Eduardo Espinosa
12/14/13
HIST220
Mark Treston
Unusual Civil War Weapons
The Civil war began around the time of the Industrial Revolution which meant that new
technologies were being developed2. This meant that new and unusual weapons were going to be
created. Both sides had to find better ways to fight instead of just using cannons, muskets, and
bayonets. This was a perfect time for both the Confederates and the Union to experiment with
new technologies. Both sides created many weapons ranging from hand grenades to a steam gun.
The Civil War was a perfect time for many weapons to be created that would later on be used in
the future.
It was known that Civil War soldiers would make jury-rigged explosives using fuses and
gunpowder. A man named William F. Ketchum created the Union-issued Ketchum Hand
Grenade. The Ketchum Hand Grenade was a hand thrown grenade that look like a dart and was
thrown like one1. The grenade would come in one, three, and five pound models and each model
came with stabilizer fins and a nose-mounted plunger2. When the grenade was thrown and the
plunger hit the ground, the plunger would detonate a percussion cap and ignite the gunpowder
inside the grenade1. This weapon was a good idea but it contained one flaw, it needed to hit the
ground in order for it to ignite. The Confederate soldiers discovered this flaw and they used
blankets to catch the grenades and they would then throw them back and the Union soldiers1.
1 “Civil War Virtual Museum | Vicksburg | Ketchum Hand Grenade.” VirtualMuseum. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2013.
2 “8 Unusual Civil War Weapons — HISTORY Lists.” History.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2013.
The Confederates used a rocket called the Congreve rocket. The Congreve rocket is an artillery
rocket that was developed by Sir William Congreve that was first used in 1806 and was seen in
the war of 18123. The Congreve rocket was a design in the shape of a giant bottle rocket. The
rocket had no accuracy until a man named William Hales created a device that helped with this
problem. The Union forces used the William Hales patent rocket launcher which the Congreve
rocket that had an angled exhaust nozzle4. The nozzle caused the rocket to spin and made the
rocket more accurate and have a longer range than before.
The Colt revolvers and Springfield muskets were very popular during the Civil War but they only
had one problem, they had to be reloaded after a single shot2. Machine guns were created to
solve this problem. They were weapons that gave the users a chance to fire more rounds at a time
before reloading. This means that they were able to fire more rounds before they had to reload. A
few guns such as the Gatling gun, Williams gun, and the Billinhurst – Requa Volley Battery gun.
