Rifles and Small Arms
The most commonly used weapons used in almost every Civil War battle were Rifles and Small Arms. This was because they were more accurate than cannons and were also more deadly. One of the rifles used in the Civil War and in The Battle of Gettysburg was the Spencer Repeating Rifle. It fired 14 shots per minute. This particular rifle was one of the first semi-automatic rifles ever used in a war .The Spencer repeating rifle was fast loading and accurate when shot in any position. The Civil War started in 1861 with basic single shot slow loading musket and advanced to the Spencer In 1863. The advancement in the technology of these weapons is one reason why the Civil War is called "First Modern War".
Here is the Union Army's "Springfield" rifle (top) next to the Confederate Army's rifle version of it, called the "Enfield"(bottom). The Union produced more than 2 million Springfields between 1861-1865. They weighed almost 10 pounds. The Springfield had a rifled barrel that was made by a process of cutting spiral grooves inside a rifle barrel. This improved the accuracy and gave the Springfield a firing range of over a half a mile. Using the Springfield rifle along with mini balls made it easier to load and more deadly. Confederate soldiers were known to have captured and then use the Springfields. The Confederates used an 1853 rifle named the Enfield. These were manufactured in Great Britain because the South did not have many manufacturing facilities for arms. The South had 400,000 of the Enfields. They were considered to be similar to the Springfield.