Weapons of The Civil War
A Cannon Used During The Civil War
Many Weapons were used in the The Civil War from knives to swords along with a variety of
firearms, including rifles, pistols, muskets, and repeating weapons. Also widely used was
artillery including cannons. Some of the new weapon technologies used in the civil war include
rifled gun barrels, the Minie ball and repeating rifles.
Civil War Cannons
Cannons played a major role in the the civil war. Some of the cannon used by union and
confederate forces include the 12 pound Howitzer, the 10 pound Parrot rifle, and the 3 inch
ordnance rifle. Lean more about Civil War Cannon
Civil War Guns
The civil war brought many advancements in gun technology, most notably the widespread use
of rifled barrels. Popular rifles used in the civil war include the Springfield rifle, the Lorenz rifle,
the Colt revolving rifle. Lean more about Civil War Guns
Civil War Swords and Sabers
Swords were still used widely in the civil war. Popular swords include the Model 1832 Foot
Artillery Sword, Model 1832 Dragoon Saber, Model 1840 Light Artillery Saber, and the Model
1840 Army Non-commissioned Officers’ Sword. Learn more about Civil War Swords
The Minie Ball
The Minié Ball (aka Minie Ball) was a type of bullet that was used throughout the Civil War.
Designed to expand while traveling along the rifle barrel, it increased muzzle velocity as well as
providing spin to the bullet, expanding its accuracy and range. This advance in weaponry, along
with outdated military tactics devised in an era of older firearms, are often cited as a reason for
the large numbers of casualties of the Civil War. Learn more about the Minie Ball
The Civil War was a time of great social and political upheaval. It was also a time of great
technological change. Inventors and military men devised new types of weapons, such as the
repeating rifle and the submarine, that forever changed the way that wars were fought. Even
more important were the technologies that did not specifically have to do with the war, like the
railroad and the telegraph. Innovations like these did not just change the way people fought
wars–they also changed the way people lived.
New Kinds of Weapons
Before the Civil War, infantry soldiers typically carried muskets that held just one bullet at a
time. The range of these muskets was about 250 yards. However, a soldier trying to aim and
shoot with any accuracy would have to stand much closer to his target, since the weapon’s
“effective range” was only about 80 yards. Therefore, armies typically fought battles at a
relatively close range.
Did You Know?
The rifle-musket and the Minié bullet are thought to account for around 90 percent ofCivil
Warcasualties.
Rifles, by contrast, had a much greater range than muskets did–a rifle could shoot a bullet up to
1,000 yards–and were more accurate. However, until the 1850s it was nearly impossible to use
these guns in battle because, since a rifle’s bullet had roughly the same diameter as its barrel,
they took too long to load. (Soldiers sometimes had to pound the bullet into the barrel with a
mallet.)
In 1848, a French army officer named Claude Minié invented a cone-shaped lead bullet with a
diameter smaller than that of the rifle barrel. Soldiers could load these “Minié balls” quickly,
without the aid of ramrods or mallets. Rifles with Minié bullets were more accurate, and
therefore deadlier, than muskets were, which forced infantries to change the way they fought:
Even troops who were far from the line of fire had to protect themselves by building elaborate
trenches and other fortifications.
“Repeaters”
Rifles with Minié bullets were easy and quick to load, but soldiers still had to pause and reload
after each shot. This was inefficient and dangerous. By 1863, however, there was another option:
so-called repeating rifles, or weapons that could fire more than one bullet before needing a
reload. The most famous of these guns, the Spencer carbine, could fire seven shots in 30 seconds.
Like many other Civil War technologies, these weapons were available to Northern troops but
not Southern ones: Southern factories had neither the equipment nor the know-how to produce
them. “I think the Johnnys [Confederate soldiers] are getting rattled; they are afraid of our
repeating rifles,” one Union soldier wrote. “They say we are not fair, that we have guns that we
load up on Sunday and shoot all the rest of the week.”
Balloons and Submarines
Other newfangled weapons took to the air–for example, Union spies floated above Confederate
encampments and battle lines in hydrogen-filled passenger balloons, sending reconnaissance
information back to their commanders via telegraph–and to the sea. “Iron-clad” warships
prowled up and down the coast, maintaining a Union blockade of Confederate ports.
For their part, Confederate sailors tried to sink these ironclads with submarines. The first of
these, the Confederate C.S.S. Hunley, was a metal tube that was 40 feet long, 4 feet across, and
held an 8-man crew. In 1864, the Hunley sank the Union blockade ship Housatonic off the coast
of Charleston but was itself wrecked in the process.
