Changes in Warfare due to the Civil War

As a result of the Civil War, warfare changed to become more influenced by industrial technology and transportation, which made fighting less personal and more deadly, whilst also allowing for the formation of completely novel war strategies – as allowed specifically by new transportation methods. Although the Civil War was a deadly and devastating war, it had profound impacts on how wars would be fought, and the new technologies introduced would carry into other wars which followed. Aside from ending the issue about the legality of secession and of slavery, the Civil War brought change in how wars were fought and is widely regarded as the first modern war.

One of the most important new warfare elements which arose as a result of new weaponry was that warfare became much less personal and more deadly. New types of guns, especially rifles, allowed for men to be “killed at long distance, without knowing who had fired the shots that had felled them” (Shi). This increased accuracy and range of weaponry allowed for soldiers to fight from more distance. Whilst previous wars required “hand-to-hand” combat, in which soldiers were very close to each other when they fired their weapons, new weaponry allowed them to shoot from a distance and thereby reduced the personal aspect of the war. Weaponry, however, also developed in the sense that weapons could fire more bullets in a shorter amount of time. “Repeaters” gave soldiers the ability to shoot a large amount of bullets in a short amount of time, meaning that they could exterminate enemies much more rapidly. By giving soldiers weapons which were not only able to shoot from a distance with great accuracy buy could also shoot many bullets, warfare was no longer a matter of one soldier killing a few people – instead, it became a matter of one soldier possibly killing hundreds of enemy soldiers due to these new technological advancements in the form of weaponry. Unlike other wars, the Civil War set a standard for its fatality due to these new advancements on both warfronts, with each side constantly trying to out-perform the other side in the effectiveness of its weapons.

An increase in the use of modern transportation during the Civil War also helped in shifting the nature of warfare to become less focused on the geographical elements of war strategy and also allowed for warfare to accumulate more deaths in shorter time periods. Whilst most wars fought before the Civil War primarily utilized travel by foot in order to move soldiers, the Civil War used “larger-scale technological innovations such as the railroad… to move troops and supplies from one place to another” (History.com). Before the Civil War, the placement of soldiers was essential to war strategy – since soldiers could only move around at a very slow pace by foot, an attack in an unguarded location would mean total devastation since it would take a long time before soldiers could get there. Similarly, if soldiers ran out of supplies or if a war dragged on for longer than expected, they often had to turn back simply because they could not get the supplies delivered to their location quickly enough. Following the Civil War, especially on the Union side, steamboats and railroads could allow soldiers to fight battles across the continent whilst not wasting their time with travel, and also allowed for these soldiers to be continuously supplied with required resources. By cutting the time spent in travel (in which soldiers were most often not able to fight major battles), these new transportation methods meant that the wars would be much more deadly due to the proximity in time between various battles, and also meant that warfare required less of a strategic mindset in terms of the positioning of troops due to their ability to move very quickly.

The Civil War also brought about a revolution in the techniques and strategies involved in warfare, shifting warfare from being almost solely focused on the battlefield to involving more unconventional techniques by implementing technology. Before the Civil War, warfare had largely been limited to clashes between armies on battlefields, but the Civil War changed how wars were fought: in that it brought in new ways of disrupting the enemy forces without direct combat. Due to the reliance of both sides of the war on technology and transportation, this non-human controlled aspect of the war provided excellent for manipulation by enemy forces. Due to the reliance of the South on the railroad for transporting its soldiers, “Troops under Union general William Tecumseh Sherman destroyed Confederate rails by ripping up track and twisting the ties so they were unusable” (Apex Learning). This destruction of Confederate technology proved essential in a Union victory, but the tactic in use was very unconventional. These techniques outside of the actual battlefield set the stage for later techniques in warfare throughout the world, such as blockading certain important sites in order to hinder the enemy army. Another vital and new strategy brought about by the Civil War was the increased use of observation and spying on the enemy. Before the Civil War, it was almost impossible for opposing armies to know the resources which the other army possessed within their ranks or fortresses due to their high walls and large amounts of protection. However, fuelled by new technological innovations such as the hot air balloon, warfare became increasingly predictable, and each side optimized their strategy based on the results of investigations into the resources of the opposing side. In doing so, warfare became more strategy-focused instead of simply being a heated and destructive battle in which each side used powerful weapons to decimate the others’ ranks.

In conclusion, the Civil War had a tremendous impact on the nature of warfare by introducing new techniques to military strategy, reducing the personal aspect of the war, and making wars more deadly. Through new industrial technologies including new weaponry and faster transportation, there was less of an emphasis on personal aspects of the war, and killing became easier – and faster. New technologies such as hot air balloons, along with unconventional techniques, all contributed in revolutionising how wars were fought across the world, and made the Civil War unique as the first Modern War.

Works Cited

Apex Learning. 4.3.4 Events and Outcomes of the War. n.d. 6 December 2021.

History.com. Civil War Technology. 21 August 2018. 6 December 2021.

Shi, David Emory. America: A Narrative History. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2019.