![]() In the decades that followed its invention, Gatling guns were used against North American Indians, Chinese nationalists, African tribesmen and samurai warriors. In fact, the weapon, which made its combat debut in the Civil War, was so effective at mowing down enemy troops, armies and navies throughout Europe and the Americas snapped them up as quickly as they could. But it certainly made the battlefield deadlier. While Gatling’s 1861 hand-cranked, six barreled, rotary gun could spit out 200-rounds a minute, it didn’t make armies any smaller. ![]() By inventing a weapon that put the firepower of an entire regiment into the hands of individual infantrymen, Gatling hoped that the commanders of the future could march off to war with much smaller armies - tens of thousands, perhaps even millions, would be spared from the health risks long associated with military campaigning. As such, far more soldiers perished in overcrowded and unsanitary army camps than ever died on the battlefield. The North Carolina-born physician recognized that the mass armies of the 19th Century were ideal breeding grounds for infectious diseases. Richard Gatling, devised his famous rapid-fire weapon because he wanted to prevent human suffering. ONE OF THE GREAT ironies of history is that the inventor of the first modern machine gun, Dr. “While the Gatling gun may be the best-known early-machine gun, the mechanical marvel was by no means the first attempt to fire lethal projectiles in volleys or in rapid succession.” American Gatling guns during the Spanish American War of 1898.
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