Things I find out while researching things for writing.
This week's research: Stuff I found out about Civil War armaments.
When I went to school, I was told that they used rifled muskets in the Revolutionary War. Then when they got to the Civil War, they used... Rifled muskets.
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| The Civil War was just like this, but with better uniforms. |
As I got older, I realized there were some other advancements: Better artillery, better tactics, and, towards the end of the war, the Gatling Gun.
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| Thankfully he had an awesome name. No one would fear the Smithers Gun. |
In high school I took AP US History, and while I may have missed something (I did get a B), I seem to remember it had far more dates, battles, obscure laws, and names than any specific firearm technology.
I did vaguely remember they used the "Mini-Ball," which I assumed was just like it sounded: A musket ball, but smaller.
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| This high-tech graphic brought to by Easily Fascinated Technologies. |
Boy was I wrong.
It turns out that in the 80 years between the two wars there WAS advancement. And rather a lot.
The "Mini-ball" was, in fact, the Minie Ball, a grooved bullet-shaped round that could be stored in a paper cartridge.
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| Not, in fact, a ball at all. |
When fired, the bullet formed to the barrel's rifling, thus making it spin, and in turn making it go father much more accurately.
But that wasn't the biggest thing that blew my mind. That was reserved for the carbine rifle, which is definitively NOT a rifled musket.
This thing was breech-loading, meaning it was loaded from the back instead of by jamming things down the barrel like the rifles used by infantry.
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| To reload: Jam in paper cartridge. Place blasting cap on the nipple. Stop giggling. Fire. Repeat. |
It was less accurate, but was smaller and could be reloaded in about half the time. I found a YouTube video of someone firing it, and it's actually pretty impressive to watch.
Because of COURSE YouTube has videos of people firing 150 year old weapons!
The last thing that caught my attention was the revolver. Like most people in this country, when I think of a revolver I picture a western standoff, like somehow technology magically went from single-shot dueling pistols to Clint Eastwood
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| Progress! |
Again my knowledge was woefully inadequate and full of holes, like low quality Swiss cheese.
In the Civil War they had six-shot revolvers loaded by, you guessed it, paper cartridges. They were loaded by jamming the paper cartridge into the front of the chamber, ramming it in place, then putting a percussion cap on the nipple at the back of the chamber.
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| The 1860 Navy Colt. When empty, it contains enough steel to make a handy club. |
Only officers, cavalry-men, and people who could generally afford the $20 gun had these. Since the infantry only made $13 a month, that wasn't a huge number. But it was still a revolver, capable of holding six loaded chambers at once and moving through them rapidly.
Now I'm very sure that people who are really into the Civil War and guns knew about this for decades. But to be self-centered: I didn't. And what really caught my attention was that it finally bridged the gap in my knowledge between the Revolutionary War and the Wild West.
Because every now and then I like to remember that technological progress isn't done by some magical leap forward when someone decides that they should start using electricity instead of candles. Technological progress happens at the end of many, many small steps and improvements that finally culminate in a totally new way of looking at things.
Picture credits:
1 - Battle of Bunker Hill By Howard Pyle
2 - Source: National Park Service
4 - Source: WikiCommons public license
5 - Source: National Park Service
6 - Source; http://youtu.be/TByvrQ6-OLQ
7 - Duel: Published before 1923 and public domain in the US, Western duel: Old Town Temecula. (http://best-temecula-guide.com/slider/old-town-temecula/)
8 - Source: WikiCommons public license
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