Essay On Civil War Weapons

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Rifles For Watie: Weapons of the Civil War Many weapons were used during the Civil War. Some definitely saw more use than others, and some may have been forgotten. The most popular weapon used in the Civil War was most likely the Spencer Repeating Rifle. The Spencer Repeating Rifle replaced the much less effective musket. A less popular weapon, for example, were landmines, and were deemed as barbarous and banned for use. The less popular, maybe even “unusual” weapons, vary greatly in use and efficiency. On the not-so efficient side, lay the hand grenades. You might think that grenades were too advanced in technology for the Civil War, but Civil War soldiers were actually known for making jury-rigged explosives by using an assortment …show more content…

That was until the rifles came along. Rifles are much more accurate, and have quadruple the efficient range of a musket (muskets could shoot up to 250 yards while rifles could shoot up to a whopping 1,000 yards). Muskets could hold one musket-ball and would take sometimes four minutes to reload, if you were good. Although they could shoot up to 250 yards, muskets were really only accurate up to 80 yards. Due to the small range of muskets, armies had always fought relatively close to each other. Musket balls were roughly the same diameter as the barrel, which wasn’t good. Sometimes the ball would get stuck in the barrel, and often times soldiers had to use a mallet to pound the bullet down. That was, until Claude Minie invented the cone shaped lead bullet. The minie bullet. The minie bullet was smaller in diameter and therefore could slide down the barrel without the assistance of a mallet. The minie bullet was also much more accurate. Due to the shape of the bullet, the tip of it would slice through the air instead of pushing through like the musket balls used to. Since the minie bullets were much more efficient of an ammunition, infantries had to change the way they fought or else they would all be destined for death each

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