The Civil War accelerated technological advances in the United States
1. Thesis statement.
Thesis
The great American civil war was a period of great unrest both socially and politically. However, this was the period where America got to witness a lot of technological innovation as well as advancement. The war, which was the last of its kind, managed to leave a great impression not only in the casualties of the war but society as we know it today. Some of the technologies developed during the period have been improved over the years into technology that is of core importance to society today. On the other hand, the lethal technologies were able to leave catastrophic marks society in general.
Argument in the support of the thesis.
During the civil war technological advances were made in many fields including food and medicine, however, there are a number of fields whose technological advancements directly affected the war. These include weaponry, transport and communication. Communication, which had started slightly before the civil war played an important role of ensuring that information regarding the war, was carried far and wide (Zylstra, 2004). This was all thanks to the invention of the newspaper which ensured that all information regarding the law was made public. This was also important in the requesting of civilians to enroll for the war. Communication was also advance in form of the invention of the telegraph. This enhanced the communication between troops or platoons as well as the between the soldiers in the field and the base. This was important for the war for information that had previous had the risk of being passed on to the wrong hands or would take long to reach particular destinations now took a shorter period.
The second group of technological advancements during the war was in the transport sector. Here, major steps were taken in the invention of the railroad, balloons and submarines. The railroad was one of the largest innovations that helped tipped the scale in the civil war. When the war started, the north had already constructed 22,000 miles of railroad as compared to the 9,000 miles. Most of the locomotive factories were also situated in the north. While the northern railroad tracks were standard gauge which allowed any train car to ride on, the southern tracks were standardized meaning that passengers and goods had to constantly switch tracks. During the war, union soldiers used the tracks for transportation of supplies as well as troops from one destination to the other. This gave them an advantage over the confederates.
During the civil war, planes had not been invented thus it had been hard to access aerial surveillance for any of the parties. However, with the invention of the balloons, information via telegram could be send from one destination to the other without having to traverse over enemy ground. At sea, the submarines helped create a blockade that did not allow the confederates to pass (Ennis, 2008). These blockades were placed at all ports of the areas that belonged to the confederates. This in the end gave the union army an added advantage despite the spirited fight that confederates put up.
The greatest impart of technology was however advanced in the weaponry field. The revolution of the firearms played the greatest role in the war by leaving casualties that would have otherwise been in smaller numbers. Prior to the war, riffles would only shoot one bullet at a time. Though easy to reload, this was rather cumbersome. However, during the war repeat riffle was invented (Kingseed, 2004). This riffle was able to discharge more bullets before the need to reload arrived. The most famous of this riffle at the time was the Spencer carbine which would fire up to seven shots in thirty seconds. Most combatants used smooth-bore muskets that had a maximum range of about 300 feet. However, shortly before the start of the war, the invention of rifling meant bullets could spin and travel up to 900 feet (Timmons, 2005). Defense was made easy with the use of the Minie bullet. This was an important defensive development and increased the range and accuracy of muskets. Like all the other technological advancements that took part in this period the north rather than the south used added advancement. This meant that the north would have added advantage given the amount of damage that would be would be inflicted using these advanced weapons (Mountjoy, 2009).
The second part of technological advancement that that played a significant role in the civil war was in the ship industry. While both sides of the war had been aware of the fact that they needed to armor-clad their ships, the north obviously had advanced technology. This is because during the first encounter between the two sides using this technology left the whole confederate fleet destroyed (Simson, 2001).
It is therefore clear that technology advancement played an important role in swaying the outcome of the American civil war. As evidenced, the region with the most technological advancement was able to inflict more casualties that the region with less technological advancement. Thus, it was during this period that some of the greatest technological advancement was created.
Bibliography
Mountjoy, S. (2009). Technology and the Civil War. New York: Chelsea House Publishers.
Timmons, T. (2005). Science and technology in nineteenth-century America. Westport, Conn. [u.a.: Greenwood Press.
Kingseed, C. C. (2004). The American Civil War. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press.
Simson, J. W. (2001). Naval strategies of the Civil War: Confederate innovations and federal opportunism. Nashville, Tenn: Cumberland House.
Ennis, E. (2008). The American Civil War. Monterey, CA: Evan-Moor Corp.
Zylstra, D. W. (2004). Innovations in war that changed history. Bloomington, In: 1stBooks Library.