Essay about Civil War - 1583 Words

Civil War During the American Civil War, which lasted from 1861-1865, over 620,000 accounted soldiers were killed. Known as the quot;the first modern warquot;, historians generally agree that the reason for this was because this was a time of transition for the military. Armies and Navies were still using tactics where they would gather large forces of firepower to bear on the enemy. At the same time, weapons were being developed which were accurate and lethal well beyond any arms of the earlier conflicts. As a result of these two conditions many more casualties were sustained. Add to that the lack of medical knowledge of disease and infection and the numbers truly began to grow. This paper is an overview of the types of weaponry that†¦show more content†¦Fuses could be either timed so the round would explode after a certain number of seconds had elapsed, or were percussion so the ammunition would explode upon striking an object. Shells were generally used as long range rounds, meant to explode among an advancing enemy or used to blow apart enemy forts. Solid shot was a kinetic energy round. Its speed and mass were used to penetrate walls, fort and armor. To produce any type of casualty effect, the round would have to actually strike the target. Solid shot was particularly used against ironclad ships where a shell would do little or no damage. During one test an 8 inch Brooke rifle with 16 pounds of powder fired a 140 pound ball 260 yards and penetrated eight inches of iron backed by 18 inches of solid wood. While there are many accounts of troops charging bravely into a quot;hail of grapequot; there is little fact in this. Grape shot was used very little on the land battlefield during the Civil War. The ammunition encountered by the soldiers was called canister, one of the waramp;#8217;s most deadliest rounds. Canister was basically a tin packed with sawdust and musket balls which, when fired, spread out and turned the artillery piece into a giant shotgun. At close range against masses infantry this round was devastating, cutting huge swaths through theShow MoreRelatedThe War Of The Civil War921 Words   |  4 PagesThere are no doubts that acts of war can have a negative impact on the individuals involved. There are countless stories of the soldiers’ experiences in the war, and how it affected their lives, families, and attitudes. However, there is a large demographic that is hardly accounted for: children, specifically during the Civil War era. Understanding the children that lived in the time of the Civil War is important because it affected their future careers, shaped their attitudes towards race, and affectedRead MoreThe War Of The Civil War964 Words   |  4 Pageswasn’t one sole cause of the Civil War but there were many events that took the country to war and put brother against brother and states against states. Abraham Lincoln wanted to preserve the union and that could only be attained by civil war. Slavery which was an underlying cause for the war played its role in the division that divided the North against the South. Ultimately the preservation of the union, slavery and the consequences and conflicts leading to the Civil War all rested on President Lincoln’sRead MoreThe War Of The Civil War1522 Words   |  7 PagesCosts The war produced about 1,030,000 casualties, including about 620,000 soldier deaths—two-thirds by disease, and 50,000 civilians. 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Many people think that everyone on the Union side of the war believed that blacks should be equal to whites. Most people also think that everyone on the Confederate side of the war believed in slavery. SomeRead MoreThe War Of The Civil War Essay1444 Words   |  6 PagesThe story of this outlaw originated during the Civil War years, April 12,1861-May 9, 1865. The War were the rich sat and watched, while the poor died. A War that wanted to keep black people as slaves permanently by the South (Confederates). Newton Knight quickly grew unhappy with the situation that the people of Jones County, where he was originally from were in. He also did not approved of slavery at all. Newt was the Outlaw who freed Jones County s people, whites and blacks alike when they mostRead MoreThe War Of The Civil War1723 Words   |  7 PagesThe Civil War is by far the bloodiest war in American history. In the four deadly years of war, over six-hundred thousand Americans were killed. Many disputes that led to the civil war. These conflicts started even before the presidency of James Buchanan, who was a Democrat elected in the election of 1856. The issue of slavery, states’ rights, the abolitionist movement, the Southern secession, the raid on Harper’s Ferry, the election of Abraham Lincoln all contributed to the start of the Civil WarRead MoreThe War Of The Civil War Essay944 Words   |  4 Pages The War of Succession, universally known as the Civil War, was a war unlike any other. According to the Civil War Trust, â€Å" it was the most immensely colossal and most destructive conflict in the Western world between the cessation of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 and the onset of World War I in 1914.† It commenced when the Confederate army assailed Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. The Civil War was a rigorously catastrophic event for both the North and the South. About 360,000 of the Union’s men wereRead MoreThe War Of The Civil War1704 Words   |  7 Pagesof thousands of Americans volunteered to fight in the Civil War, also known as the First Modern War. The main causes of this war were the economic and social differences between the North and the South. These differences led to other fundamental issues such as slavery and its abolition. In addition to that as the war was coming to its end, federal authorities found themselves presiding over the transition from sla very to freedom.After the war, there was a 12-year period best known as the Reconstruction