Posted on 10/17/2021 9:47:55 AM PDT by dmam2011
The American Civil War (1861-1865) occurred during an age of Industrial Revolution, when some of history’s wackiest inventions were made. It’s no surprise creative geniuses of the day tried to produce outside-the-box methods of killing the enemy. Each of the ten strange weapons on this list were available to US and/or Confederate soldiers.
(Excerpt) Read more at clarksvillian.com ...
Fascinating!
The “coal torpedo” was very interesting and dangerous.
Men will imagine new and innovative ways to kill each other until the crack of doom. Imagine how ironic it must have been when Union troops charged into the crater caused by a mine at Petersburg. They found themselves mired in mud unable to advance or retreat. Like soldiers from antiquity who stormed breeches in fortresses, they were pummeled with the most ancient and elementary of weapons. Stones.
How about that “turret” magazine that had rounds pointing at the gun operator! Ya think that would unnerve ya?
Burnside sure had the chops for strategy.
/I’ll leave now
;D
They show the USS Alligator, but not the CSS H. L. Hunley?
* When the hairy apes of long ago,
* Battled for days, to see
* Whether the tails of future apes,
* Should straight or curly be,
*
* Other apes whose hair more sparsely grew,
* And the shes who were great with child,
* Hung from the branches up side down,
* And sighed and gibbered and smiled.
*
* They said “Such sights are hardly nice,”
* “For tails are what they are,”
* They said “’Tis savage and like the wolves”
* “This must be the end of war.”
*
* When the painted savages of the swamps,
* Slew the clay daubed men of the brae,
* In order to settle by flint and club,
* Which clan might draw mammoths on clay,
*
* The craven lake-folk, smeared with fat,
* Crouched on their rafts and said,
* “Though insects bite us through our grease,
* ‘Tis better than being dead.”
*
* “Our cultured smell makes us despised,
* We live a mildewed life,
* But we are the people of brotherly love,
* This must be the end of strife.”
*
* The gentle Persian fled before,
* The warlike men of Greece;
* The Phalanx broke their masses,
* So they advocated peace.
*
* They praised the purple coated fop,
* Whose hands were white and slim;
* They loathed the sweaty brute in bronze,
* And, loathing, fled from him.
*
* While huddled in their harlots arms,
* Their land in flames they saw,
* Yet kissed the painted odalisques,
* And cried “’Tis the end of war.”
*
* Then Carthage conquered far off Spain,
* And all but conquered Rome,
* She suffered from the lethargy,
* Of fighting far from home.
*
* She deified domestic quiet,
* Her youth would no more fight;
* Till Bloody Zama’s fatal day,
* Destroyed for e’er her might.
*
* For having conquered Spain, she thought,
* Like countless fools before,
* That having gained her peace by strife,
* There would be no more war.
*
* ‘Twere idle to further recount,
* The folly of mankind,
* Who gaining all by battle,
* To future wars grows blind.
*
* The folly of the slogans,
* Down all the ages rings,
* The ruins of republics,
* The funeral dirge of kings:
*
* “At last all strife is ended,
* “Battles shall rage no more,
* “The time of perfect peace has come,
* “There can be no more war.”
*
* Still, like the foolish revelers,
* In Babylon’s banquet hall,
* They’ll take their ease while mocking,
* The writing on the wall.
*
* They will disband their armies,
* When this great strife is won,
* And trust again to pacifists,
* To guard for them their home.
*
* They will return to futileness,
* As quickly as before,
* Though Truth and History vainly shout,
* “THERE IS NO END TO WAR.”
The double barreled cannon. Athens, Ga. parked in downtown Athens. Seemed to be a symbol of Athens government. Doesn’t work and is fun to scoff at. College town humor.
Billinghurst-Recqua Battery Gun
100%
I remember a double canon(actually two canon side by side) being fired in the old TV show TEMPLE HOUSTON back back 1964.
Results were the same with the chain shot.. Injuns got thrashed by it.
Was the H.L. Hunley ever commissioned in the Confederate navy? IIRC, her commander on the last voyage was an army officer, who volunteered. The submarine may not have lasted long enough to pick up the official "CSS"...;>)
I see what you did there.
Fair point!
Still, it was a Civil War weapon...
heh
;)
Absolutely! The article would definitely have been more credible, if the Hunley had been included.
H.L. Hunley - "First in Submarine Warfare" (February 17, 1864)
;>)
And Now we just get
The Flu and wave the
White mask of Surender.
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