New Technology
Railroads
Unlike the battle of 1812 and the Revolutionary war, the Civil War relied heavily on the railroad to supply the armies. This is true for the Union army in the north and the Confederate army in the south. Rail cars delivered war supplies and food, as well as troops. by 1861, 22,000 miles of track had been laid in the Northern states and 9,500 miles in the South. The industrial north gave a great advantage to the Union army by utilizing and maintaining the railroad system. After the war began, the southern states, who were mostly agricultural, lost rail workers and could not maintain all the machinery necessary to operate trains in the south. The railroad was just one of the advances the Union had over The South to win the war.
Submarines
The Civil War saw great advancements in technology such as weapons and transportation. The train was instrumental on land, and in the waters a new invention being tested was the submarine. Horace Hunley, who built the C.S.S. Hunley submarine, tested it and it was successful. It was a metal tube that was 40 feet long, 4 feet across, and held an 8 man crew. They sent it to South Carolina to be used against the Union blockade there. Afterwards, the submarine was not heard from again. Although not a significant to the outcome of the war, the submarines were a turning point on how we battle in the future.
Telegraphs
The telegraph was developed in the 1830's and 1840's by Samuel Morse. Samuel Morse came up with a language that could be sent with a series of short and long tones. This became known as Morse Code. Using this code, messages could be sent over long distances using wires then eventually, radio waves. During the Civil War, most of the Telegraph system was associated with the railroad tracks and stations. Because the Union railroads were much better than that of the south, the telegraph was a great advantage to the Union. President Lincoln himself, used the telegraph frequently because he was fascinated by this technology.