Weapons Used in Battle
Some weapons below were scarcely used throughout the Civil War.
Others weapons described were popular and used often in battle.
Confederate Weapons
Congreve Rockets
- British design from war of 1812
- 3 ft, 2 inches long
- fired with gunpowder
- were very inaccurate
Williams Gun
- first used in 1862 at Battle of Seven Pines
- rapid fire cannon operated by hand-crank
Billinghurst Requa Battery Gun
- 25 barrels side-by- side
- used to guard bridges
- inefficient
- pictured above
Landmines
- "torpedos"
- iron containers with gunpowder
- first used in 1862 at Peninsula Campaign
- were banned due to great destruction
- were unethical
- British design from war of 1812
- 3 ft, 2 inches long
- fired with gunpowder
- were very inaccurate
Williams Gun
- first used in 1862 at Battle of Seven Pines
- rapid fire cannon operated by hand-crank
Billinghurst Requa Battery Gun
- 25 barrels side-by- side
- used to guard bridges
- inefficient
- pictured above
Landmines
- "torpedos"
- iron containers with gunpowder
- first used in 1862 at Peninsula Campaign
- were banned due to great destruction
- were unethical
Union Weapons
Ketchum Grenade
Hale Patent Rocket Launcher
Gatling Gun
Calcium Floodlights
- explosive thrown like a dart
- 1, 3, and 5 pound models
- could be caught in a blanket by enemy and thrown back
- pictured to the left
Hale Patent Rocket Launcher
- metal tube that fired 7 and 10'' stabilized rockets
- used by navy
- traveled 2,000 yards
Gatling Gun
- six barrels that could fire 350 rounds per minute
- used in Petersburg Campaign in 1863
Calcium Floodlights
- used in lighthouses
- blinded enemy
- illuminated artillery target
- Union soldiers and officials found land mines to be "barbarous"
Both Used...
- colt revolvers
- Springfield muskets
- cannons
- swords/sabers
- rifles, pistols, muskets, repeating weapons
- underwater landmines (more popular and widely used within Confederacy) in 1862