The battle tactics of the American Civil War were way behind the weapons of war it generated.  The war saw the invention of the "Iron Clads".  From the day the Monitor and the Merrimac went at it, every wooden ship navy in the world became obsolete.

Rifles:

Union troops used "rifled" (meaning twisted grove) muskets.  It spun the bullet as it came out of the muzzle, giving it much more accuracy and range.  And they were "repeating rifles" meaning they could load several bullets at the same time and not have to reload after every shot.  They also made less traumatic wounds and required precise bullets.

Confederate rifles were smooth bore, which meant they were less accurate and fired a shorter distance. But you could put most anything into them and fire it out. Traditionally it was the round musket ball - made of lead, it was soft a malleable. If you were hit with one in a bone it simple took that section of bone out, rather than making a clean bullet wound like the Union rifles.  And because they were smooth bore, they used a load called a "buck and ball". It was the standard musket ball but it also had several pieces of buckshot attached to it by a piece of cloth. This could produce several casualties from a shingle shot fired.

Bayonets were much longer than what we think of them today. they were in the order of about 2 feet long, easily passing entirely through a man.

Cannons:

Traditional cannons were still in use during the Civil War.  The ammunition was loaded at the mouth of the cannon rather than today's breach action artillery.  Both sides used similar hardware.  The differences were in the ammunition:

The simplest was a solid iron cannon ball. Nothing fancy - just made big holes.

Fused cannon balls were hollow and filled with gunpowder so that they would explode sending bits of iron shrapnel though the air.  The length of the fuse controlled how long it was before in exploded.

Case Shot were hollow cannon balls with with round metal balls and gunpowder. 

Canisters were strictly anti-personnel devices used to inflict casualties on infantry.  It was basically a No. 10 can (a metal cylinder can the way tomato juice used to come in) and it would be filled with rocks, nails, bits of metal, almost anything that would inflict an injury, and of course gun powder.  When they exploded tiny bits of shrapnel few everywhere.  In desperate times commanders would order two or even three canisters be loaded at once and fired, but this could be risky as one canister could set off the other if not pact tightly in the gun and blowing up in your face.

07/18/2007