How did the Gatling Gun change warfare?
The Gatling Gun was not the first machine gun, but it was the most practical up to that time. Gatling refused to sell them to the Confederate Army, and the Union Army did not want them, although a few were purchased and used. The US Army and other armies bought them after the war. Actually, the Gatling Gun had little impact in battle. Custer has been criticized for refusing a battery of Gatlings, but he did so because the guns were heavy and slow, and had to be mounted on the same carriage used by the artillery for their cannon. Thirty years later in the Russo-Japanese War, cavalry machine guns were available which could easily be packed on the back of a horse, but these came much too late for Custer. It could be said that the Gatling Gun changed warfare because it was the precursor to later machine guns.
