Firearms of the Civil War

Angelique PuntSeth Brown

Colt Revolver Colt revolvers it had fully

interchangeable parts and was easy to disassemble.

The revolver was also known as the "Cap N Ball" gun. Its sources of ammunition were: black powder, ball shots, and percussion caps.

The revolver was favored greatly by the Union Army Officers, the Colt had multiple styles such as the Navy and the Sheriff which varied in barrel length.

The Colt revolver was cheap, accurate, and easy to mass produce making it easy to distribute

Muskets Muskets had barrels that had

grooves in them to help the bullet spiral. This helped with long distance accuracy.

Muskets fired hollow bullets, making it sure to kill anything within 100 yards-doubling the smoothbore muskets range (the old model musket).

The hollowed-out bullets would tear through flesh and damage vital organs and rarely left the body.

The bullets broke bone easily and destroyed the tissue or flesh around the wound.

Henry Repeating Rifle The U.S. Government

bought 1,731 Henry Repeating Rifles.

These guns were the most reliable, and most popular of the time.

The gun’s magazine could hold 15 shots which could be emptied in about 11 seconds.

Some historians believe that if this gun was invented sooner the war could have been one to almost two years shorter, due to the accuracy of the gun!

Light 12-pounder M-1857 (Napoleon) The most common

cannon used in both the North and the South.

Within 300 yards the cannon was extremely accurate.

The cannon could shoot about 1700 yards; although there was no need for one to shoot over 500 yards.

Six-pounder M-1841

Confederates used this cannon due to lack of funds.

This firearm was inherited from the Mexican War.

The cannon was used since it was all the government could afford.

3-inch ordnance rifle

Next generation cannon for the time period

A favorite of both Union and Confederate.

Light weight and extremely accurate, it’s range up to about 1850 yards.

12-pound Howitzer

The range is about 1100 yards.

Made in the North at Tredegar Iron Works in Virginia.

Caused many casualties.

Light weight only about 780 pounds compared to the Napoleon which was about 1230 pounds.