Ironclads Impact On The American Civil War

When the baritones of cannon barrages, melodies of muskets and the sound of the rebel cry had finally subsided, The American Civil War had had already taken a deadly toll. Four years of gruesome fighting had decimated the population. Half a million of three million men had been wounded in combat. Over two hundred thousand others had been killed. Frontal assaults turned into suicidal dashes that resulted in victory for no man. Advancements in weaponry surpassed ancient tactics dating back to the Revolutionary War and inflicted staggering casualties. Railways allowed supplies and reinforcements to transcend conventional means, battles became fast paced requiring even more men to fuel the engine of war. These weapons and technologies bred the
Ironclads were manufactured for multiple battle roles. They served as high seas battleships, coastal defense ships, and cruisers for navies. The necessity for a rapid evolution of warship designs in the midst of the civil was propelled the ship from a sailing wooden hulled vessel that supplemented steam into a steel turreted ship that would become standard in later wars. This incredible rate of change meant that completed ships, within days of a stronger ship being built, were immediately obsolete and could not serve in combat. Ironclads mad use of the torpedo or ram that allowed them to completely obliterate weaker ships in combat. Steam propulsion allowed them to maneuver much quicker and engage and disengage with increasing rapidity. Explosive shells constructed specifically for Ironclad warships inflicted devastating causalities on wooden ships and structures. In the Battle of New Bern, the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron of the Union moved down the river New Berne and proved effective in a combined land and naval assault. While Confederate troops were defeated on the field by Union commanders, the naval forces under Commander Rowan moved up the river to deny the Confederates the ability to regroup. Explosive shells allowed them to destroy bridges on the Confederate path to Kinston, their only option to
Old tactics and training became inefficient with the introduction of these modern weapons. Thus, the U.S Civil war became unparalleled in the advancement of military history. The war became the first to utilize rail and water ways combined with armored ships to create a battlefield stretching thousands of miles. The Union, in 1864, was the side to truly embrace this new technology coupled with older tactics to create a brilliant plan under the leadership of Grant. It was a three pronged attack strategy that would result in the military campaign to end the Civil