There were a wide variety of weapons used during the American Civil War, especially in the early days as both the Union and Confederate armies struggled to arm their rapidly-expanding forces. Everything from antique flintlock firearms to early examples of machine guns and sniper rifles saw use to one extent or the other. However, the most common weapon to be used by Northern and Southern soldiers was the rifled musket. Born from the development of the percussion cap and the Minié ball, rifled muskets had much greater range than smoothbore muskets while being easier to load than previous rifles.[1]
Most firearms were muzzleloaders which were armed by pouring the gunpowder and bullet down the muzzle. While they only fired once before needing to be reloaded, a trained soldier could achieve a rate of fire of three rounds per minute. Newer breechloaders were easier and quicker to reload, but perhaps the most revolutionary development were repeating firearms, which could fire multiple times before reloading. However, for a number of reasons, repeating firearms did not see widespread use.[2]
The diversity of long guns in the war led to a classification system which categorized them by their quality and effectiveness. There were "first class" weapons like Springfield rifles, "second class" weapons like the older M1841 Mississippi rifle, and "third class" weapons like the Springfield Model 1842 musket. Efforts were made to ensure that troops had the best possible firearms available, including rearming with captured enemy weapons after a battle.[3]
The most common edged weapon carried by both sides was the bayonet given to infantry soldiers. Beyond its use as a weapon, the bayonet had utilitarian purposes, such as a makeshift entrenching tool and even a spit. Infantry sergeants and officers were also equipped with a sword.[1] Sabers were the traditional weapon of the cavalry, although Union cavalry tended to place greater emphasis on their use in combat over the Confederates.[4] Another traditional cavalry weapon, the lance, was very rare: the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment was one of the only units to carry them, and they eventually discarded their lances in May 1863.[5]
One weapon which saw an unexpected revival during the Civil War was the pike. The Confederacy in particular suffered from a shortage of modern weapons, and by 1862 prominent military leaders like Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson advocated the manufacture and distribution of pikes as a stopgap measure. Joseph E. Brown, governor of Georgia, was the strongest proponent of pikes and procured thousands of them for local state militia. Such weapons were primarily given to home guard units until they could be rearmed with guns.[6][7]
Many different pistols and revolvers were used in the Civil War, although the most common were cap and ball revolvers with five or six chambers. The most popular revolvers were those produced by Colt, with over 146,000 purchased by the US government. The bullet and gunpowder could be packaged together as a paper cartridges or loaded separately into each chamber. Some models also came with a shoulder stock.[9]
Revolvers were the standard sidearm of infantry officers; many soldiers also brought with them handguns when they first volunteered, but these were often discarded. Nearly all cavalry soldiers carried at least one handgun but more frequently two. John Mosby's rangers were famous for carrying four revolvers, with the additional pair held in saddle holsters.[9][10]
Carbines were the preferred long gun for cavalry as they were smaller, lighter and more robust than infantry rifles. While accuracy was comparable, their range was lower on account of their shorter barrels and lighter gunpower loads. Early models had been muzzleloaders, but because of the difficulty reloading them on horseback, the majority during the war were breechloaders employing linen cartridges. The largest number of these was the Sharps carbine, which was also available as a rifle.[2][14]
As the war progressed, increasing numbers of Federal cavalrymen were armed with repeating carbines. The most widespread of these was the Spencer carbine, which was adopted as the Union cavalry's official carbine in 1864.[15] However, since the South was incapable of producing the metallic cartridges necessary for their function, Confederate troopers were severely limited in their use of repeating firearms.[2][14] As late as 1863, the British officer Arthur Lyon Fremantle observed Confederate cavalry in Texas armed with a wide variety of weapons: rifles, shotguns, carbines and revolvers.[16]
Over 100 types of muskets, rifles, and rifled muskets were used in the Civil War, though the two most common were the Springfield Model 1861 and Pattern 1853 Enfield. Rifled muskets had a significantly longer range than the older smoothbore types, but their accuracy at these distances was limited: gunpowder created billowing clouds of obscuring smoke and the bullet's high trajectory required accurately estimating the distance to the target, a difficult proposition for an untrained shooter.[1][2]
Some soldiers preferred to stick with smoothbore muskets as it allowed them to fire buck and ball shots. The combination of a bullet with several buckshot was devastating at short distance, but rifled firearms could not use them as they damaged the spiral groves. Thus, even as rifled muskets became more available, some regiments kept their smoothbores; the 12th New Jersey for example carried theirs for the duration of the war.[17]
Although breechloading and repeating rifles were available as early as 1861, few were issued for reasons such as cost, technical complexity, and institutional resistance. This did not stop some individuals from purchasing these weapons themselves.[1][2] One of the most famous examples of this was the Lightning Brigade, whose wealthy commander, Colonel John T. Wilder, purchased Spencer repeating rifles for the entire formation.[18]
Thousands of hand grenades were used by belligerents on both sides, although shortcomings in the weapons of the time kept them from seeing widespread use; primarily they were reserved for sieges or trench warfare. One of the most common were Ketchum grenades, of which the Union government purchased 90,000 in total. Others included the Adams grenade and the Haynes "Excelsior" percussion grenade. Many artillery shells were also converted into makeshift grenades and either thrown or rolled down onto the enemy.[1][19][20]
