As the Civil War was coming into full swing and tensions were heating up between the North and the South, a game-changing mechanism came onto the scene. Invented in 1862, the Gatling gun was one of the first rapid fire weapons, using a hand crank and ten rotating barrels to deliver 500 rounds per minute to enemy troops. Developed by Richard Jordan Gatling, it was brought about by the development of the brass cartridge which had its own percussion cap, removing the need for a human to add the percussion cap before firing. It also played a serious role in the American conquest of the West over the American Indians. It was able to quickly slaughter massive amounts of Indians, as the United States pushed further and further west. In its design it somewhat resembled the rotating barrels of da Vinci’s machine gun, although da Vinci’s machine gun was based on small cannons rather than bullets. The Gatling gun was one of the first indications of the machine gun revolution of warfare that would come about in greater extents in the twentieth century with the invention and wide usage of the Maxim machine gun.

Editors, History.com. “Gatling Gun.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 4 Mar. 2010, www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/gatling-gun.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Gatling Gun.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 14 Feb. 2017, www.britannica.com/technology/Gatling-gun.