Poison Gas?

[FiremarshalBill]

If an artillery delivery system for poison gas had been invented prior to 1860, do you think either side would have used it during the Civil War?

 

[major bill]

I would think no.

 

[2/241]

the artillery delivery system =
-filling it up in shells/rounds
-a totally different system of artillery needing
-a much stronger "propulsion"
+
industrial production of poison gas
+
which needs artificial cooling (von Linde 1876 widly use since 1890ies))
+
various other things

(did I mention gas protection equipment - which You need to use poison gas without killing Yourself)

it's just a 50 years timewarp into much more industrialiest society (in which slave labor had become irrelevant)

since everything is better than loosing at least the South would have tried to use it,
but without WWI communication equipment
it would have been suicide or at least Russian roulette with only one bullet spared.

btw they might have used phasers.

 

[UCVRelics]

I would say maybe once and when they saw what it did I don't believe it would have been used again.

 

[John Winn]

I think had it actually been available they'd have seen it as not becoming of a gentleman and rejected it. Very much like the Samurai initially rejecting muskets.

 

[gary]

Not with field guns. Too close to one's own troops.

 

[Mike Serpa]

Yes. Why think that man of 1865 would be different than man of 1915?

 

[Don Dixon]

I'm on travel and away from my reference materials, but I believe a college professor wrote to Lincoln suggesting that shells be filled with liquid chlorine to drive the Confederates out of Fort Sumter, since the resulting gas was poisonous and heavier than air. Lincoln pigeon holed it.

The Germans used canisters of chlorine in the first gas attack in WWI

Regards,
Don Dixon

 

[Lusty Murfax]

I'm on travel and away from my reference materials, but I believe a college professor wrote to Lincoln suggesting that shells be filled with liquid chlorine to drive the Confederates out of Fort Sumter, since the resulting gas was poisonous and heavier than air. Lincoln pigeon holed it.

The Germans used canisters of chlorine in the first gas attack in WWI

Regards,
Don Dixon

Can't find the resource materials, but I believe German chemical industry had already advanced to the point of developing processes for large scale production of chlorine gas and possibly the precursors of at least one other lethal agent used in WW1. Maybe phosgene, maybe hydrogen cyanide/prussic acid, I'm not certain which now.

 

[Ole Miss]

I doubt that any form of gas would have been used by the Confederates as they would have been gassing their own people and destroying the land. See no reason why the Federals would have used it either as they would not have provided enough safety features for their troops. This is all my conjecture and not based on any studies or factual information.
Regards
David

 

[thomas aagaard]

Very much like the Samurai initially rejecting muskets.

That is pretty much a myth. Samurai's used to be horse archers so had no issue with ranged weapons.
The issue with muskets, is the same as the European nobility had with crossbows.
It allow a poor peasant to kill a well equipped and trained noble.
In the 17th century muskets was used extensively and in more advanced ways than in Europe.


But to get back to chemical weapons.
Just like bolt action guns with brass cartridges, machine guns and similar it require industry, and it would just have been yet another advantage for the union.

But it was only real relevant in case of a siege or the late war trench warfare.

 

[Lost Cause]

Maybe used during latter part of the Indian Wars.

 

[USS ALASKA]

Yes. The Confederates attempted to use Biological Warfare - https://civilwartalk.com/threads/the-wicked-dr-blackburn.91092/ - why not the Chemical leg of the NBC tripod?
104

,
USS ALASKA

 

[Spunk Puppy]

Yes. Why think that man of 1865 would be different than man of 1915?

People during those times were far more gentlemanly and chivalrous. They were real men of honor, above poison gas. But blowing men in two with explosive cannon balls, bone-crushing Minie bullets, mortars, Gatling guns, bayonets, those are all perfectly gentlemenly.

 

[Mike Serpa]

People during those times were far more gentlemanly and chivalrous. They were real men of honor, above poison gas. But blowing men in two with explosive cannon balls, bone-crushing Minie bullets, mortars, Gatling guns, bayonets, those are all perfectly gentlemenly.

Yep, it doesn't matter how you kill them. Dead is dead. And men of 1945 were more gentlemanly than men of today. We know the horrors of nuclear weapons. I'm not sure we won't use them again.