The Railroad
More important than these advanced weapons were larger-scale technological innovations such
as the railroad. Once again, the Union had the advantage. When the war began, there were
22,000 miles of railroad track in the North and just 9,000 in the South, and the North had almost
all of the nation’s track and locomotive factories. Furthermore, Northern tracks tended to be
“standard gauge,” which meant that any train car could ride on any track. Southern tracks, by
contrast, were not standardized, so people and goods frequently had to switch cars as they
traveled–an expensive and inefficient system.
Union officials used railroads to move troops and supplies from one place to another. They also
used thousands of soldiers to keep tracks and trains safe from Confederate attack.
The Telegraph
Abraham Lincoln was the first president who was able to communicate on the spot with his
officers on the battlefield. The White House telegraph office enabled him to monitor battlefield
reports, lead real-time strategy meetings and deliver orders to his men. Here, as well, the
Confederate army was at a disadvantage: They lacked the technological and industrial ability to
conduct such a large-scale communication campaign.
In 1861, the Union Army established the U.S. Military Telegraph Corps, led by a young railroad
man named Andrew Carnegie. The next year alone, the U.S.M.T.C. trained 1,200 operators,
strung 4,000 miles of telegraph wire and sent more than a million messages to and from the
battlefield.
Civil War Photography
The Civil War was the first war to be documented through the lens of a camera. However, the
era’s photographic process was far too elaborate for candid pictures. Taking and developing
photos using the so-called “wet-plate” process was a meticulous, multi-step procedure that
required more than one “camera operator” and lots of chemicals and equipment. As a result, the
images of the Civil War are not action snapshots: They are portraits and landscapes. It was not
until the 20th century that photographers were able to take non-posed pictures on the battlefield.
Technological innovation had an enormous impact on the way people fought the Civil War and
on the way they remember it. Many of these inventions have played important roles in military
and civilian life ever since.
8 Unusual Civil War Weapons
By Evan Andrews
You might think the Civil War was only fought with muskets, bayonets and cannons, but those
weren’t the only deadly weapons to haunt the battlefields of the 1860s. The war came in the
wake of the Industrial Revolution, and both the Union and the Confederacy experimented with
strange and often gruesome new combat technologies. From early machine guns to 19th-century
siege weapons, find out more about eight unconventional Civil War armaments.
1. Hand grenades
Civil War soldiers were known to make jury-rigged explosives using assortments of fuses and
gunpowder, but the conflict also saw advances in the design and manufacture of hand grenades.
The most popular model was the Union-issued Ketchum grenade, a projectile explosive that was
thrown like a dart. The grenades came in one-, three- and five-pound models equipped with
stabilizer fins and a nose-mounted plunger. Upon impact, the plunger would detonate a
percussion cap and ignite a deadly supply of gunpowder.
A Ketchum hand grenade used during the Civil War. (Minnesota Historical Society)
While a novel idea, the explosives didn’t always work as intended. In fact, when they were
bombarded with Ketchum grenades during an 1863 siege at Port Hudson, Louisiana, Confederate
soldiers reportedly used blankets to catch the explosives before throwing them back at their
hapless attackers.
2. Rockets
Rocket launchers might seem like a 20th-century phenomenon, but they made a few appearances
on Civil War battlefields. Confederate forces reportedly experimented with Congreve rockets, a
British-designed explosive that had previously seen action in the War of 1812. These weapons
resembled large bottle rockets and were so inaccurate that they never saw widespread use.
Meanwhile, Union forces employed the Hale patent rocket launcher, a metal tube that fired
seven- and 10-inch-long spin stabilized rockets up to 2,000 yards. While a vast improvement on
the Congreve, these projectiles were still quite unwieldy, and were only generally used by the
U.S. Navy.
3. Machine guns
Colt revolvers and Springfield muskets were the Civil War’s most popular firearms, but the era
also gave rise to some of the earliest machine guns. Of these, perhaps none is more infamous
than the Gatling gun, a six-barreled piece that was capable of firing up to 350 rounds a minute.
The U.S. government never ordered the Gatling in bulk, but Union General Benjamin Butler
privately purchased several of the intimidating weapons in 1863 and later used them during the
Petersburg Campaign.
