Napoleon once said, “The side that has the better cannons will win the war”. Little did he know then that no sooner would he have made the statement, one of the bloodiest wars would be fought. Bloody it was – the Civil war, and it got to such an extent because of the sophistication of weaponry.
Of course, none of them could match the strength and the firepower of today’s machine guns and bazookas, but for those days, these were considered advancements enough.
The Civil war cannons that came into existence during this time found an immediate ally in the musket rifles. These rifles were muzzle loaders, and with this feature, any enemy within a target distance of half a mile could be shot down. In fact, the introduction of Civil war cannons signaled a difference in the way how soldiers fired.
The difference in firing strategy
Before these cannons came into play, soldiers were shooting on a conical trajectory. This possibly allowed the cannons or the projectiles to reach their target after some time, giving the enemy some time to react. With the muzzle loading rifles now, soldiers could shoot on a more flat trajectory. This meant two things – 1) High speed of the bullet or the projectile, and 2) Less time for the enemies to react.
A lot of soldiers then used smoothbores over rifles. One of the main reasons was that the smoothbores did give an excellent performance in close-range situations. But considering the fact that the Civil Wars were fought on treacherous terrains at most of the times, a rifle with the capacity of shooting long distances was desperately felt.
Of course, then came the muskets, a rifle that was used to a great degree of success. With some more time in the war, people realized that Civil war cannons could be the best weapons to fire projectiles at great speed, and at a good range. Soon enough, soldiers started using these cannons for shots in the range of 250 yards or less.
Ask the nurses who attended to the wounded in the Civil War days, and they would tell you that the wounds of the soldiers were rather deep. This fact is enough to attest the killer power of these cannons. It took some time coming but when it did, it came with a bang. After looking at all the casualties, it must be said though that Civil war cannons were not one of the best things to have happened to mankind.
