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Gatling Gun
One important invention that became operational during the Civil War was the Gatling gun. It was one of the first rapid-fire guns and a predecessor of the modern machine gun. It was probably the most successful of the several rapid-fire guns that were developed at about this time. The Gatling Gun has an interesting developmental tale. Its inventor, Richard J. Gatling, set out to create a weapon so devastating that it would make the idea of war so horrible that war would become unthinkable thus ending all wars. He did succeed in creating a weapon that was very devastating for its day, but the effect was that it made killing much more efficient, thereby making his invention a complete failure when considered in light of his intended purpose. Nevertheless, it seems that Gatling profited from his work and continued to improve his invention until it fell into disuse.
Gatling guns were large and heavy, weighing about a ton (900 kg), hence, they were usually mounted on wheels. Some models were designed to be mounted on a tripod. Gatling guns were used more frequently as short-range artillery pieces than as infantry weapons due to their cumbersome size and mounting. A drawback with the earliest Gatling guns was that they had problems with the ammunition jamming up causing long delays during which they could not be fired.
The Gatling gun was not used extensively during the Civil War. However, it was used widely in the Spanish-American war a few years later. Most ordnance experts considered Gatling guns obsolete until recently. Now, an updated Gatling design has found new use in large-caliber onboard rapid-fire weapons for the A-10 attack airplane and other new pieces of military hardware. Some of the modern artillery pieces that use the Gatling design can fire more than 10,000 rounds per minute.
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Railroads
Railroads were newfangled technology at the beginning of the Civil War and they had not been used much in military applications. American forces had used trains to transport troops to the front during the Mexican War about fifteen years earlier. The railroads had grown substantially since then and at the beginning of the Civil War the Northern territory had about 21,000 miles (34,000 km) of track while the Southern States had about 9,000 miles (14,484 km) of track.
Almost from the beginning, the armed forces of both sides of the conflict began to use the railroads to transport troops, ammunition and supplies to the front. With this newfound mobility, troops and supplies could be relocated more rapidly and in greater quantities than ever before. As the battle wore on, operations that would not have been possible without the railroads were conducted. Frequently, as the troops secured new territory, the rail system would fill in from the rear to supply the advancing troops.
The rapid transportation of the railroad emerged as an increasingly important factor in the outcome of the war. Railroads influenced all military calculations and the timing of engagements as well as the magnitude of mobilizations. Naturally, as the war progressed, military campaigns were directed against centers of rail transportation such as Chattanooga, Atlanta and Manassas Junction.
Telegraph
At the beginning of the Civil War, telegraph was a recent innovation. Samuel F. B. Morse, its inventor, sent the world's first telegraph message from Washington D.C. to Baltimore, Maryland in 1844. In the succeeding years before the Civil War began, telegraph lines sprouted up over most of the Eastern United States. The only state east of the Mississippi River that did not have telegraph coverage was Florida. Because of the war and a big demand for the latest news, the Western Union Telegraph Company completed construction of a telegraph line through the Rocky Mountains connecting the West Coast to the network in October of 1861. This soon brought an end to the pony express messenger service that had been in operation for less than two years.
When the Civil War began, the telegraph was quickly used to report battle information and soon became the most important form of military communication. It was used to report intelligence information very rapidly and soon became a prime target for military counter-operations. There were some instances where messages were intercepted and replaced with disinformation. One Union commander captured at least two Confederate supply trains in this way. |
