Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1888-06-13
The Improved Machinery of w
From the Milwaukee Wisconsin.

From the Milwaukee Wisconsin.
"reminiscences of the War of the Re-
bellion, of its battles, and of its dead
and wounded, frequently excite thought
as to the probable duration of civil
war of similar magnitude with the inn
proved small arms and heavy ordnance
O. to-day.
The question is one worthy of refec-
ton for there can be no doubt that if the
soldiers Of the North could have been
equipped in 1861 as effectively as the
United States might now equip an army,
the rebels could not have withstood
their numerically superior enemy for
two years. If it be admitted that the
South could have been supplied by
blockade runners with arms fully as good
az those possessed by the soldiers of the
North, the question would still have
been who would have the largest re-
serve after sharp and terrible slaughter.
Certainly not the South, for she had ex-
hausted her strength by levies long be-
fore the North had ceased to call for her
countless thousands more"
The soldiers of the great civil war
fought with muzzle-loading muskets,
and even the small arms then used re-
quired caps with illuminate to discharge
them. While such an army was biting
off the ends of cartridges and putting
caps on the nipples of their guns, the
breech-loading repeating rifles of to-day
would decimate it; to say nothing of the
terrible execution that could be done
with the Gatling guam invention that
during the last year of the civil war was
lying useless in the red-tape doldrums
of the War Department. If DR.. Calling
had been properly encouraged the
North would have sprung surprise up
on the rebels fully as great as was the
low-lying cheese-box gunboat Monitor,
when she worsted the Merrimac in
Hampton Roads.
Mention of this memorable naval
fight also awakens thought as to the diff
ference between the methods of naval
warfare of the present and naval fight
ing of the dark days of the early SOS.
IF Gilmore's Swamp Angel had been q
Zalinski pneumatic dynamite gun, the
rebels at Morris Island and Charleston
would not have known where their en-
envy was located-if thev were able to
know anything at all after barrel Of
dynamite gelatine had been dropped
among them.
The improvement in war machinery
has been SO great of late that the
humorous remark that some Of these
days machinery will be made to do the
fighting while the interested hosts walt
at safe distance to learn the result OF
the bout, may be more prophetic than
words uttered with deeper thought.
The Maxim gun which recently sue
cessfully withstood an official test at
Sandy Hook not only "vo1nited bullets"
but loaded itself with the power of its
own recoil. The ammunition of this re-
markable gun is placed side by side in
long belts, and is fed to the gun by a
bell crank lever, one end of which is at
tached to the barrel and the other end
to a slide provided with fingers" AS
the barrel recoils these fingers" slide
back and "engage" another cartridge.
After the recoil the gun is pushed for
ward into the firing position by the &C.
ton of coiled spring, and this action of
the barrel moves fresh cartridge into
position. The rapidity of this automatic
guns fire is estimated to be $50 shots a
minute.
The paradox suggested by the sub
marine gunboat Peacemaker"-po-
tentiality SO terrible that no enemy