The American Civil War saw the use of land mines, sea mines, booby traps and improvised explosive devices, which were collectively referred to as "torpedoes." These weapons were primarily used by the Confederates, who established a Torpedo Bureau to oversee their production. Gabriel J. Rains, who ran the Torpedo Bureau, pioneered the use of explosive devices on land, while Matthew Fontaine Maury was responsible for developing the first sea mines.[21][20]
Although these explosive devices were effective, they were considered by officers on both sides to be cowardly, uncivilized weapons. Confederate general James Longstreet banned their used under his command, while Union general William T. Sherman hated them so much he reportedly ordered Confederate prisoners of war to march ahead of his troops to trigger any hidden explosives.[21][20]
There were machine guns available during the Civil War but their impact was minimal as very few were fielded by either side. One reason for this was opposition to their adoption by the military establishment, but also important were drawbacks in these early weapons' design. The use of black powder meant obscuring smoke quickly formed after just a few firings. The weapons themselves were too heavy to be carried except on a carriage, which limited where they could move. Their ammunition also was heavier, making it more difficult to carry enough rounds for adequate use.[22]
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Artillery during the Civil War was classified based on a variety of factors, such as weight, caliber, and mobility. The common types of artillery pieces were guns, which fired at long ranges along a flat trajectory; howitzers which were lighter and shorter, and fired a larger round with a light charge; and mortars which were very short and heavy, and fired a large projectile on a higher trajectory. A recent development was the gun-howitzer which combined aspects of a gun and howitzer into one weapon.[25][26]
Both smoothbore and rifled artillery pieces found widespread use during the war. Rifled guns had the distinct advantages of greater range and superior accuracy, while smoothbore pieces were more reliable and could achieve a greater rate of fire. This was due in part to smoothbore artillery using fixed ammunition, with the projectile and charge bound together, while rifled pieces used semi-fixed rounds where these were loaded separately. Guns could fire solid shot, shell, spherical case (shrapnel), and canister shot. Howitzers could fire all but solid shot, and mortars could only fire shell and spherical case.[25][27][28]
Bronze (sometimes erroneously referred to as brass) allowed for lightweight smoothbore artillery pieces. Some rifled artillery was also made of bronze but the rifling would erode too quickly. Instead, most rifled artillery was made of wrought iron, or cast iron reinforced with wrought iron bands. Heavyweight smoothbores were almost all wrought iron as well. Although steel was increasing in availability, it was still too expensive and too difficult to produce in large enough quantities to be used for artillery.[25][26]
Field artillery were cannons and howitzers light enough to be mounted on gun carriages and maneuvered around on the battlefield. Each piece was hooked up to a limber allowing it to be pulled by a team of six horses driven by three drivers. An accompanying caisson carried additional ammunition and was also pulled by a similar six-horse team. The cannoneers who operated each piece marched alongside the artillery when it was on the move but could ride on the limber and caisson if necessary. Horse artillery, also known as 'flying artillery,' differed in that every man was mounted on a horse.[27]
In 1841, the US Army had selected a field artillery system based on bronze smoothbore muzzleloaders: the M1841 6-pounder field gun, the M1841 12-pounder howitzer and 12-pounder gun, the M1841 mountain howitzer, the M1841 24-pounder howitzer and the M1844 32-pounder howitzer. The introduction of the M1857 12-pounder Napoleon represented a significant development as the gun-howitzer could replace several of the outdated pieces at once. The Napoleon, along with the 10-pounder Parrott rifle, the 20-pounder Parrott rifle, and the 3-inch ordnance rifle, came to constitute the vast majority of Union field artillery during the Civil War. The Confederates meanwhile had to make do with a wider variety of field artillery and went so far as to melt down outdated pieces so they could be recast as newer models.[25][26]
Heavy artillery during the Civil War consisted of siege artillery, garrison artillery, and coastal artillery. Siege and garrison artillery were larger versions of field artillery, mounted on heavyweight carriages which allowed them very limited mobility: the M1839 24-pounder smoothbore was the largest one which could still be moved by road. Siege artillery fired the same ammunition as field artillery with the addition of grapeshot, which by 1861 had been abandoned by field pieces. Coastal artillery was meant to be used from fixed positions and, as weight was not an issue, included some of the largest pieces of the war. Coastal artillery could also fire heated shot.[29][30]
While smoothbore siege artillery had been common previously, the superiority of rifled guns in destroying fortifications saw them dominate during the Civil War. Early examples of siege artillery include the 4.5-inch siege rifle and James rifles. These were joined by larger versions of Parrott rifles and Blakely rifles. Coastal artillery included massive columbiads like the Rodman gun.[29][30]
Siege and coastal mortars ranged from 8-inch models which could accompany an army's siege train to massive 13-inch monsters which had to be disassembled and carried by rail or ship to travel any distance. The Coehorn mortar however was a type of small mortar light enough to be carried by four men. This made it very useful for trench warfare and even during mobile battles like at Cold Harbor.[31]
The Dahlgren gun was the standard weapon of the United States Navy. These smoothbore guns were also referred to as "shellguns" as they were designed to fire massive exploding shells. Rifled artillery also found use on Navy ships, some of which were just identical versions of Army models while others were designed especially for naval use. The Confederate Navy was heavily reliant on British imports for their naval artillery, although they managed to manufacture some domestic models, which were used both at sea and on land.[32]
Although naval artillery was primarily mounted on and intended to destroy ships, it could play a role in land battles of the Civil War, including being brought ashore as occurred during the Siege of Vicksburg.[33] The 12-pounder Dahlgren in fact was designed to be used mounted on the bow of a small boat, then be transferred to a field carriage in a matter of minutes.
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