THE FIRST MODERN WAR

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THE FIRST MODERN WAR
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Why is the Civil War called thefirst modern
war?

• Technological advancements in weaponry
• Improved communication techniques
• Faster transportation methods
• Improved medical and sanitation techniques

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BATTLEFIELD TACTICS

• Although weapons had improved battle tactic had
  not changed in hundreds of years.
• Large armies were massed on opposite sides of a
  field. The advancing army moved across the field
  when they got close enough they charged (ran at)
  the enemy.
• Usually, the battle ended with bayonets and
  hand-to-hand combat.

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BATTLEFIELD TACTICS (cont)

• Because weapons advanced and tactics did not the
  Civil War was the deadliest war in American
  History.
• More Americans died in the Civil War than all
  other wars combined.
• More Americans died in the first day at the
  battle of Antietam than in all previous US wars.

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ADVANCES IN WEAPONRYThe minnie ball

• The standard bullet used by troops during the
  Civil War
• It is .57 caliber and made of soft lead
• in combination with a rifled-musket it made
  traditional battlefield techniques obsolete

The single most deadly advance in weapons
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Artillery smoothbore vs. rifling

• As with shoulder weapons, smoothbore cannons were
  not as accurate and could not shoot as far as
  rifled artillery.

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The three types of artillery

• Cannons
• Howitzers
• Mortars

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Cannons

• Cannons or guns, as they were sometimes called
  were fired in a relatively flat trajectory.
• These were generally used as anti-personnel
  weapons.

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Howitzers

• Howitzers were used against both personnel and
  field fortifications

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Mortars

• Mortars came in sizes from small (2-man unit) to
  so large that they needed to be mounted on rail
  cars and could fire shells weighing more than 200
  pounds. The high trajectory allowed these to
  shoot over field fortifications

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Other innovations in weaponsThe first Air
Force???

• Balloons were used by the North to spot enemy
  troops movements and to spot for artillery.
• At a height of a mile of more, the balloonists
  talked to the ground via a light telegraph wire.

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Other innovations in weapons...

• hand grenade
• flame thrower
• machine gun
• anti-aircraft fire (see balloons)
• land mines
• railroad artillery
• repeating rifles

• Rotating gun turrets
• use of periscopes
• telescopic sight for rifles
• Torpedoes
• Portable bridges

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Other innovations in weapons
The Ketchum (left) and Excelsior hand grenades
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Other innovations in weapons...
A Civil War torpedo (we would call them sea
mines)
The Gatling gun- the first workable machine gun
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Improvements in battlefield techniques..

• Aerial reconnaissance
• field trenches on a grand scale
• military telegraph
• coded battle signals
• wire and spear entanglements
• Portable bridges

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The NEW NavyThe battle of the ironclads

• Confederate engineers bolted on iron plates to
  the Merrimack, building a warship more powerful
  than anything the North had. Union cannon shells
  simply bounced off the Merrimack.
• News of this monster quickly spread to the North.
• The North responded by building the Monitor.
• On March 8, the Merrimack attack and sunk or
  disabled three Union ships.
• For one day, the Confederate navy ruled the seas.

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Battle of the ironclads (contd)

• The next morning the Monitor appeared.
• The two ships hammered away at each other, hull
  to hull, fighting at such close range that the
  two ships collided five times.
• After four and a half hours , the Merrimack drew
  off.

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Battle of the ironclads (contd)

• It was to be the Merrimacks only fight. The
  Confederates blew her up two months later when
  the were forced out of Norfolk.
• The Union set to building more Monitor-like ships
  while Europe watched in worried fascination.
• From the moment the two ships opened fire that
  Sunday morning, every other navy in the world was
  obsolete.

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Battle of the ironclads (contd)

• In London, Henry Adams cheered the Union triumph,
  but also saw in it an ominous fore-shadowing of
  things to comeAbout a week ago, The British
  discovered that their whole wooden navy was
  uselessThese are great timesBefore many
  centuries more..science may have mankind in its
  power, and the human race commit suicide by
  blowing up the world.

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The NEW NavySubmarines

• Naval attacks using a submarine had been
  attempted before.
• The CSS Hunley was the first submarine to
  successfully sink an enemy ship.

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Care for the wounded

• Generally speaking, if a soldier took a solid hit
  in an arm or a leg it was amputated.
• Gut shot wounds were nearly always fatal.
• The Civil War took place in what has been called
  the medical middle ages.
• Physicians did not understand the germ theory as
  we know it today

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Care for the wounded...

• Surgeons would simply rinse their operating
  instruments off in cold water or wipe them off on
  their coats before moving on to the next patient.
• A good surgeon could amputate an arm or a leg in
  about 10 minutesone right after anotherhour
  after hour.
• Sometimes the pile of discarded limbs reached
  four to five feet high.

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Care for the wounded...

• Despite the crude medical care used, the Civil
  War is also credited with several firsts in
  battlefield medicine
• army ambulance corps
• hospital ships
• organized medical and nursing care
• widespread use of anesthetics for battlefield
  wounded

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Firsts on the home front...

• Draft laws
• photography of battle (brought the horror of the
  war home to the civilians)
• a wide-ranging press corps in battlefield areas
• American breadlines
• American president assassinated

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Civil War Casualties

• A casualty is when a soldier or sailor is lost
  for the duration of the war through death,
  wounds, injury or sickness. It does not include
  soldiers who were treated for wounds, etc. and
  then sent back to continue fighting.

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Civil War Casualties...

• Union dead 364,511
• Union wounded 281,881
• Total Union loss
  646,392

• Confederate dead 260,000
• Confederate wounded
  194,000
• Total Confederate Losses
  454,000

A Civil War soldiers chance of NOT surviving the
war was about one in four
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Civil War CasualtiesA quick comparison

• 4,435 died in the American Revolution
• 2,260 died in the War of 1812
• 13,283 died in the Mexican War
• 2,246 in the Spanish American War
• 116,516 died in WWI

• 403,399 died in WWII
• 33,746 died in Korea
• 58,512 died in Vietnam
• Up until the Vietnam War, the number killed in
  the Civil War surpassed all other wars COMBINED!!!

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CONCLUSIONS...

• The Civil War saw the beginnings of many methods
  of warfare that are still in use today almost 150
  years later.
• Although we would consider these innovations
  crude by todays standards they proved deadly on
  the battlefield because technology was far ahead
  of tactics and care for the wounded.

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Acnknowledgements...

• Special thanks to Brandon Lunday for the use of
  his many Civil War books and to Paul Moade for
  his permission to use graphics from his internet
  site.