Illustration of a Gatling gun. (Illustrated London News/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Other rapid-fire guns included the Williams gun—a Confederate breechloader first unveiled at
the Battle of Seven Pines in 1862—and the Billinghurst-Requa battery gun, which consisted of
25 rifle barrels arranged side by side. Viewed as too inefficient and unwieldy for infantry
combat, these weapons were generally used for guarding bridges and other strategic locations.
4. Landmines
Mines—or “torpedoes,” as they were then known—were largely a Confederate weapon.
Originally developed by General Gabriel J. Rains, these antipersonnel explosives were typically
iron containers rigged with gunpowder, a fuse and a brass detonation cap. Rains first used the
subterranean booby traps in 1862 during the Peninsula Campaign, and later buried thousands
more around Richmond and in various parts of the Deep South. In fact, some of these still-active
landmines were only recovered in Alabama as recently as the 1960s.
While they proved an intimidating method of psychological warfare, landmines were often
viewed as an unethical form of combat. Union General George B. McClellan denounced them as
“barbarous,” and Confederate General James Longstreet briefly banned their use. Perhaps their
most vociferous critic was Union General William T. Sherman, who lost several troops to
underground landmines during his famous March to the Sea. Decrying the use of mines as “not
warfare, but murder,” Sherman reportedly forced his Confederate prisoners to march at the head
of his column so that they might trigger any hidden “land torpedoes.”
5. Underwater mines
Along with landmines, the Civil War was also a major testing ground for underwater mines.
Both sides mined harbors and rivers with torpedoes, but the Confederacy enjoyed greater
success. Starting in 1862 with the sinking of the ironclad Cairo, Confederate torpedoes destroyed
dozens of Union ships and damaged several others. Union torpedoes, meanwhile, only sank six
Confederate Navy vessels.
The rebels owed their skill at underwater warfare in part to Matthew Fontaine Maury, an
oceanographer who first demonstrated the use of mines in 1861. Maury’s “infernal machines”
made the James River virtually impassable, and mines later terrorized the Union Navy during
battles at Mobile Bay and Charleston Harbor. The Confederacy also succeeded in using
submarines to turn mines into offensive weapons. In 1864 the H.L. Hunley destroyed the Union
sloop-of-war Housatonic after ramming it with a pole-mounted torpedo, becoming the first
combat submarine to successfully sink an enemy ship.
Thaddeus Lowe ascends in his balloon. (Library of Congress)
6. Calcium floodlights
During an 1863 operation to retake Charleston Harbor, General Quincy Adams Gillmore laid
siege to the Confederate stronghold at Fort Wagner. Gillmore’s Union guns bombarded the fort
day and night with the help of a strange invention: the calcium light. Better known as
“limelights,” these chemical lamps used superheated balls of lime, or calcium oxide, to create an
incandescent glow. The lights had been used in lighthouses and theaters since the 1830s, but
Gillmore’s engineers were the first to adapt them for combat. By shining calcium lights on Fort
Wagner, Union forces were able to illuminate their artillery target while simultaneously blinding
Confederate gunners and riflemen.
Also called “Drummond lights,” these calcium floodlights were later used as searchlights to spot
Confederate warships and blockade runners. In early 1865, a Union light even helped detect a
Confederate ironclad fleet as it tried to move along the James River under cover of darkness. A
Southern officer later noted that a planned sneak attack was made impossible in part because of
the Union’s “powerful calcium light.”
7. Hot air balloons
Because they allowed generals to get an aerial view of the battlefield, Civil War balloons were
primarily used in a reconnaissance capacity. The Union even had an official Balloon Corps
headed by “Chief Aeronaut” Thaddeus Lowe. Under his direction, balloons were launched for
scouting purposes at several famous engagements, including the First Battle of Bull Run and the
Battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. In a balloon tethered to the ground with a
telegraph line, Lowe was able to give real-time updates on troop movements, and once even
directed Union artillery fire from the sky.
Illustration of the Winans steam gun.
The Confederacy also tried their hand at military ballooning, although with considerably less
success. The South lacked the resources to make good balloons, and their one operational
airship—reportedly made from a colorful patchwork of silk—was captured after the tugboat
carrying it ran aground on the James River.
8. Winans steam gun
The Civil War produced a number of experimental cannons, machine guns and rifles, but perhaps
none was more unusual than the Winans steam gun. Built by Ohio inventors William Joslin and
Charles Dickinson, this massive automatic weapon sat on an armored train carriage and used
steam to fire projectiles—supposedly at a rate of 200 a minute.
