How Military Innovations in the Civil War Helped the North essays

How Military Innovations in the Civil War Helped the North essays Military innovations created during the American Civil War have played a vital role in the efficiency and victory of the Union armies. Military innovations during the Civil War came in more than one form. New strategies, weapons, and tactics all contributed to the ultimate victory of the North over the South. Considered by some to be a whole new concept of warfare, the Civil War is seen as the origins of modern warfare. Accurate long-range guns combined with heavy artillery and the first appearance of modern reconnaissance, created a deadly and efficient army that the South had never anticipated. The South soon realized they would have more trouble defeating the Union armies than was at first expected. The Civil War was a revolution in and of itself for as we know today modern warfare was created during that war. Strategies and tactics had to change in order to compensate for the revolution in guns and artillery. With the creation of sleeker bullets and winding gun barrels to spin bullets came a revolution in tactics. However because of the Generals in the war and their conservative nature, the revolution in tactics came only after trial and error, costing vast amounts of casualties to both sides. The traditional tactics of the Revolutionary War still carried over to the start of the Civil War. However the accurate and deadly rifles soon made the traditional idea of standing 15 feet in front of the opposing army and firing, obsolete. The Civil War soon became a defensive war because offense caused too many casualties. Perhaps the biggest change during the Civil War was the guns and bullets created and used during the war. The most popular weapon of the North was the Springfield musket (Sumrall 1). This weapon employed all the new technologies needed for infantry (Sumrall 1). It was still hand loaded and fired only one shot at a time, however it fired the revolutionary bullet of the time called the minie ball (Sumr...