The War Technology
Railroads
The railroad was introduced at the beginning of the Civil War. It was the major technology of the period. The North had far more manufacturing amenities, including making more rails and locomotives which consumes copious quantities of iron, allowing them to have 22,000 miles of track by the beginning of the Civil War, opposed to the South’s mere 9,000. Two-thirds of the nation’s rails were in the north and northern rails were all more uniformly gauged than those in the South, allowing trains to run without fear of encountering a rail gauge they were not designed for. A large percentage of Southern locomotive production services were provided by Smith & Perkins of Alexandria, Virginia. This company was located within the ground seized almost immediately by the Federal Army for the protection of Washington. Therefore by the end of the War, the Southern railroads were in terrible shape from lack of maintenance supplies. The biggest effect of the railroad on warfare was the ability to supply large groups of soldiers, such as shifting Confederate Longstreet and his army from Virginia into Kentucky to surprise the Federals, and return to Virginia before the Federals could react. Although the biggest effect of railroads, by far, was the ability to haul supplies, especially food, long distances.
Weaponry
Like many other Civil War technologies, these weapons were available to Northern troops but not the South. Southern factories did not have adequate supplies, and unfortunately did not know enough about the weaponry to produce them to the Northern standard. The new Rifles with Minié bullets were easy and quick to load, and also caused more widespread wounds and tissue damage than previous ammunition used. Although, soldiers still had to pause and reload after each shot. This was not efficient and very dangerous. By 1863, however, there was another option, repeating rifles, or weapons that could fire more than one bullet before needing a reload. The most famous of these guns, the Spencer carbine, could fire seven shots in 30 seconds.
Photography
The Civil War was the first war to be completely documented by camera. While the cameras were cumbersome by today’s standards, they gave an accurate record of events. Long developing processes were required for each image, which could take up to a week. Therefore photographers took photographs, such as portraits and landscapes, opposed to action shots. It was not until the 20th century that photographers were able to take non-posed pictures on the battlefield. Magazines such as Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper and Harper’s Weekly used these Civil War portraits. This activity became known as photojournalism. Photojournalism gave the people back home a better understanding of what was going on, more so, than previous wars. Newspaper companies sent dozens of professional artists and illustrators into the field. The photographers Alfred Waud and Winslow Homer were the most famous of the Civil War period. They produced “illustrated weeklies” that showed realistic images of the war. Readers could see lines of battle or columns of retreating men, dead and wounded soldiers, freed slaves and war heroes.