I recently watched the Mythbusters as they replicated a steam-powered canon, which used steam pressure to fire ball ammo up to 300 yards and was said to be powerful enough to kill. This got me thinking about the innovations of war, realizing that this might be a good series of topics for this forum. War has been the mother of invention as it becomes necessary to create new, better ways to kill your enemy or to feed and clothe your troops. In this thread, I propose discussion on inventions and innovations of the Civil War. There are several that come to mind for me, two of which are the submarine and battlefield aid stations. The Submarine The first ever engagement between a submarine and a surface ship was between the H.L. Hunley and the U.S.S. Housatonic in 1864 just outside the Charleston harbor. The Field Hospital I could be wrong on this, but I seem to recall somewhere that the field hospital concept was first put into use during the Civil War. Maybe it was from an Army nurse I used to date years ago... she worked in a M.A.S.H. unit on Fort Hood. At any rate, the battlefield surgeon had the reputation of being a "saw bones" and a "butcher" during the civil war due to so many amputations done. Still, disease probably killed more people than gunshots. Post your other innovations or comments on these.
The Hunley was symbolic but submarines were not a decisive naval presence until WWI, and even then they were more a weapon of perception than function. The ironclad is a good one. They set the stage for naval warfare for the next 80 or so years. I'd put the machine gun and rifled artillery in there too.
The most militarily significant is probably the Minie Ball. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minié_ball Also, toward the end of the war repeaters like the lever action made an appearance.
I think the civil war was also where the North started using machine made weapons versus unique weapons made one at a time by a gun smith. Mass production made one hell of a good war machine possible.
The ironclad ships of the civil war were certainly interesting, but their historical significance is overrated. Europe had already been building iron-clad warships for a while by the time of the civil war. HMS Warrior (a British ship that was built before the civil war started), for example, had an all-iron hull. It was also a large, 72-gun, steam-powered battleship that could cross oceans. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Gloire http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Warrior_(1860)
If I recall correctly the innovation of rear loading field guns(artillery) was first used in the American Civil War.
I found something that I knew nothing about. The Civil War is credited with first AIRCRAFT CARRIER. The USS George Washington Parke Custis (actually a converted coal barge) was used to launch and retrieve spy ballons. Raised to a level of 1000 ft. - the ballons whould make one heck of a Crows Nest.
Forgot about recon balloons. Did you know that the first "Enterprize" that flew was a Civil War balloon?
I ran across that HERE. I was going to that link in my post about The Aircraft Carrier but I found a better one.
You're correct, I had a suspicious rethink after I wrote that and they were already in use in europe and on ships for about 20 years. My bad.
