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Science and Technology #1: The 1860s: A Decade at War
Here's the next update. Sorry it jumps around a lot, there was just so much to cover and I couldn't figure out a very efficient way to organize it. 
Lots of footnotes though, although I've left some things for you to figure out on your own.
Science and Technology #1: The 1860s: A Decade at War
The National War in the United States and the two European wars that engulfed much of that continent in the 1860s brought about a relative revolution in military doctrine and saw the popularization of several new forms of technology. The three conflicts that gave the 1860s its nickname of the "Warring Sixties" exhibited many changes in military thinking that had taken place since the First Napoleonic Wars half a century earlier. In North America, the National War introduced new forms of communication and weaponry to military practice. The Spencer-Colt repeating rifle was one of the first lever-action repeating rifles and was the first of its kind to be adopted by any country's military. The Union Army began using the Spencer-Colt in 1863 during the beginning of the National War, and in 1865 also licensed production of the more updated Houston rifle[1]. The Union also used more innovations in the war.
The National War was the first to be luzographed. Famous images taken with early luceptors from the war include President Andrew Johnson at camp during his charge and the final surrender of the Confederacy in 1866[2]. Along with new inventions in recording images, transmitting communications also advanced. Telegraph systems developed by Samuel Morse and others were strung all around the country in the 1850s and proved vital for transmitting messages during the progress of the National War. Further advances were also made in medicine during the National War. New York Senator and vice presidential candidate Walt Whitman pushed in Congress for the foundation of permanent military hospitals in major conflict areas and the establishment of a permanent doctoral staff to serve in the field. Along with these advances, the National War saw the first use of anaesthetic treatment of wounded soldiers in a battlefield operation.
In Europe, the Grand Unification War and the Second Napoleonic War ravaged the continent in the years after the conclusion of the National War in the United States. The wars in Europe also brought advances in military fields, although these were more in the theoretical and logistical areas of warfare. After the First Napoleonic Wars, Austrian veteran Joseph Radetzky von Radetz retired from leading battles and began penning treatises on the conduct of war. Looking at the wars of Napoleon in hindsight, Radetzky wrote a series of works and formed the basis on the new style of warfare that bears his name. Radetzkian war theory espoused the more mobile warfare that was pioneered in the First Napoleonic Wars with the strength of cavalry and lighter field artillery. Radetzky combined these tactical innovations with strategic views of war and the interconnection of war with politics and economics[3]. Recently, some historians have discovered that Radetzky may have based his broader theories on an unpublished manuscript by a contemporary Prussian officer[4]. This discovery shows that the developments of warfare in the first half of the nineteenth century and the wars of the 1860s would change the way strategists planned for conflict in the next century.
The 1860s did not just produce advances in military oriented technology. The decade was also host to a number of new inventions and developments in more constructive and scientific disciplines. Austrian physicist Johann Mendel first produced a color luzograph using various translucent colored filters in 1863. However, Italy at this time was producing more technological breakthroughs than Vienna. After first synthesizing and stabilizing the compound pyroglycerin[5] in the late 1840s, Ascanio Sobrero first applied its explosive properties twenty years later. Pyroglycerin was used to construct the first tunnel under the Alps, enabling a connection from France to Italy by rail in 1868. Meanwhile in Florence, Garibaldi supported a man named Antonio Meucci whom he had become acquainted to in Havana in the 1840s[6]. With the Italian government's assistance, Meucci developed the world's first telephone in 1866 and by the end of the Grand Unification War, the private telephone was widespread in Europe and would soon spread to North America, prompting further innovations.
[1] The Spencer-Colt is the OTL Spencer repeating rifle; the Houston is the OTL Henry rifle.
[2] Luzography/luzograph = photography/photograph; luceptor = camera, meaning 'light capturing device'.
[3] Basically Clausewitzian theory with a bit more emphasis on maneuver warfare.
[4] Carl von Clausewitz's wife did not publish his unfinished manuscript ITTL.
[5] Nitroglycerin
[6] In OTL Meucci moved to Staten Island in 1850 where Garibaldi stayed in his apartment. I have them meeting in Havana and Garibaldi as head of a revolutionary Italy helps Meucci commercially. Meucci was probably the inventor of the first telephone, but he was unable to pay the $10 for a patent before Alexander Graham Bell did in 1876 in OTL.
