Civil War Essay -- essays research papers fc

Civil War During the American Civil War, which lasted from 1861-1865, over 620,000 accounted soldiers were killed. Known as the "the first modern war", historians generally agree that the reason for this was because this was a time of transition for the military. Armies and Navies were still using tactics where they would gather large forces of firepower to bear on the enemy. At the same time, weapons were being developed which were accurate and lethal well beyond any arms of the earlier conflicts. As a result of these two conditions many more casualties were sustained. Add to that the lack of medical knowledge of disease and infection and the numbers truly began to grow. This paper is an overview of the types of weaponry that was used during this time. Artillery generally falls into three basic categories; guns, howitzers and mortars. The main difference between them being the trajectory of the round fire. A gun has a high muzzle velocity and a very flat trajectory. Normally a gun is used in a direct fire mode where the target can be seen and penetration is desirable. Good targets for a gun would be things like brick or earth forts, ships, buildings, and targets in tree lines. Howitzers have a somewhat lower muzzle velocity and arc their shells onto a target. They are used in both a direct fire and indirect fire mode. Keep in mind with the limited range of the pieces available during the Civil War there was no indirect fire such as we know it today. Targets were generally always within the line of sight of the artillery men. This is especially useful when an enemy is concealed behind a prepared position or the artillery men desire to have a shell explode over an enemy’s head. The air-burst does less damage to hardened targets such as masonry walls, and redoubts, but causes many more human casualties due to the shrapnel covering a large area. Mortars have a very pronounced arc of flight. They have a relatively low muzzle velocity and are unsuitable for direct fire. Their principle value comes from being able to lob shells behind an obstacle such as a fort or a hill. Unlike modern mortars, those used during the Civil War were bulky devises and mounted at a fixed angle usually between 45 and 50 degrees. They were not very accurate and depended solel... ... of War suggesting that the gun be officially used by the North, but nothing was done. Later, the Navy adopted the gun in 1862 and so did the Army but not until 1866. My conclusion is that I would not want to be shot by any of these guns. They used very heavy ammunition that devastated what ever it hit. I guess that is why the American Civil War was called the bloodiest war of all time. Not only are you trying to kill your opponent, you are trying to kill a fellow American which must of been tougher. Also, if we adopted the Gatling gun, I feel that the war would of been over a lot faster than it was. To be able to fire 250 to 300 rounds in one minute is devastating. That gun was very mobile because it could be moved around by the horses because it was on wheels. I give these men lots of credit for going out there and fighting like they did. Many really did not know why they were fighting and they still fought with courage. And with a total of 620,000 casualties, a lot of men did not come home. Bibliography 1. "The Civil War", Ken Burns, 1994, tape 5, "Weapons of the Civil War" 2. "The Civil War", CD-ROM, by Mathew Brady, Rom-Man technologies,1995