Civil War Research Project

Why were there so many more deaths in the war? How could soldiers change their battle formations mid-battle? Why didn’t the naval ships sink with one hit? New Technological advancements in weapons took many lives in the Civil War. Then, a common use of communication was the telegraph, which president Abraham Lincoln himself used to send messages to the Union generals. Next, Instead of using the common wooden ships, the first modern war consisted of naval ships. Finally, the war between the North and the South had torpedoes, powerful land mines, and submarines. A major theme of the Civil War was war leads to technological advances, as supported by weaponry, the telegraph, and naval ships.

First, weaponry was a technological advancement. Any firearms larger than “small arms” (handguns, muskets, rifles, etc.) were either considered as cannons or artillery. The most favored of these small arms was the smoothbore, which got its name for its smooth “bore” (back.) The most used models of the smoothbore were the 1816/1822 and 1840 models. The two models were very similar, and were 57 inches long, a caliber that was 0.69 inches, and it weighed almost 9 pounds. However, these guns soon became outdated, and newer versions started rolling in. One of these reasons was that the smoothbores used a firing mechanism, called the flintlock. The flintlock required several steps to load, and were not very reliable. The flintlock functioned only when a piece of flint slammed into a steel plate, which would create a spark, and ignite gunpowder. To use a flintlock, the soldier had to bite the end of the cartilage. He then had to use a ramrod, a wooden or metal stick, to load the paper and bullet down. Out of every five times, the flintlock would only...

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...n, however, the North also had torpedo boats. Because of this, the Confederate army made submarines; underwater explorers with torpedoes built in. The first submarine to destroy an enemy ship was the H.L. Hunley, which destroyed USS Housatonic in February 1864. Shortly after its success, Hunley was obliterated.

In conclusion, A major theme of the Civil War was war leads to technological advances, as supported by weapons, the telegraph, and naval ships. Why were there so many more deaths in the war? Because of the advancements in weapons! How could soldiers change their battle formations mid-battle? Because of president Abraham Lincoln himself told them to via telegraph! Why didn’t the naval ships sink with one hit? Because of the new Ironclads! With all of these advancements, the modern world’s war devices evolved from, if not are, what they used in the Civil War!