Rifled Barrel (Invented 1500, not widely used until 1848)
The Chinese might have invented gunpowder, and the British might have built an empire on the musket, but it was the invention of the riffled barrel and the “Minie ball” style bullet that made gunfights truly deadly. A pre-rifling musket was a highly inaccurate weapon, where the odds of hitting your target had about as much to do with luck as skill. By rifling the barrel and using bullets fitted to this barrel, gun manufactures were able to produce a product that was deadly accurate. The American Civil War was the proving ground for this invention, and the high body count of such battles as Shiloh, Antietam, and Gettysburg proved its “success”
