Gatling Gun 2016-10-05

Well, this is my FIRST historical unit, a gatling gun, such as used from the end of the American Civil War up until about 1908. The Gatling Gun was named after Dr. Gatling, the guy who invented it, and saw service as early as 1863, marking the American Civil War as the first war in which machine guns were used. The gun was operated by a hand crank, and had 6 barrels in order to prevent overheating. Interestingly enough, the basic gatling gun design (with realatively few changes) is still in use today in the form of the 7.62 mm Mini guns used on ships and fast-attack boats, as well as the 20 mm Vulcan cannons found on most fighter jets and in the Phalanx CIWS AA turrets on ships.