Technologies of the Civil War

Technologies of the Civil War

During the Civil War, many technological advances were created to defeat enemies. Several of the technologies that were created during the Civil War are used today and have become more and more advanced over the years. The Civil War was between northern and southern United States from 1861 to 1865. Northern states were known as the Union and the southern states were the Confederacy.

The Confederacy wanted to become a separate nation because they believed in owning slaves, which later led to the Civil War.

During the Civil War, the Union fought for the end of slavery, and in 1865 they defeated the Confederacy freeing several slaves. Many technologies used in the Civil War helped the Union defeat the Confederacy and put an end to slavery. Some of the technology used during the Civil War includes rifles, the Gatling gun, torpedoes, ironclads, submarines, telegraphs, railroads, etc. Before reading the three articles, I knew several of the technologies used during the Civil War, but I didn’t know how they were used or how they worked. Throughout this paper, I will be explaining the three articles and the importance of them. The articles are written by Ed McCaul, Ken J, and PBS History Detectives.

Ed McCaul is an assistant Dean at the Ohio State University. In McCaul’s article, The Civil War Saw Rapid Technological Advances in Artillery Projectiles and Their Accompanying Fuses, he focuses his article on the use of artillery projectile in the Civil War and how it works. This article was very lengthy, but it had a lot of useful information. The article was well organized when talking about different artillery projectiles. Throughout the article, the author provides the reader with a smooth transition from paragraph to paragraph. This reader finds this easier to read and allows them not to get confused.

When talking about the artillery projectiles, the author describes how they function in enormous detail. Unlike the other authors, this author effectively named an artillery projectile and explained it in great detail, instead, of simply telling the reader who invented it. Also, this article helps the reader understand how the artillery projectiles were so effective during the Civil War. For example, the author describes how the artillery projectile could be shot directly towards the ground, causing fragments from the ground to explode, injuring the men as easy as a bullet.

Ken J. is the owner and creator of Civil War Academy. He has a Bachelor’s degree in History and has focused his studies on military history. In Ken’s article How Did Civil War Technology Create Modern War, he talks about the technology used in the Civil War using his opinion. He uses some facts in the article but mainly to express his opinion about the technology used. For example, he talks about the rifle making the biggest impact on the Civil War. These readers that have read this article may disagree or believe different technologies made the biggest impact on the Civil War. The beginning of the article is unorganized and jumps around talking about different technologies used in the Civil War. The author goes from one sentence talking about a technology, then the next talking about a different technology. For instance, the author talks about rifles allowing soldiers to fire accurately from long distances, then, immediately changes to the use of photography.

Towards the middle of the article, it becomes more organized and easier to gather information. Rather than jumping around from place to place, the author introduces a technology used in the Civil War and describes it before moving onto the next technology. This reader realizes that at the end of the article it was much easier to read and gather the useful information since it was more organized.
The History Detectives and History Detectives Special Investigations co-produced for PBS by Oregon Public Broadcasting and Lion Television.

In this article, Civil War Innovations, the History Detectives explain the technologies developed in the Civil War in a simple way. Unlike the other two articles, the authors name the technologies developed and writes a brief summary about each one. The authors inform the reader of the date the technology was invented, who invented it, how it worked, how it was significant, who used it (Union or Confederacy), was it effective, etc. Just looking at the article, it seems to be unorganized or would jump all over the place, but after reading the article it is well organized. The authors are extremely simple and to the point when explaining the technologies used, but they still get the information across. For example, the authors didn’t make the article extremely long, which is smart because the reader doesn’t want to read a lengthy article. The authors organized the article not to be lengthy so the reader would want to continue reading it, but still gave the reader the useful information they needed.

After reading the three articles, I’ve learned many more technologies that were used during the Civil War and how they work. The technologies used during the Civil War have changed tremendously. They’ve become more and more advanced over the years but they’re still very effective. My favorite article I read was Civil War Innovations written by the History  McCloy 4.

Detectives. This article taught me many more of the technologies used during the Civil War that I didn’t know about. It was exceptionally easy to read and understand the author’s point of view and information they wanted the reader to receive. My second favorite article was The Civil War Saw Rapid Technological Advances in Artillery Projectiles and Their Accompanying Fuses, written by Ed McCaul. This article was very informative and well written. The only thing I disliked about it was that it was super lengthy.

My least favorite article was How Did Civil War Technology Create Modern War, written by Ken J. The article written by Ken was unorganized and jumped all over the place. As a reader, this made the article confusing and difficult to read. Overall, reading these three articles informed me undeniably about the technology used during the Civil War. I thought I knew a lot of the technologies used during the Civil War, but after reading these three articles I realized there is a lot more than I thought. Not only did these articles inform me of the technologies that were used, but they also increased my knowledge on how military weapons are used and how they work. All the technology used in the Civil War is still around today and continues to grow and grow each day helping America become more advanced.

Did you like this example?

925

39