the North and about 9,000 in the South; thes...
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To urban middle-class Americans of the late 19th century, nothing symbolized the progress of the American civilization quite as much as the railroad. Not only had the great surge in railroad construction after the Civil War helped to create a modern market economy, but the iron horse itself seemed to embody the energy, force, and technology of the new order. In fact, the fanning out of railroads from urban centers was an integral part of the modernizing process, tying the natural and human resources of rural areas to the industrializing core.
Heidler, David Stephen, and Jeanne T. Heidler, eds. Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: a
The Civil War, beginning in 1861 and ending in 1865, was a notorious event in American history for many influential reasons. Among them was the war 's conclusive role in determining a united or divided American nation, its efforts to successfully abolish the slavery institution and bring victory to the northern states. This Civil War was first inspired by the unsettling differences that divided the northern and southern states over the power that resided in the hands of the national government to constrain slavery from taking place within the territories. There was only one victor in the Civil War. Due to the lack of resources, plethora of weaknesses, and disorganized leadership the Southern States possessed in comparison to the Northern States,
An even greater advantage of the North was its industrial development. The states that joined the Confederacy produced just seven percent of the nation’s manufactures on the eve of the war. What made the disparity even greater was that little of this was in heavy industry. The only iron foundry of any size in the Confederacy was the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond, which had long supplied the United States Army. Tr...
Woodworth, Steven E., and Kenneth J. Winkle. Atlas of the Civil War. New York: Oxford UP, 2004. Print.
A popular weapon used by both sides was the rifle. Rifles were invented before the Civil War and were greatly used in the War of 1812. However, more types were built and a larger amount was used during the Civil War. Rifles added a spin to bullets for a greater accuracy at longer ranges. Using this weapon, soldiers could fire 400 yards away, as opposed to the average 80 yards (Robertson 50). Rifles were the fastest and hardest weapon of the time. Rifles allowed their bullets to be shot harder and faster towards its target. New inventions, used by the Union more than the Confederate, included Parrott rifles. They were composed of iron. Robert Parker Parrott, an American soldier and inventor, created these weapons, hence the name Parrott rifles. Despite its name, the Parrott rifle was actually a cannon. Its size ranged from 10 to 300 pounders. It was not favored by most because it was considered unsafe (“Civil War Artillery”). Because of its bulkiness and heaviness, it seldom led soldiers to inaccuratel...
Railroads first appeared around the 1830’s, and helped the ideas of Manifest Destiny and Westward expansion; however, these were weak and didn’t connect as far as people needed, thus causing them to be forced to take more dangerous routes. On January 17th, 1848, a proposal was sent to Congress by Asa Whitney to approve and provide federal funding...
The Complete Idiot's Guide to World War II, Macmillan Publishing, New York, New York, 1999. Duis, Perry. The War in American Culture, The University of Chicago Press, 1994. Schultz, Stanley K. American History 102 Civil War to the Present. Copyright 1999 Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin a href="http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/lectures/lecture21.html">http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/lectures/lecture21.html/a>.
The installation and use of telegraph communication was indispensable during the American Civil War. In spite of the growing interest for the new technology at that time, the telegraph' potential was received with skepticism and was likewise unduly underappreciated. The beginning of the work was not easy because it had to gather personnel to attend to its use and enforcement.
Throughout the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century, the United States economy changed dramatically as the country transformed from a rural agricultural nation to an urban industrial gian, becoming the leading manufacturing country in the world. The vast expansion of the railroads in the late 1800s’ changed the early American economy by tying the country together into one national market. The railroads provided tremendous economic growth because it provided a massive market for transporting goods such as steel, lumber, and oil. Although the first railroads were extremely successful, the attempt to finance new railroads originally failed. Perhaps the greatest physical feat late 19th century America was the creation of the transcontinental railroad. The Central Pacific Company, starting in San Francisco, and the new competitor, Union Pacific, starting in Omaha. The two companies slaved away crossing mountains, digging tunnels, and laying track the entire way. Both railroads met at Promontory, Utah on May 10, 1869, and drove one last golden spike into the completed railway. Of course the expansion of railroads wasn’t the only change being made. Another change in the economy was immigration.
At the end of the Civil War (1865), the era of industrialization began. The states from the north and the south seek for economic growth. There was a large amount of natural resources “unused” and “undiscovered” such as: iron, coal, oil, gold, silver and cooper, and they were ready to be exploited. Suddenly, Americans have the essentials to build a strong united nation. At first, there was a lot of competition, but the key of success was technology.
There is no refuting that the railroad companies transformed business operations and encouraged industrial expansion. The raw materials required for construction of the transcontinental railroad directly resulted in the expansion of the steel, lumber and stone industries. (Gillon p.652) The railroad stimulated growth in manufacturing and agriculture providing an efficient manner to ship raw materials and products throughout the country. Which in turn, increased consumerism and introduced t...
During and after this war, new and traditional techniques and technological advances were used during this war. The Civil War was a war mainly to preserve the union. President Lincoln himself has said [1]" My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it.” He used slavery to gain supporters to win the war.
Kelly, M. (n.d.). Overview of the American Civil War . American History From About. Retrieved November 14, 2010, from http://americanhistory.about.com/od/civilwarmenu/a/civiloverview.htm
Throughout the early parts of the century the North had heavily concentrated on industrial improvement while the South had mostly concentrated on agricultural means. This proved to be of great significance, as the two sides would find themselves in a high cost and high demand war. During the onset of the war the "North contained 80% of total U.S. industry" (Rivera pg.1), and many of these production facilities were quickly and easily transformed in order to support the demands of the military. The South on the other hand had very few production facilities and most of them lay along the contested Border States, and they lost most of these facilities when West Virginia, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware opted to...