Artillery generally falls into three basic categories; guns, howitzers and mortars. The main difference between them being the trajectory of the round fire. A gun has a high muzzle velocity and a very flat trajectory. Normally a gun is used in a direct fire mode where the target can be seen and penetration is desirable. Good targets for a gun would be things like brick or earth forts, ships, buildings, and targets in tree lines.

Howitzers have a somewhat lower muzz

Shells, hollow ammunition filled with gunpowder and equipped with a fuse, were the most common type of explosive artillery round used during the Civil War. Fuses could be either timed so the round would explode after a certain number of seconds had elapsed, or were percussion so the ammunition would explode upon striking an object. Shells were generally used as long range rounds, meant to explode among an advancing enemy or used to blow apart enemy forts.

My conclusion is that I would not want to be shot by any of these guns. They used very heavy ammunition that devastated what ever it hit. I guess that is why the American Civil War was called the bloodiest war of all time. Not only are you trying to kill your opponent, you are trying to kill a fellow American which must of been tougher. Also, if we adopted the Gatling gun, I feel that the war would of been over a lot faster than it was. To be able to fire 250 to 300 rounds in one minute is devastating. That gun was very mobile because it could be moved around by the horses because it was on wheels.

Dr. Richard J. Gatling, a North Carolina farm boy, patented a six-barrel machine gun on November 4, 1862. He later adapted it to use steel-jacketed cartridges. The rate of fire for the gun was 250-300 rounds per minute. General Ben Butler ordered twelve Gatling guns for the Union. Gatling, however, was a "copperhead", a Northerner who sympathized with the Confederacy. His reputation did not help sell the gun to the Union, especially since he was thought to sell some to the Rebels. The Union had chances to get the Gatling gun but did not take advantage of it. In 1862, Governor Morton of Indiana saw the gun being tested and wrote to the Secretary of War suggesting that the gun be officially used by the North, but nothing was done. Later, the Navy adopted the gun in 1862 and so did the Army but not until 1866.

Grape shot was widely used in the 19th century wars, but by the time of the American Civil War, grape was primarily used by navel gun crews. Similar to canister, grape shot consisted of meat balls, but unlike canister which fired 76 balls, a round of grape shot consisted of nine or so balls and were usually not packed in cans. A standard round consisted of three tiers of three 2 inch diameter balls separated by iron plates and held together by a central rod which connected the bottom plates. Another design consisted of an iron bottom plate with a central pin around which

Some common words found in the essay are:
Civil War, Armies Navies, War Fuses, South Springfield, Christian Sharps, Kansas Missouri, North Carolina, President Lincoln, Palmer Union, North Navy, civil war, grape shot, muzzle velocity, direct fire, american civil, american civil war, machine gun, grape shot consisted, fire mode, fire gun, block moved, breech block, breech block moved, breech loading rifles,
Approximate Word count = 1662
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)