Soldier's Heart: Weapons Used During The Civil War
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Social Studies; Soldier’s Heart Assignment The civil war was one of the most brutal wars in history, especially with the weapons they used against each other. The first weapon I will talk about is the sharps and minute rifles. They both were rifles used by soldiers from both the North, and the South. They used these rifles because they were much more accurate than the ones in the earlier wars. The accuracy came from the grooves in the barrel called rifling that made the bullet fly faster and farther by a spinning rotation. The cartridges and bullets were also more powerful by the cone shaped tip, as in rifles today. Both sides had a lot of hand to hand combat throughout the war so they used bayonets and combat knifes as well. They were given to all soldiers, except the captains, who had swords. The main handgun given to the officers was the .36 caliber cap and ball found in use of the army of both sides.…show more content… The way the front loader guns and cannons were loaded was by first pouring gunpowder down the barrel, then the wad that makes sure that the gunpowder doesn't fall out. Next comes the bullet or cannon ball which is loaded by a long metal rod for both rifle and cannon. The soldier then pulled back the hammer and pull the trigger on the target you wish to fire upon. While the war was going on there was a shortage of medical attention. There was little in the field, with medicine being scarce and amputation. Basically the way it came to be was that if you got shot in the arms or the legs{below the knee caps} the doctor would cut your limb that was injured off. But if you got shot anywhere in the torso you were good as dead. There were no vaccines at that time, so if you were sick you were not going down the right road if you know what i