List of weapons in the American Civil War

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American Civil War Weapons were used during 1861-1865 by Union and Confederate soldiers. It was considered the first "modern" war in history. The American Civil War saw development in existing weapons, such as rifles, and the use of new weapons.

1 Artillery
2 Hand Grenades
3 Gatling Gun
4 External links

[edit] Artillery

Further information: Field Artillery in the American Civil War

Civil War artillery was divided into two main categories: Smooth-bore and Rifled. Within these were the subclassifications of guns, howitzers and mortars. The difference between these is mainly in the arc of flight and the muzzle velocity. A gun fires nearly or perfectly horizontally and with a high muzzle velocity. A howitzer fires somewhat up to arc down onto a target, with lower muzzle velocity. A mortar fires at a very high angle (between 45 and 50 degrees) and at a muzzle velocity comparable to the howitzer. It is fairly weak and its main advantage is that it can arc its shot over an obstacle, such as a fortification or a hill.

[edit] Smoothbore

The smallest artillery piece of the Civil War was the Model 1841 6-pounder Gun. It did not have much range or firepower, but it was extremely light. Its "big brother", the Model 1841 12-pounder Gun, weighed enough to be at the limit of field mobility, but packed a better punch and had longer range than the 6-pounder. The Model 1841 12-pounder Howitzer was the best weapon of the war for ranges of under 400 yards. It shot a large explosive shell and was very light, but its range (less than 1000 yards) was a liability, making it vulnerable to other artillery pieces. The Model 1841 24-pounder Howitzer was useful if ensconced in a fortification, but weak outside it—it was very heavy and did not have much range. By far the most used smoothbore piece during the Civil War was the Model 1857 12-pounder Gun-Howitzer. Known as "Napoleons", these pieces were reliable, shot a large explosive shell, and were very light.Overall, smooth bores were used to soften up strong defenses and provide cover for advancing infantry.

[edit] Rifled

There were two main rifled pieces used in the Civil War. These were the Parrott Rifle and the Ordnance Rifle. The Parrott Rifle was made of cast iron, which was notorious for bursting, especially in a rifled cannon, with a stronger wrought-iron reinforcing band on the breech to prevent bursts. Captain Robert Parrot, who invented the gun, improved the process of fitting the band but did not invent the technique. It was not entirely effective, though. In many of the guns, all it did was move the bursting point from the breech to the middle of the gun. This problem was solved with the Ordnance Rifle. It was made entirely of wrought iron, and so was extremely strong in its own right. It was extremely accurate and could cast shot or shell 1.5 miles within 10 feet of the intended target.

[edit] Ammunition

There were several types of ammunition used by artillery in the Civil War. These included shot, shell, grape, canister, fudged up and chain-shot. Shell was hollow and held an explosive charge. Both of these were used against stationary or slow-moving targets like fortifications or the bodies of ships. Grape and canister both held numerous musket- or rifle-balls in a container. This disintegrated on firing and sprayed the shrapnel over a wide area. It was used mainly against infantry. Chain-shot was two cannonballs connected by a chain. It was used against the masts and riggings of ships. Also if any gunpowder was able to be bored into the ball then it could be made into an early version of the bomb exploding on impact if a spark was created. This was expensive and hard to do so as such was not used much.

[edit] Hand Grenades

It is a little known fact that the Civil War did have crude hand grenades equipped with a plunger that would detonate the device upon impact of the target. There was also a wooden fin mounted on the grenade to give it stability in flight. Most, however, failed to explode because the grenade had to land flat on the target in order to work. This resulted in a vicious game of "hot potato" in which Union and Confederate forces continuously lobbed them back and forth repeatedly at each other until it finally exploded. [1]

[edit] Gatling Gun

Gatling gun, displayed by the National Park Service at Fort Laramie in Wyoming

The Gatling Gun was a multi-barreled, .58 caliber repeating machine gun that was capable of firing off 600 rounds per minute that was created by Dr. Richard Jordan Gatling. The Civil War version was precursor to later models of machine guns. The cartridges were fed by a hand crank. As the crank was turned, a barrel revolved into place before the breech, a cartridge was inserted and fired, and the empty shell was extracted in a continuous cycle. Since there were multiple barrels, a gatling gun could be fired for long periods of time without overheating. Although when it did overheat the gatling gun would no longer fire.