Newspapers hailed the mysterious gun as a super weapon, but it was never actually used in
combat. When Dickinson headed for Harper’s Ferry in May 1861—most likely to sell the gun to
the Confederacy—Union forces intercepted him and confiscated his invention. The steam gun
was later transferred to Fortress Monroe in Virginia before being sent to Massachusetts, where it
was eventually scrapped. The Union Army never attempted to deploy the contraption in the field,
which suggests the steam gun probably failed to live up to its deadly reputation.
Small Arms
The Starr Arms Company of Yonkers, New York made their Starr Army revolver in both double
and single action models. With a single action, the soldier had to manually cock the hammer
each time. Double action arms automatically turn the cylinder, cock and release the hammer
when the trigger is pulled. Double action revolvers were more advanced, more expensive, and
more rare than single action arms (Photograph by Charles G. Worman)
The Civil War witnessed a technological revolution in weaponry. This was highlighted by a
changeover in shoulder-fired weapons from smoothbore firearms that had to be loaded through
the muzzle each time a shot was fired to rifled-barrel firearms, some of which loaded at the
breech. Most of these new rifle-muskets still had to be loaded between each shot, but repeating
weapons such as 7-shot Spencer and 16-shot Henry rifles and carbines were developed as well.
Unfortunately for the common soldier, tactics did not advance as quickly as technology.
Napoleonic linear tactics from earlier in the century now combined with more accurate, fasterfiring weapons to result in catastrophic casualty figures throughout the War.
The Confederacy, whose industrial base was far weaker than the Union's when the war began,
accomplished a great feat by establishing a viable arms-manufacturing capability in short order.
The North's industrial machine also swung into high gear to produce huge quantities of weapons
and ammunition. Agents from both the Union and the Confederacy scoured the shelves of
European arms-dealers to ensure that their armies had an adequate supply of weapons. Most
Confederate infantrymen favored the English-manufactured Enfield.
Cavalry
Although they most often fought on foot—particularly as the War progressed—cavalry units
typically looked for firearms that would be easy to reload from the back of a galloping horse.
Cavalry in both the Union and the Confederate Armies employed a variety of breech-loading,
single-shot, rifle-barreled weapons known as carbines. The carbines, because their barrels were
several inches shorter than the rifle-muskets the infantry carried, also had a shorter range. In
addition, the cavalry weapons had a brutal recoil when fired, and—despite their advantages in
loading—most still required the cavalry soldier to manipulate a tiny cap in order to fire.
Confederate cavalry often brought sawed-off shotguns and cut-down hunting rifles from home.
Others used the standard infantry rifle-muskets, though the longer barrels were awkward and
muzzle-loading was difficult on horseback.
The storm of battle [at Chickamauga] was sweeping over the ground I had just left.
Hastily...returning, I found the 39th Indiana regiment coming from a cross-road,--a full, fresh
regiment, armed with Spencer's repeating-rifles, the only mounted force in our army
corps...Colonel T.J. Harrison, its commander...dismounting his men, dashed at the enemy in a
most effective charge. [Colonel John T.] Wilder, coming up on our right, also attacked. Wilder
had two regiments armed with the same repeating-rifles. They did splendid work. [Confederate
General James] Longstreet told Wilder after the war that the steady and continued racket of
these guns led him to think an army corps had attacked his left flank." --Union officer Gates P.
Thruston. (From Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. III, published by Castle.)
Union Cavalryman (Library of Congress)
In addition to the carbines, cavalrymen also frequently were issued percussion revolvers. These
handguns used rotating cylinders, bored through with five or six chambers, to allow multiple
shots without reloading. The soldier had to pour a powder charge into the chamber, ram a round
or conical ball on top, seal the front of the cylinder with grease to prevent one chamber from
igniting the adjacent ones, and then place a cap on the rear of each chamber before the guns were
ready to be fired. Once this time-consuming process was complete, the soldier could rely on five
or six shots in succession. However, the sights on the handguns were crude; a soldier could not
expect to hit any target much beyond 50 paces—less from horseback.
One massive Confederate revolver, the LeMat, clustered nine pistol chambers around a central
shotgun barrel. Smith & Wesson perfected self-contained metallic cartridge revolvers in .22 and
.32 caliber. Earlier cartridges had been made of stiff paper or animal skin wrapped around the
charge, primer, and projectile of the gun. While more convenient to load and carry, these smaller
guns lacked the power of their .36 and .44 caliber percussion competition. One French revolver,
the Lefauchaux, used a small firing pin integral to the cartridge to ignite the charge. Federal
forces used several thousand of the Lefauchaux revolvers, and Confederate Generals J.E.B.
