"Civil War Firearms: The Guns of North & South" Full Documentary

Sir as someone who cannot afford to purchase subscriptions to documentary producing websites, I thank you with my entire heart for making such amazing content on YouTube for free. Regards, A Military history admirir6

The Nelson Rifle was invented and made by my Wife's Great Great Grandfather JD Nelson a blacksmith of Nelson Georgia north of Atlanta....I don't know how many still survive because not many were made....

Major John Mead Gould was my great great grandfather. He kept a diary throughout his adult life. Thank you for mentioning him.

Outstanding video! I am the proud owner of an original 1842 Springfield which was made in 1846. It is in excellent condition....not quite as nice as the one in the museum in this video, but almost. The stock shows expected minor scratches and dents from use. The barrel, lock mechanism, trigger and straps are all excellent with very little corrosion pitting. I’ve shot it on two occasions since I’ve owned it, with patch and ball and 70 grains of black powder. It still shoots beautifully (though low and to the right a bit most likely because of the light powder load). The post 1860 bayonet is absolutely perfect. It is an honor and privilege to have this beautiful piece of history hanging on my wall. I wish it could tell me its story....and the story of the men that carried it into battle.

I came across an recruiting ad for one of the Texas cavalry units that told them to bring double barreled shotguns

I was a civil war renactor for years and always prefered the remington 1858 new model army revolver. With a solid frame and a drop out cylinder it was far faster to reload with a second cylinder as many officers had a second cyloinder.

When the Civil War started, soldiers used muskets, line abreast, and fought in way Napoleon would find familiar. By 1864, the rate of fire increased so much, that now soldiers dug trenches. Recently invented barbed wire was used in front of trenches, creating scenes that soldiers in WW1 would find familiar., The usage of trains to transport troops and armies was studied by the Germans, who used trains very effectively for movement of troops and material. The usage of a turret on an iron-clad, non-wood, boat was a huge leap in naval technology. The Gatling gun was the first high rate of fire gun. First supplanted by the later machine gun, the Gatling gun is now the main weapon in the A-10 ground support plane. The American Civil War was possibly the most important war, when it comes to development of military technology. One could take pride that we were very smart. But, seems to me, if were smarter, we would not have had the war.

Amazing how tactics change in varying types of war. Not giving faster loading loading firearms to soldiers due the idea of wasting ammunition, has gone to firearms with staggering rates of fire.

I am about a quarter into this documentary. I want to say this documentary is amazing! One of the best ever! Thank you 🙏

I've always thought that in the war the mechanism for the muskets was percussion, and it was the beginning of the rifled musket. However, I didn't know that in the early parts of the war, that some units still used smoothbore flintlock muskets dating back to the 1810s, or had replaced the flintlock mechanism to a percussion mechanism but still utilized a smoothbore barrel instead of a rifled barrel. Great video!!!

Thank you very much for another quality upload! 👍 Here's a useful mini break-up of the various marches/melodies in fife and drums used in the soundtrack, for anyone interested... 09:23 - Turkey in the Straw (aka Zip Coon) 10:11 - Kilgaragh Mountain (unsure) 11:01 - Year of Jubilo (aka Kingdom Coming) 13:32 - Camptown Races 14:10 - Oh! Susanna 23:01 - Wait for the wagon aka Dissolution Wagon aka Brass Mounted Army 25:54 - The Arkansas Traveler 28:26 - Pop Goes the Weasel (unsure) 31:46 - My Old Kentucky Home 33:09 - Mister, Here's Your Mule (unsure, also reminds somewhat of parts of Grafted into the Army) 33:53 - Stonewall Jackson's Way 34:40 - The Bonnie Blue Flag 43:44 - Turkey in the Straw (aka Zip Coon) 47:45 - When Johnny Comes Marching Home 53:49 - Riding a Raid (Bonnie Dundee melody) (a couple of others I cannot identify, unfortunately...

Very good channel, greatly enjoyed the very clear descriptions and demos, no mention of the great Burnside carbine though. Many thanks for this in any case, very well done.

It is amazing to me given the difference in the amount of material of war and available manpower. That the Confederates lasted as long as they did and won as often as they did.

Oh man. I used to have this DVD set if I remember correctly it was a multi DVD set. It starts out with the invention of gunpowder and then goes to Modern Firearms of the time of the release of the documentaries. I really enjoyed these and I'm glad someone uploaded them.

This is a great video. I really liked some of the little details like the museum curator showing the spark a flintlock makes, and the close up details of things like the Minie ball being seated and rammed home and the percussion cap being slid onto the nipple. I thought that gave a great insight into what these guns would have been like to use. I also noticed that a lot of the soldiers really looked like boys of 18 or 19. I thought that was good casting.

7:54 about the alamo, the majority of the men were using the brown bess, it was a total mix of all types of muskets and pistols, flintlock and caplock you name it

in the reference to the Enfield rifle they neglected to mention the English Whitworth rifle, and it's superb accuracy of the hexogaonal bored rifles. The confederates in Tennessee, were able to keep a supply train of the Union army from being able to deliver the supplies by shooting the mules. The Confereates were up in the mountain ridges and shooting at over a thousand yards! Also neglected was the LeMat revolver with a 29 gauge shot gun barrel under the .44 caliber revolver barrel. It was the favorite of Confederate Generals, J.E.B. Stuart, and P.G.T. Beauregard. It was patented in 1856, by Dr. J.A.F .Lemat of New Orlens. It was manufactured in Paris France, and Burmingham England. Also not mentioned was the populare1858 Star revolver,r which both sides highly prized. It was a double action revolver! It was manufactured in both Birmingham, and Yonkers, N.Y. .

Nicely done. Arms technology bloomed! As with small arms, Naval warfare was transformed by the civil war. Well done..

I read that some soldiers forget to use the cap and kept ramming bullets down thinking they had fired it. Guns recovered from battle field sone had like 2 or even 5 bullets inside.

Those Confederate purchasing agents pulled off some impressive shit. Damn near miraculous in some cases. Including what they had to do to actually get the shit to the Confederate states.