What occurred before the Gatling gun was invented?
Before the Gatling Gun was invented, infantry stood in rank and file as they had been doing for centuries, and they tried to break the enemy line with volley fire (four shots a minute ideally) from muskets with a maximum range of 200 yards, and then they followed with a bayonet charge. The rifle should have changed all that, but generals were slow to invent new tactics for the new weapons. [The rifle only fired three shots a minute, but its range was about 600 yards.] Likewise, the impact of the Gatling Gun was less than it might have been. Custer was offered a battery of Gatling Guns before Little Big Horn, and he turned them down because they were too slow to keep up with his mounted troops. Also, the Gatling Gun required an enemy to march bravely in front of it, as the Zulu did in South Africa. Against a mounted enemy like the Boer or the Apache, the Gatling Gun had no use except as a weapon of deterrence.
