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7 - Technology and War

from Part II - Managing the War

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2019

By
Andrew S. Bledsoe
Edited by
Aaron Sheehan-Dean
Aaron Sheehan-Dean
Affiliation:
Louisiana State University
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Summary

The American Civil War was a moment of transition, with its feet firmly planted in the warfare of the past but with new technologies, often not understood or fully exploited by combatants or civilian leadership, and with mass armies equipped by industrialized societies. Nevertheless, technological developments in the market, transportation, and information revolutions, as well as new developments in weapons and other military technologies, shaped its essence. Simultaneously, the Civil War era represented a period of transition, and as participants’ grasp of these technological changes evolved, so too did the nature of military operations. The arena for all this change was the vast geographic spaces of the North American continent, and looming over all was the specter of destruction.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of the American Civil War , pp. 141 - 158
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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References

Key Works

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