Military developments during the Civil War included rifled muskets, breech loaders, cartridge rounds, repeating rifles, gatling guns, rifled cannons and ironclad ships.

The Colt model 1860 was a streamline version of the earlier 1848 dragoon, which was used in the Mexican War.   It was the most popular sidearm in the Union army and was renowned for being able to change parts.   This gun was a .44 caliber 6 shot weapon.   It weighed 2lbs. 11oz.   It cost $13.75 which was way more expensive than guns made by Remington or Starr.   More than 146,800 Colt revolvers were bought during the war.   More than 40% of all handguns bought by the Union during the war was The Colt army model 1860.

The Le Mat revolver was the most famous foreign pistol used  during the Civil War.   It was invented by a French born New Orleans doctrine 1856.   This handgun had two barrels.   A cylinder that held nine .40 cal. round shot through the top barrel and revolved around the bottom .63 cal. barrel which held a charge of buck shot.   With a flick of his thumb, the shooter could make the hammer fall two the lower barrel which acted as a small shotgun.   The lower barrel of the gun was only deadly at close range.   Peter Jean Alexander Francois Le Mat made about 300 of these handguns in New Orleans before the out break of the war.   The  weapons were well liked ,so when the war began ,Le Mat moved to France to setup mass production for the confederacy.   Le Mat moved his production and worked for Belgian an English company.   As many as 3000 of these handguns were sold into the South .The handgun came with either an 18 or 20-guage shot barrel and one of these could be fitted with a full length barrel.   The Le Mat was used by the famous Southern  Generals as P.G.T. Beauregard and J.E.B. Stuart.

The Starr carbine  rifle had a 20 in., .54 cal. barrel.   This rifle was the fourth most popular  rifle used by the Union soldier.   It included many features from the Sharps ,Smith and Baraside rifles.  Its best feature was its zero misfire rate and its excellent accuracy.

Although the American Civil War had the development of modern weapons, primitive edged weapons were still used and were deadly on the battlefield.   The most widely used primitive edged weapon was the saber.   Sabers were only regularly used at the beginning of the war.   Sabers became marks of rank and were later abandoned in favor of more efficient weapons.   Saber charges had little chance in the later years of war against soldiers that had more modern weapons and were fighting from hiding areas.   Cal Mosby once said "the only real use for a sword is to hold a piece of meat over a fire for frying."

The first machine-gun type weapon ever used in combat was built for the Confederates War Dept. in Sept. 1861 by Confederate captain R.S. Williams.   The rapid fire gun was first used at the Battle of Seven Pines in May 1862, it worked so well that the War Dept. ordered 42 more of them.   This gun was crank operated, and was a very light artillery piece, and fired a one pound projectile.   It had a range of 2,000 yards.   The gun was operated by a lever, that was attached to a revolving cam shaft, which rotated a cylinder.   Each time the cylinder turned, a cartridge was dropped into the breech and a sliding hammer hit the cartridge's percussion cup.   It took three men to fire this gun at a rate of 60 rounds per minute.   One man aimed and fired the gun, the second one put a paper cartridge into the into the breech, and the third man put on the percussion cap.   The biggest problem with this gun was overheating, which made the breech jam because of heat expansion.

Possibly the weapon whose invention had the greatest on the future of the war was the Gatling gun.   Its barrel rotated around a single shaft, like the rapid fire gun.   This gun had six individual barrels, that could sweep the battlefield of hard charging enemies, taking them out in seconds.   This weapon does not overheat.   The inventor of this gun was a doctor, Richard J. Gatling of North Carolina.   He invented this gun to curb mans desire for war by making a device that would make war too horrible to imagine.   Dr. Gatling had problems with his invention though.   The Union War Dept. didn't trust him because he was a Southerner, and the gatling gun wasn't really put to a field test until Petersburg.   This gun came to late in the war to play any major role.   It also served as a blue print for the modern machine gun and is even in use today in a different form known as the mini-gun.