American Civil War weapons refers to weapons that were used during the American Civil War by Union and Confederacy soldiers during the years 1861-1865. During the war, a variety of weapons were used on both sides. These weapons include edged weapons such as knives and swords, firearms such as handguns, rifled-muskets, breech loaders and repeating weapons, various field guns such as artillery, and new weapons such as the early grenade and machine gun.
The Civil War is often to referred as the first "modern" war in history as it included the most advanced technology and innovations of warfare available at the time. Some of the innovations and advances of the Civil War included mass production of war materials, rifling of gun barrels, the advent of repeating firearms and metallic cartridges, ironclad warships, advances in medicine, communication, and transportation, and the gradual decline of tactics from previous centuries.
Personal weapons
Edged weapons
- Artillerymen were issued the Model 1832 Foot artillery sword , based on the Roman gladius.
- Model 1832 Dragoon Saber
- The Model 1840 Light Artillery Saber was issued to mounted artillery
- Model 1840 Army Noncommissioned Officers' Swords were issued to infantry sergeants. The Marines had their own version
- Model 1840 Cavalry Saber
- Model 1860 Light Cavalry Saber
- The M1860 Cutlass was issued to naval boarding parties. Sailors also had access to axes, harpoons and grappling hooks.
- The regulation officer's sword was the Model 1850 Army Staff & Field Officers' Sword though in practice most officers used cavalry sabers. Southern officers sometimes carried ancestral blades from the War of 1812 or even the American Revolutionary War.
- Mameluke swords were carried by Marine officers.
- Confederates would carry Bowie knives instead of bayonets, including the Arkansas toothpick which could be used as a sword in combat, a hatchet to chop wood, a razor and a paddle in emergencies.
- Native Americans fighting for the Confederacy used traditional weapons like the Tomahawk, spear or bow .
- Early in the war Robert E Lee proposed issuing pikes to the Confederate army to compensate for the shortage of guns. A few were made and used for training but were never issued for combat.
Handguns
- Colt Army Model 1860 - The most popular Colt handgun in the Union Army was a .44 caliber six-shot revolver. Stocks were made that could be screwed onto the butt of the pistol allowing it to be held at the shoulder, increasing range and accuracy. Some had a second function such as a liquor flask or storage for cartridges.
- Colt M1861 Navy Similar in size and appearance to the Colt Army, the main difference of the Colt Navy was the change in caliber from .44 to .36 and the fact that it was primarily issued to the US Navy.
- The Colt 1851 Navy Revolver was the preferred weapon of the Confederacy and copies were made all over the South in former cotton mills.
- The US Cavalry were issued the .44 caliber Colt Dragoon Revolver : a heavy large-caliber pistol invented during the Mexican War and designed for killing the mounts of charging enemy troopers.
- Remington Model 1858 - Colt's chief competitor, Remington Repeating Arms Company, also made revolvers during the Civil War. The most common was the Remington Model 1858. This pistol was highly favored by troops. The Remington had a quick cylinder release catch which made reloading much faster. It was also cheaper than the Colt. It was used in large quantities during the war.
- Smith & Wesson Model 1 revolvers were used as an alternative to the Colt and Remington. These fired brass rimfire cartridges.
- The double-action Starr revolver was briefly used in the western theater of the war, until the U.S. Ordnance Department persuaded Starr Arms Co. to create a single-action variant after the discontinuation of the Colt. The company eventually complied, and the Union acquired 25,000 of the single-action revolvers for $12 each.
- Beaumont-Adams Revolver - This reliable double-action British handgun was privately purchased by many Northern and Southern officers.
- The 5-shot back-action Kerrs Patent Revolver made by the London Armoury Company was used by Confederate cavalry.
- LeMat Revolver - This revolver was perhaps the most well-known foreign-designed revolver during the Civil War. It had two barrels, one on top of the other. The top barrel could fire up to nine .42 caliber balls while the bottom could fire a 16 gauge shotshell, making it a deadly weapon in theory. The creator, a French doctor living in New Orleans, Jean Alexandre LeMat, moved back to France to create more revolvers for the Confederacy. The French-made revolvers, however, proved unreliable and difficult to manufacture.
- Another pinfire revolver was the Lefaucheux , imported from France by Union and Confederate officers.
- Derringers, pepper-box pocket pistols and small revolvers like the Colt Baby Dragoon or teat-fire were often carried by enlisted men as a backup gun for close-quarters fighting.
- The Elgin Cutlass pistol was issued to navy personnel but proved unpopular with the men and was quickly replaced with the M1860 Cutlass.
- Single-shot caplock pistols copied from the prewar French model were issued to the United States Navy. These had brass barrels to prevent corrosion. Some Confederate cavalry units were equipped with single-shot percussion cap or even flintlock pistols early in the war which were sometimes fitted with stocks to improve accuracy. These had been issued to the US Army in the 1840s but were obsoleted by the time of the Civil War due to the introduction of the Colt revolver.
Rifles
- Springfield Model 1861 - The Springfield Model 1861 was the most widely-used shoulder arm during the Civil War. It was favored for its range, accuracy, and reliability. The barrel was 40 inches long, firing a .58 caliber Minié ball, and the total weight was approximately 9 pounds. The Springfield had an effective range of almost 600 paces, and used percussion caps to fire rather than the flintlocks of the 1700s. (The last U.S. flintlock musket was the M odel 1840.) The most notable difference between the Model 1861 and the earlier Model 1855 was the elimination of the Maynard tape primer for the Model 1861.
List of weapons in the American Civil War - Wikipedia, the free ...
American Civil War weapons refers to weapons that were used during the American Civil War by Union and Confederacy soldiers during the years 1861-1865.
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