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Gatling Gun In The Civil War

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Gatling Gun In The Civil War
Dr. Richard Gatling was an inventor before the Civil War and turned his attention weaponry when the Civil War broke out. At this time the Gatling Gun is the only available rapid fire weapon (The Gatling Gun). The Gatling Gun almost didn’t see any action during the Civil War. A few Union army commanders bought Gatling Guns for their soldiers (Gatling Gun) The Gatling Gun was developed and used in the Civil War. The main arguments are how the Gatling Gun works and was used in the Civil War, why Gatling invented the Gatling Gun, the advancements on the battlefield, and the history of the Gatling Gun from start to end of the Civil War. Starting with how the Gatling Gun was used and works in the Civil War. The Gatling Gun had a hand crank to spin …show more content…
Gatling thought his weapon would reduce people needed to fight in wars (Gatling Gun). Gatling also “wanted to lessen human appetite for wars” (Cavenish). Another reason he created the Gatling Gun was to shrink army sizes and amount of deaths on war grounds (Gatling Gun). He also wanted to create an awful and scary weapon to the enemy in hopes of a forfeit on enemy lines (Delahanty). “Richard Gatling had actually hoped that the tremendous power of his new weapon would discourage large scale battles and show the folly of war” (Foner). What the Gatling Gun did do was allowed unskilled soldiers run the Gatling Gun while skilled soldiers went into battle (Gatling Gun). “The moral effect of the Gatling Gun would be very great in repealing assaults as there isn’t a second of time for the assistants to advance between discharges” (Gatling …show more content…
The Gatling Gun didn’t see much action during the Civil War except for a battle and gun ship wars. The Gatling Gun was designed in 1861 and patented November 4th, 1862 (The Gatling Gun). Jams often occurred in this model because the barrels and chamber didn’t always a line properly (Gatling Gun). The Union army didn’t adopt this version because of the many problems it had even though it proved successful in the field tests (Foner). Gatling made an improvement version in 1862 which solve most issues within the gun. This model is also the model that the U.S. Navy adopted (Gatling Gun). The Gatling Gun was considered the first successful machine gun (Gatling Gun). General Benjamin F. Butler bought twelve Gatling Guns for 1000 dollars apiece (Foner). These were used in the siege of Petersburg, Virginia in 1864 (The Gatling
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