My parents took me on a tour of American Civil War battlefields in Virginia and Maryland when I was barely into my teens. I was enthralled at the time by the human drama that played out across five bloody long years of American history, but I’ve since grown to better appreciate the technologies, innovations and economic forces at work.

In honor of the 150th anniversary of the war’s first shots fired on on April 12, 1861, I put together a non-comprehensive timeline of famous and lesser-known innovations that helped shape the course of the war. This also marks a good chance for me to freshen up my poor neglected blog, and to play with the timeline service Dipity.

P.S. WordPress, please hurry up and make Dipity viewable as an embedded timeline!

American Civil War Innovations onDipity.