curriculum connections Civil War Weapons Tactics and Strategy
Introduction Civil War forms part of the Curriculum Connections series Each of the six volumes of the set covers a particular aspect of the conflict Home Front and the Economy Behind the Fighting Weapons Tactics and Strategy Politics Battles and Campaigns and People About this set Each volume in Civil War features illustrated chapters providing in-depth information about each subject The chapters are all listed in the contents pages of each book Each volume can be studied to provide a comprehensive understanding of all aspects of the conflict However each chapter may also be studied independently Within each chapter there are two key aids to learning that are to be found in color sidebars located in the margins of each page Curriculum Context sidebars indicate to the reader that a subject has a particular relevance to certain key state and national history guidelines and curricula They highlight essential information or suggest useful ways for students to consider a subject or to include it in their studies Glossary sidebars define key words within the text At the end of the book a summary Glossary lists the key terms defined in the volume There is also a list of further print and Web-based resources and a full volume index Fully captioned illustrations play an important role throughout the set including photographs and explanatory maps 4 Weapons Tactics and Strategy
About this book Weapons Tactics and Strategy explores the ways in which changes in technology affected the way in which the war was fought At the start of the war generals largely employed traditional tactics involving cavalry charges and close-quarter fighting By the conflict’s end the development of long-range rifles and entrenched defenses foreshadowed the slaughter in the trenches of World War I 1914 1918 In weapons rifles could fire farther and more accurately The machine gun was developed during the war but not widely used Artillery became more powerful and included siege guns designed to lob shells over defensive walls The submarine made its first appearance in conflict New battleships covered in iron armor marked a revolution in naval warfare wooden-hulled ships were instantly obsolete sparking a ship-building race among the leading maritime nations that would continue until World War I In terms of strategy control of railroads and rivers became essential for the rapid movement of troops and the supply of armies The North set out to break the Confederacy in two by cutting off communications between east and west It also aimed to strangle the Southern economy by blockading Confederate ports Confederate commanders meanwhile sought ways to invade the North and threaten Washington D C Introduction 5
