“Uncovering the Hidden Genius: The Surprising Origins of the World’s First Machine Gun!”
Gatling’s inspiration for creating his gun was surprisingly humanitarian. As a physician, Gatling knew that the vast majority of casualties in war were not caused by bullets or shells but disease. Thus, as he later wrote to a friend in 1877:
“It occurred to me that if I could invent a machine – a gun – which could by rapidity of fire, enable one man to do as much battle duty as a hundred, that it would, to a great extent, supersede the necessity of large armies, and consequently, exposure to battle and disease be greatly diminished.”
But like all weapons intended to be so powerful they would end war, the Gatling gun only succeeded in increasing its efficiency and bloodiness. While the Union Army refused to adopt the weapon during the Civil War on the grounds of complexity and cost, Gatling guns did see use at the siege of Petersburg, Virginia, in the spring of 1865. Based on its brutal effectiveness in that battle, the Army finally adopted the Gatling gun the following year. Other nations soon followed, including the British Empire, Argentina, Peru, Siam, and Korea. But while the Gatling gun was originally intended for use by and against modern, industrialized armies, it was most effectively employed against poorly armed opponents in colonial wars. For example, the British Empire used Gatling guns to devastating effect against the Zulu in South Africa and the Mahdists in Sudan, while back in the United States the weapon was widely deployed against Native Americans and striking workers.
