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“It is well that war is so terrible…

“It is well that war is so terrible…. “It is well that war is so terrible… . for we should grow too fond of it” --General Robert E. Lee. Technology of the Civil War. Artillery Ironclads Rifled Muskets Telegraph Photography. 618,000.

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“It is well that war is so terrible…

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  1. “It is well that war is so terrible…

  2. “It is well that war is so terrible… for we should grow too fond of it” --General Robert E. Lee

  3. Technology of the Civil War • Artillery • Ironclads • Rifled Muskets • Telegraph • Photography

  4. 618,000 The new technology of killing in this first modern war outstripped military understanding and use of Napoleonic tactics--massed infantry charges. Grizzly statistics tore away the romantic veneer of war from earlier times.

  5. Artillery Napoleon Cannon Siege Mortar • Fired ball, grapeshot, and canister • Used to “soften” up enemy positions • Shells ranged from 6 pounds to 300 pounds for siege mortars

  6. Ironclads USS Monitor CSS Virginia • Wooden ships became obsolete when the CSS Virginia set sail on March 8, 1862 • Within a few hours, the Virginia had destroyed the USS Cumberland and the USS Congress--two sail-driven wooden warships. • The entire Union fleet was in danger until the Virginia met its match at Hampton Roads, VA • The USS Monitor was waiting. • The two ironclads slugged it out for two hours—neither could punch through each other’s armor. • Wooden unarmored ships could not fight an ironclad—a new age of Naval Warfare was born.

  7. Notice the impacts from cannon fire upon the Monitor

  8. Rifled Muskets • Rifling in a musket increased its range and accuracy from 80 yards to 300 yards • Single shot weapons loaded from the muzzle • .58 caliber Springfield rifle was common for Union troops • Confederate soldiers typically used an Enfield rifle • The rifles fired a lead bullet called a “minie’ ball” which flattened and splintered on contact, leaving a horrible and often fatal wound. • Toward the end of the war, new, more accurate, and deadly repeating rifles were used.

  9. Telegraph Dispatches • Morse Code • Electronic communication • Messages sent over many miles using copper wire • Allowed for instant communication with battlefield • over 15,000 miles of telegraph line laid • Next to the railroad, the telegraph may have been arguably the most important technology during the Civil War Morse-Vail Telegraph Key, 1844-1845

  10. Photography • The Civil War was one of the first conflicts in which photographers followed armies of both sides and took thousands of pictures. • The photographers brought home for the first time the horrific scenes of real war. • The slow shutter speed and chemical process did not allow for subjects to move lest the photograph would become blurred. Thus studio portraits and dead soldiers on the battlefield were common subjects • The most famous photographer of the war was Mathew Brady; however, he was almost blind. Assistants such as Timothy O’Sullivan and Alexander Gardner took some of the most striking photos.

  11. Dedicated to those who "gave the last full measure of devotion," and to those who keep their memory alive.

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