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 muzzle velocit

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.

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 the balls were stacked. A cloth bag, usually of canvas, covered the balls which was in turn lashed around with a cord. The resulting round of ammunition looked like a bunch of grapes, that’s where the name "grape shot" came from. Grape shot, like canister, would spread out with a shotgun effect once leaving the muzzle of the gun, though with a much greater range than canister.

During the early 1800’s most guns were muzzle loaders. In 1948, Christian Sharps invented a rifle that loaded from the breech, or back end, of the barrel. He was, however, not the first to create rifles that loaded in this manner. In his rifle the breech block moved down when the trigger guard was moved down. A paper or linen cartridge with powder and bullet was placed into the receiver. The bullets used were .54 caliber. Then the breech block was moved back up it tore off the paper exposing the powder and fired using a percussion cap. During the Civil War about 100,000 of these rifles were supplied to the Union army. Between 1836 and 1873 over 540 patents for breech loading rifles were issued. Many of these were guns manufactured and sold to the U.S. government

Some topics in this essay:
Civil War, Armies Navies, War Fuses, South Springfield, Christian Sharps, Kansas Missouri, North Carolina, President Lincoln, Palmer Union, North Navy, civil war, grape shot, direct fire, machine gun, muzzle velocity, american civil war, american civil, breech loading rifles, solid shot, shot consisted, breech block, fire mode, breech block moved, grape shot consisted,