Stuart and Pierre Beauregard also carried this model. The preferred weapon of Nathan Bedford
Forrest’s Confederate horse soldiers was a pair of the .36 caliber Navy revolvers manufactured
by Colt which Forrest believed was far superior to the Yankee infantry’s bayonet.
Infantry
Most Civil War infantrymen, both Federal and Confederate, carried .58 or .577 caliber riflemuskets. The rifle-musket was first manufactured in the United States in 1855 and quickly
replaced earlier smoothbore guns. The rifling—spiral grooves etched inside the gun’s barrel—
greatly increased the accuracy of the weapons by spinning and stabilizing the bullet as it sped
towards the target. A trained marksman could hit targets as far as 800 yards away, and even an
average shot could expect to strike the mark at 250 yards. Smoothbore muskets, some of which
were still used during the Civil War, were generally unreliable at any range more than 75 yards.
Sgt. John Dore of the 7th New York (Library of Congress)
These rifle-muskets were chiefly percussion weapons; pulling the trigger of a rifle-musket
caused the weapon’s hammer to strike a small metal cap. A charge of fulminate of mercury
inside the cap would explode to ignite the gunpowder charge in the barrel. The force of the
gunpowder explosion drove the bullet, either a round ball or minie ball, down the barrel. The
metal cap was tiny, about the size of a pencil-eraser, and had to be set into place by hand each
time the musket was fired. Soldiers had to follow nine careful steps to load and fire a single
bullet from a muzzle-loading gun, and five to fire a breech-loading weapon. Rifle-muskets
weighed between six and ten pounds and many were designed to fit a bayonet on the end of the
barrel.
After we had abandoned the line, and on coming to a little stream of water, I undressed for the
purpose of bathing, and after undressing found my arm all battered and bruised and bloodshot
from my wrist to my shoulder, and as sore as a blister. I had shot one hundred and twenty times
that day. My gun became so hot that frequently the powder would flash before I could ram home
the ball, and I had frequently to exchange my gun for that of a dead comrade. ----Confederate
Private Sam R. Watkins, 1st Tennessee Regiment. (From "Co. Aytch" by Sam R. Watkins,
published by Collier Books.)
One of the most highly rated of the rifle-muskets was manufactured at the United States Arsenal
at Springfield, Massachusetts (or at other armories under license). Other prominent U.S. gun
makers included Colt and Remington. In addition, rifle-muskets could be imported from Europe.
During the early campaigns, Confederate soldiers often armed themselves with captured Federal
Springfields. Both the Federal and Confederate armies also carried large numbers of English
Enfield rifle-muskets as well as Austrian, Prussian, French, and Belgian guns. The quality of
imported guns ranged from the first-rate Enfield (equal or superior to the Springfield) to barely
functional.
On the 13th, marched 10 miles, to camp Stanton, on big prairie in Missouri. Target shooting was
practiced here by companies for the first time, and the muskets, owing to their large calibre and
forcible shooting, were dubbed by the Col. "light artillery," causing much amusement." --From
the newspaper of the 11th Kansas Volunteers, Buck & Ball, December 6, 1862.
The Confederacy captured the gun-making equipment at the U.S. Armory at Harpers Ferry,
Virginia (now West Virginia) in 1861. The Southerners used the Harpers Ferry machinery to
establish factories in Richmond, Virginia and at the Fayetteville, North Carolina arsenal that
manufactured guns very similar to the standard Federal rifle-musket. Other Southern arsenals
turned out small quantities of Enfield-style weapons and copies of Colt & Whitney revolvers as
well as a few designs of their own.
In addition to standard muzzle-loading rifle-muskets, a few Civil War infantrymen carried
breech-loading guns (like the Sharps) or repeaters (like the Spencer and Henry). Breech-loading
weapons were easier and faster to reload than muzzle-loaders--even from a position flat on the
ground. Repeaters offered an additional advantage since they could be fired--in the case of the
Henry--up to twenty times without reloading. Although the breech-loaders and the repeaters
were only a small percentage of the total number of guns used by Civil War infantrymen, units
that carried these weapons gained a distinct edge over even much larger enemy forces.
Civil War Weapons
There were many types of Civil War weapons ranging from muskets to ironclads.
In the roughly 80 years between the American Revolution and the start of the Civil War, weapon
technology had advanced greatly.
Despite advancements in technology the arsenals in both the Union and Confederacy were still
mostly stocked with the old style smooth-bore muskets.
