The American Civil War and Military Technological Change
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THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR AND MILITARY TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE DOCTORAL THESIS University of Tasmania Department of Political Science cloie` cvotae? Marc Bowles February 1991 iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis was born from an interest in the area but was brought to fruition under the encouragement of many individuals. I am especially indebted to Professor Harry G Gelber who provide invaluable supervision, and suggestions, while all the time nurturing a flagging student. To Janette Kahl, Andrew Sharman, Calvin Sharman (no relation), Peter O'Toole, the staff of the Central Defence Department (Canberra) Library, and the University of Tasmania Morris Miller Library, go my thanks for your patience and assistance. Obviously, despite all the support received, responsibility for the selection of the materials and the treatment of the topic is entirely my own. For the record as well, this thesis contains no material which has been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any university or college and to the best of my knowledge and belief the thesis contains no copy or paraphrase of material previously written or published by another person unless I have made acknowledgement in the text of this work. Marcus Bowles ABSTRACT Military technology change is a subject of enormous diversity and profound complexity. To reduce the topic to some ordered form the thesis discusses military technological changes in one period; the American Civil War from 1861 to 1865. The thesis also contends that military technology cannot be studied in purely physical terms. Only in conjunction with environmental elements can we fully comprehend technical change. This will enable us to make sense of technology as both a technical entity constructed from existing scientific knowledge, and as a human activity interacting with the surrounding environment. The thesis argues that during the war it was possible to establish how non—technical factors concentrated development on traditional weapons technology. Subsequently, technical growth was mainly low risk, cumulative, and based on established technology. Over five years, however, wartime innovations still produced significant advances in technical knowledge. The ultimate success of changes to wartime military technology can therefore be understood by using innovation as a guide. From such a basis one can progress beyond the examination of an individual entity, to also assess the overall innovation process within which technological development occurred. The inquiry leads to an open questioning of existing approaches' ability to fully gauge Civil War military technological change. Popular theories, explaining scientific discovery, fail to provide an appropriate methodological approach by which this thesis may be pursued. Equally, the question of the growth to 'modern war' is addressed early in the thesis. This is done to illustrate the need for a more accurate yardstick that can provide a basis of comparison with 'modern war'. The thesis concludes that study of Civil War innovations can provide the tool with which to identify and assess military technological change. v i The thesis will be able to highlight that, despite military technological growth being predominantly made by small incremental changes, it nevertheless altered the technical knowledge available to innovators. By identifying the cumulative advances in technical hardware it is possible to illustrate how significant the changes to some military technologies were, when compared to the advances attained prior to the Civil War. It is the identification of non—technical elements, affecting the development of Civil War innovations, that permits the thesis ultimately to make sense of the direction, and the incremental advance of Civil War technical change. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page No. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv ABSTRACT ABBREVIATIONS INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 1 IDENTIFICATION OF CIVIL WAR MILITARY TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE 6 1.1 Historiography of the Civil War 6 1.2 Identification of Military Technological Change 22 1.3 Formulating a Methodology 25 (A) Technological Change in the Civil War 26 (B) Means to Measure Technological Change in the Civil War 30 (C) The Innovation Process and Sources of Technical Development 33 1.4 Propositions 36 1.5 Structure and Contents 37 PART I TECHNICAL CHANGE 40 INTRODUCTION 41 CHAPTER 2 TECHNICAL CHANGE TO MILITARY WEAPONS 43 2.1 Breech—loading and Repeating Small Arms 43 2.2 Breech—loading Cartridge Ammunition 48 2.3 Civil War Railroads 51 2.4 Balloons 56 2.5 The Telegraph 61 CHAPTER 3 TECHNICAL CHANGE TO NAVAL WEAPONRY 64 3.1 The Monitor 65 3.2 Torpedoes and Related Weapon Systems 69 viii CHAPTER 4 GENERAL INNOVATIONS 77 4.1 Artillery 77 4.2 Ordnance 89 TECHNICAL CHANGES SUMMARY 89 PART II ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS 90 INTRODUCTION 91 CHAPTER 5 GENERAL ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS 92 5.1 Government and Innovation 92 (A) Federal Government 94 (B) Intervention or Innovation 94 (C) Government and Technology Change 107 5.2 Industrial Environment 108 (A) The American System of Manufactures (ASM) 109 (B) Machine Tools 110 (C) War Industries 112 (D) Confederate Wartime Industries 118 (E) Industry and Military Innovation 120 5.3 Social Environment 122 (A) Societal Attitudes 122 (B) The Role of Science 123 (C) Labour 124 (D) Individuals and the Civil War 126 (E) Economic Conditions 129 CHAPTER 6 ADMINISTRATIVE CONSTRAINTS ON MILITARY TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION 132 6.1 Indicators of Malaise 133 6.2 Exploitation of Innovation By Northern Military Organizations 134 6.3 The Impact of Northern Executive Leadership on the Administration of Military Technical Change 153 6.4 Contrasts Between Northern Industrialization and Southern Improvisation 156 ix CHAPTER 7 REASONS FOR THE STUNTING OF MILITARY INNOVATIONS 163 MILITARY TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE AS AN ENVIRONMENTAL FUNCTION 176 PART HI THE LEGACY OF MILITARY TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE IN THE CIVIL WAR 178 INTRODUCTION 179 CHAPTER 8 THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE ON WARFARE DURING THE CIVIL WAR. 180 8.1 Impact of Innovation on Land Warfare 180 8.2 Impact of Innovation on Naval Warfare 188 8.3 Amphibious Operations and the Impact of Technological Change on Strategy 196 CHAPTER 9 THE IMPACT OF CIVIL WAR TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE ON THE WORLD ARENA 201 9.1 The Legacy of Military Technological Change 202 9.2 The Civil War as a Testing Ground for Subsequent Wars 208 CHAPTER 10 THE CIVIL WAR INNOVATION PROCESS 217 10.1 A Model of the Civil War Innovation Process? 218 10.2 Incremental Changes to Military Technology 228 IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY CHANGE SUMMARY 230 CONCLUSION 332 BIBLIOGRAPHY 337 APPENDICES 360 ABBREVIATIONS ACW American Civil War CB0 Confederate (Army) Bureau of Ordnance CS Army Confederate States Army CSAMD Confederate States Army Medical Department CSN Confederate States Navy CSS Confederate States Steamer Cwt Hundred Weight (112 pounds) BLR Breech Loading Rifle BLSB Breech Loading Smooth Bore HE High Explosive In Inch How Howitzer Model MLR Muzzle Loading Rifle MLSB Muzzle Loading Smooth Bore MTB Motor Torpedo Boat Pd Pounder US United States US Army United States Army USAMC United States Army Medical Corps USCE United States Corps of Engineers USMTC United States Military Telegraph Corps USMRD United States Military Railroad Department USOB United States Ordnance Bureau USN United States Navy USQMC United States Quartermaster Corps USS United States Steamer USSC United States Signal Corps SCA Self Contained Ammunition 1 INTRODUCTION The study of military technological change is entangled with contemporary concerns; (1) it is embodied in any study of the growth to modern war as we recognize it today. To understand questions arising from measuring military technological change is enormously complex and must require some form of ordering before it may be properly conducted. In the first instance this will be done by concentrating upon the American Civil War because it can be seen to lie at the chronological centre of the historical debate over the change from traditional warfare to modern conflict. Secondly, technology will not be examined as just a physical entity, but more completely as a function within a wider environment. The claim that military technological change is central to the study of the evolution of modern warfare would surprise few. In tying this thesis to an examination of technological change to the Civil War a secondary debate will be initiated on the war's role in the evolution to warfare as we know it in the twentieth century. Throughout history there has been a direct relationship between the way wars are waged and the the rapidity of changes to existing military technology. The knights' supremacy on the battlefield was firstly challenged by the long bow at the battle of Crecy, and later by early fourteenth century advances in firearms. During the nineteenth century the history of warfare may be divided into distinct phases of growth in technology. The dominance of the flintlock, and wood and sail continued from 1800 until around 1840. The factory age from 1840 till 1870 saw percussion caps, naval shells and breech-loading rifled (BLR) cannons, ironclad warships, steam propulsion, and better communication systems. Then finally, up to the end of the century, a period of faster development occurred. This centred on machine guns and rapid fire small arms, smokeless powder, better BLR cannon designs, the super-heavy gun, motor vehicles, the submarine, and sea-going ironclads.(2) The American Civil War from 1861 to 1865 stands at the mid-point of military technological evolution in the nineteenth century. The war occurred at a point in time that lay between the initial period where industrialization increased the available means to produce new technical entities, and the early twentieth century landmark of modern war and mass destruction; the First World War. The examination of key technological changes to the Civil War has promoted a surprising polarisation of belief on the war's modern dimensions. Study has mainly 1. H.S. Commager, The Blue & the Grey (Vol.I) (Indianapolis, Bobbs, 1950:xv) 2.