Civil War Weapons

Civil War Weapons

Civil War Weapons
Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 7 to 10
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	7.94

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		bowie, breech, carbine, cartridge, fire-power, mortars, pikes, rifling, telescopic, killing, rifled, bridging, proposition, greatly, multiple, notorious
	content words:		Civil War

Print Civil War Weapons
edHelper.com subscriber options:

	Print Civil War Weapons (font options, pick words for additional puzzles, and more)
	Quickly print reading comprehension
	Print a proofreading activity

Feedback on Civil War Weapons

Leave your feedback on Civil War Weapons (use this link if you found an error in the story)

Civil War Weapons
By Mary Lynn Bushong

¹     Do you ever wonder what it might have been like to take part in the Civil War? Even as the war began, weapons were changing. As they changed, the whole method of fighting would have to change with it.

²     The Civil War is often referred to as the first modern war. The use of newer, more efficient means of killing-- coupled with poor hygiene and worse nutrition-- brought about huge losses of lives. Approximately 620,000 men died-- with disease killing two-thirds of them.

³     When the war began, they still used the old form of fighting with armies. They would form up in masses across from one another to keep fire-power concentrated. This was necessary because smooth bore rifles and pistols did not have a long range, and they were also inaccurate.

⁴     When rifled weapons were introduced, the speed and distance a bullet could go was greatly increased, as was the accuracy of the weapon. Rifling is the name of the shallow spiral channel on the inside of the rifle barrel. It caused the bullet to spin as it was forced through the barrel. The spinning caused it to go faster without wobbling. Suddenly, being in a massed formation was a much deadlier proposition. Instead of concentrating fire-power, it concentrated on the human targets. After that, the armies were less likely to be massed together. Instead, they moved in narrow lines, often utilizing what cover was available.

⁵     At the start of the war, rifles were loaded by stuffing gun powder, a bullet, and cloth wadding down the muzzle of the weapon. Loading it again after each shot was time consuming. Sometimes the trigger would be pulled, but the rifle wouldn't fire. If there was heavy fire around him, the soldier might not have noticed if his weapon fired, and he would reload it again. On occasion, a rifle was known to explode because of an inattentive soldier.

Paragraphs 6 to 12:
For the complete story with questions: click here for printable

Copyright © 2008 edHelper