Lots of footnotes though, although I've left some things for you to figure out on your own.Science and Technology #1: The 1860s: A Decade at War
The National War in the United States and the two European wars that engulfed much of that continent in the 1860s brought about a relative revolution in military doctrine and saw the popularization of several new forms of technology. The three conflicts that gave the 1860s its nickname of the "Warring Sixties" exhibited many changes in military thinking that had taken place since the First Napoleonic Wars half a century earlier. In North America, the National War introduced new forms of communication and weaponry to military practice. The Spencer-Colt repeating rifle was one of the first lever-action repeating rifles and was the first of its kind to be adopted by any country's military. The Union Army began using the Spencer-Colt in 1863 during the beginning of the National War, and in 1865 also licensed production of the more updated Houston rifle[1]. The Union also used more innovations in the war.
The National War was the first to be luzographed. Famous images taken with early luceptors from the war include President Andrew Johnson at camp during his charge and the final surrender of the Confederacy in 1866[2]. Along with new inventions in recording images, transmitting communications also advanced. Telegraph systems developed by Samuel Morse and others were strung all around the country in the 1850s and proved vital for transmitting messages during the progress of the National War. Further advances were also made in medicine during the National War. New York Senator and vice presidential candidate Walt Whitman pushed in Congress for the foundation of permanent military hospitals in major conflict areas and the establishment of a permanent doctoral staff to serve in the field. Along with these advances, the National War saw the first use of anaesthetic treatment of wounded soldiers in a battlefield operation.
In Europe, the Grand Unification War and the Second Napoleonic War ravaged the continent in the years after the conclusion of the National War in the United States. The wars in Europe also brought advances in military fields, although these were more in the theoretical and logistical areas of warfare. After the First Napoleonic Wars, Austrian veteran Joseph Radetzky von Radetz retired from leading battles and began penning treatises on the conduct of war. Looking at the wars of Napoleon in hindsight, Radetzky wrote a series of works and formed the basis on the new style of warfare that bears his name. Radetzkian war theory espoused the more mobile warfare that was pioneered in the First Napoleonic Wars with the strength of cavalry and lighter field artillery. Radetzky combined these tactical innovations with strategic views of war and the interconnection of war with politics and economics[3]. Recently, some historians have discovered that Radetzky may have based his broader theories on an unpublished manuscript by a contemporary Prussian officer[4]. This discovery shows that the developments of warfare in the first half of the nineteenth century and the wars of the 1860s would change the way strategists planned for conflict in the next century.
The 1860s did not just produce advances in military oriented technology. The decade was also host to a number of new inventions and developments in more constructive and scientific disciplines. Austrian physicist Johann Mendel first produced a color luzograph using various translucent colored filters in 1863. However, Italy at this time was producing more technological breakthroughs than Vienna. After first synthesizing and stabilizing the compound pyroglycerin[5] in the late 1840s, Ascanio Sobrero first applied its explosive properties twenty years later. Pyroglycerin was used to construct the first tunnel under the Alps, enabling a connection from France to Italy by rail in 1868. Meanwhile in Florence, Garibaldi supported a man named Antonio Meucci whom he had become acquainted to in Havana in the 1840s[6]. With the Italian government's assistance, Meucci developed the world's first telephone in 1866 and by the end of the Grand Unification War, the private telephone was widespread in Europe and would soon spread to North America, prompting further innovations.
[1] The Spencer-Colt is the OTL Spencer repeating rifle; the Houston is the OTL Henry rifle.
[2] Luzography/luzograph = photography/photograph; luceptor = camera, meaning 'light capturing device'.
[3] Basically Clausewitzian theory with a bit more emphasis on maneuver warfare.
[4] Carl von Clausewitz's wife did not publish his unfinished manuscript ITTL.
[5] Nitroglycerin
[6] In OTL Meucci moved to Staten Island in 1850 where Garibaldi stayed in his apartment. I have them meeting in Havana and Garibaldi as head of a revolutionary Italy helps Meucci commercially. Meucci was probably the inventor of the first telephone, but he was unable to pay the $10 for a patent before Alexander Graham Bell did in 1876 in OTL.
- wilcoxchar
- Word Count: 840