War-changing Inventions
These grooves on the inside of a gun or cannon barrel make the projectile spin, increasing both distance and accuracy.
What is rifling?
No matter how many troops he had, he always demanded more, and then still refused to fight.
Who is George McLellan?
John Wilkes Booth.
Who is Abraham Lincoln?
Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis.
What is the Persian War (or Greco-Persian War)?
This future president volunteered to fight in the war and became known for leading a famous cavalry unit.
Who is Teddy Roosevelt?
At the start of the Civil War, the North had 27,000 miles of this, and all of standard size. The South had less than a third as much, and of varying sizes.
What is railroad?
Perhaps a good general in his prime, this old man was too large to even mount his horse when the Civil War started (though he did come up with the Anaconda Strategy).
Who is Winfield Scott?
Who is Julius Caesar?
River Trebia, Lake Trasimene, Cannae.
What is the 2nd Punic War?
The small but famous volunteer cavalry unit led by a future president.
What are the Rough Riders?
This was a system of copper wires that were soon put up alongside railroad tracks everywhere carrying electrical signals of beeps or static that could be 'translated' into words.
What is the telegraph?
He is mostly known for losing the battle of Fredericksburg, sending waves of Union troops in impossible frontal assaults against the Confederate lines (and also for his peculiar facial hair).
Who is Ambrose Burnside?
Charles Guiteau (he thought his target owed him money for writing a terrible speech for him).
Who is James Garfield?
What is the American Civil War?
Much of the fighting in the war occurred on this island 70 miles south of Florida.
What is Cuba?
This system of coding letters into 'short and long' combinations, developed in 1844, was named for its inventor.
What is Morse Code?
Who is Joseph Hooker?
Gavrilo Princip (and thus unintentionally started a huge war).
Who is the Archduke Ferdinand?
Ypres, Somme, Verdun.
What is World War I?
As part of the victory terms, the USA acquired this large group of populous islands in the western Pacific Ocean.
What are the Philippines?
Until Civil War times, the projectiles fired by guns and cannons were spherical chunks of metal. Despite its name, this new projectile has the modern bullet shape (cylinder plus cone) and was far deadlier.
What is the minnie ball?
He walked his army directly into a trap set by Robert E. Lee at the battle of Second Manassas (he might have done leading a church than an army).
Lee Harvey Oswald (who shot his target in 1963).
Who is John F. Kennedy?
What are the Napoleonic Wars?
What is the USS Maine?