Many technical advancements were implemented through the Civil War. Some of these range from the introduction in the ironclad to naval warfare. The use of the railroad to rate armies and supplies throughout the country, broadband communication via the telegraph, the use of rifles that would change technical warfare forever and the introduction of new medical practices and ambulance corps.
One of the major technical advancements due to the Detrimental War was the introduction with the Ironclad into battle. These new craft were largely made by encasing wooden ships with solid plates of steel.
These types of new boats could repel enemy fire as well as ram inferior solid wood ship in pieces. One such ship developed by the confederates was the Virginia, “The Ironclad carried five guns and an flat iron ram on her behalf prow; the lady moved slowly and gradually and awkwardly, powered by two aged engines from the Merimack, and it took half an hour to turn her around. In the harbor with the Hampton Highways, the Va, on her 1st day at conflict, attacked five Union ships (McFreely, 17) “Five Union ships made up of 219 firearms guarded the mouth of the Adam River at Hampton Tracks but the preventing this day tends to make them obsolescent.
What day-the worst in the eighty-six year good the U. S. Navy. The Virginia sank two proud ships. (McPherson, 375, 376)
The Confederates were not exclusively in the building of ironclad although not everybody shared in the enthusiasm of theses new ship Secretary of navy blue Welles did not at first desire to experiment with fresh fangled symbole. But gossip of digital rebel activities brought on Congress to force his hand using a law of August several, 1861, directing the construction of three prototype ironclads. (McPherson, 374) several models were posted but David Ericssons was your one the Navy office accepted. Ericsson’s pitch incorporated a number of novel characteristic. A wood made hull sheathed with thin iron plate would be overlaid by a flat deck with perpendicular attributes extending below the water collection and protected by 4. 5-inch armor plating.
The propeller, anchor and vital machinery would be protected by this cover. Sitting for the deck was Ericsson’s most important innovation: a revolving turret encased in eight ins of battle suits and made up of two eleven-inch guns. (McPherson, 374) This send was named the Screen, and while the Virginia reaped havoc in HamptonRoads the Monitor was on her way to meet her.
“On Drive 9, the Monitor arrived from Brooklyn, and the two strange delivers blasted aside at each different, the Monitor circling her opponent. The battle ended in a draw, but it improved naval combat overnight by looking into making wooden fleets obsolete. (McFreely, 17)
Other technologies that were intensely used through the war were the Railroad and telegraph. The railroads allowed for velocity of troop movement and heavy cannon that could just be moved railroad. The telegraph likewise sped communications among armies, field personnel, Washington, Richmond, ETC . In 1862 alone america Patent Workplace issued over 240 armed service related patents. The keep an eye on itself acquired 47 person patents.
One other innovative improvement in weaponry was the gun. While these kinds of weapons were not new to the battle discipline recent improvements in bullet technology developed in the 1850s, by Claude E. Minie’ and increased by James H. Burton made the weapons more practical and cost effective. “At the beginning of the war both equally sides were informed chiefly with smoothbore muskets that recently had an effective variety of about 80 yards and took regarding twenty five moments to reload. But during 1862 Union soldiers had been with fresh rifles that had spiral grooves minimize in the barrels, and by 1863 nearly all infantrymen, Yankee and confederate carried these weaponry.
These rifles put a spin on the bullet, elevating its range and precision. These new rifles resulted in assaulting infantrymen in close formation could be picked away with weapons at 400 yards. The casualty cost for a frontal assault started to be tremendous. (McFreely, 17) The impact with the rifle around the battlefield was huge. “One reason for the high casualties of the City War was the disparity among traditional tactics and modern weapons. The tactical musical legacy of the eighteenth-century and Napoleonic warfare experienced emphasized close order formations. (McPherson, 473, 474)
Some other technical break through brought on by the war had been the creation of The Sanitary Commission and improvements in army medical practices. “The Civil War marked a milestone inside the transformation ofnursing from a menial in order to a genuine occupation. The battle also produced important improvements in armed service medical practice. One such innovation was the creation of unique ambulance corps for first aid treatment of the wounded and their evacuation to field hospitals. These non-combat medics risked their lives to reach the wounded in the middle of the struggle and expels them immediately to surgeons’ stations and field hospitals.
The ambulance corps became a model intended for European soldires down to Universe War We. (McPherson, 484, 485) Sanitary circumstances by the standard today were inhuman but during the war they were a vast improvement via previous wars. “Diseases was a greater menace to the wellness of Detrimental War soldiers than foe weapons. This had been true for every armed service in history. Detrimental war soldires suffered comparatively less disease mortality after that any previous army. Although two troops died of disease for all killed in combat, the ratio for soldiers inside the Napolonic and Crimean Wars had been 8 to one. Only by twentieth century standards was Municipal War disease mortality large. (McPherson, 487)
To conclude the City War found the introduction of the ironclads which made almost all fighting vessels obsolete within a afternoon of battle at Hampton Streets. The introduction of better medical procedures and secours corps. The use of rifles which usually made the tactics of Napoleonic Warfare’s close order formation a suicide quest. This conflict also saw casualties on both sides in astronomical amounts due in no small part for the use of these kinds of new technologies. In the end the application of these new weaponry and technology will change just how all wars there after would be struggled.
WORKS CITED
McFreely, Martha Drake The Civil War Telecourse Research Guide.
Virginia: EPM Journals, 1990.
McPherson, James Meters. Battle Cry of Liberty
New York,: Ballantine Books, 1989.
you