These were the same types of muskets primarily used during the Revolutionary War almost a
century before. These were fine guns during their time however they had no place on a Civil War
battlefield.
In 1861 after hostilities had erupted into all out war, both sides quickly began to convert from the
old smooth-bore muskets to the new Civil War rifles.
These were rifled muskets. The rifling in these new guns put a spin on the projectile as it left the
barrel which gave the rifles great accuracy. It’s like throwing a football.
Civil War Rifle
The new rifles also used a new type of ammunition. Instead of the old round ball used in smoothbore muskets, the new rifled muskets used a minie ball.
This projectile has the same pointed shape as today’s modern bullets and was much more
accurate and inflicted much more damage than round ball ammunition.
Of all of the Civil War weapons the rifled musket was the most widely used weapon of the entire
war and in fact more than 90% of the casualties during the war were caused by rifles, this figure
also includes Civil War Pistols
You’ve seen the scene where hundreds or thousands of soldiers on either side all nicely lined up
firing into each other until one side decides it’s had enough and runs away.
Those tactics were fine and necessary during the Revolutionary war when both sides were using
smooth-bore muskets. However with the advent of rifles these tactics became suicidal. The
commanders on both sides were not quick to adapt their tactics to the new technology which
resulted in huge casualty rates.
Civil War Weapons: Artillery
Civil War Cannons were the lions of the battlefield. They were big, loud, and packed a punch.
They were instrumental in defeating General Robert E. Lee at the battle of Gettysburg. They
inflicted huge casualties on the 12,500 men who attacked the Union lines during Pickett’s
Charge on July 3rd 1863.
Civil War Cannon at Fort Woodbury, Virginia
Every major battle involved the use of artillery. They were instrumental in the fighting for both
sides. Despite this all the artillery fired throughout the entire war only inflicted roughly 5% of
casualties on both sides.
The generals loved artillery and they certainly had a psychological effect on soldiers who had to
face them in battle.
Civil War Weapons: Bayonets
The Civil War Bayonet was a sharpened piece of steel that would attach to the end of a rifle. The
bayonet had many uses during the Civil War from fighting to opening cans it was always a
useful tool for every soldier to have.
Civil War Soldier with Bayonet
Hand to hand fighting did occur in several battles during the war in which the bayonet was used.
Some famous examples of this were the Union attacks at Fort Wagner, the 20th Maine attacking
and chasing the Confederates down Little Round Top at Gettysburg, and during the Battle of the
Crater.
While the bayonet saw fighting in these and other battles soldiers more often than not used the
bayonet for more practical purposes. Such as cutting meat, stirring food, cooking food over a
campfire, or using it as a can opener.
Civil War Weapons: Swords
Civil War Swords are a recognizable symbol of the Civil War. However with the advent of much
more sophisticated and powerful gunpowder weapons the sword was mostly relegated to more of
a ceremony weapon for the officers.
Civil War Swords
While swords were used in combat by officers leading their men. It was the cavalry units that did
most of the fighting with them.
They used a saber which is a curved sword, good for slashing. Even this however was very
limited. Cavalry troops preferred either pistols or carbines rather than a sword in combat.
Civil War Weapons: Ironclads
At the start of the Civil war, ships were made of wood and canvas. As the war progressed Civil
War ships started to be clad in iron. They were still made of wood and used sails however they
were much stronger and more impervious to attack.
These ships became known as ironclads. The USS Galena is an example of an ironclad ship.
Ironclad USS Essex in 1862
Eventually both sides created ships made entirely covered in iron. The Confederate navy
developed the CSS Virginia and the Union navy created the USS Monitor were the first of these
new ships. They had no sails and were powered by steam engines. The monitor had a rotating
turret as you would see on a modern day warship.
The CSS Virginia and the USS Monitor fought a monumental battle against each other at the
Battle of Hampton Roads in Virginia on March 8th and 9th 1862.
CSS Virginia fights the USS Monitor
Neither ship could get the advantage over each other and they were pretty evenly matched. The
battle ended in a draw. It was however considered a Union victory since the USS Monitor
prevented the CSS Virginia from attacking and breaking the Union naval blockade.
The new advancements in Civil War technology and Civil War weapons played a crucial part in
the war. The Civil War was the first war to be fought on an industrial scale.
Massive amounts of Civil War weapons were produced and massive casualties were the result.
These advancements helped to develop many new ideas and theories however the cost was high
for the people on the receiving end of these new weapons.