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Battle of South Mountain
Scientist Page


Environmental Conditions: The Battle of South Mountain was in Maryland in the month of September in1862.At this time, it is late summer and the temperatures were decreasing as winter neared. There was a light chill in the airwith the temperature being about 60û-65ûF. With the slight wind chill came harsh conditions.The mountain had large gaps, which made it hard to make fast transitions. The gaps also gave them a place to hide and pop out with some surprise. The conditions gave the army's advantages and some disadvantages.The weather of the war days in late summer compare to modern day summer weather. The weather in late summer nowis about 60û-70ûF. The rain comes in ever now and then. In Maine, the rainfall is about 3.4in. of a year. So the weather conditions are about the same.

Wepons: Warships, Merrimack and Monitor: During the civil war there was a wide use for naval battle ships. The ships were all made of wood till they foud out they could make IRONSHIPS. The Merrimack and the Monitor were the first iron built warships. The Merrimack was 51 feet wide, 262.9 feet feet long and 3,500 tons the Montior is 14 feet wide, 179 feet long and 776 tons.
The Monitor and Merrimack where two American warships that fought the first battle between "ironclad ships". The battle on March 9, 1862, between the USS Monitor and the CSS Merrimack, officially the CSS Virginia, is one of the most revolutionary naval battles in world history. Up until that point, all battles had been waged between wooden ships. This was the first battle in maritime history that two ironclad ships waged war.
This two ship were low to the water (as seen in the picture to the right). This two ship kind of look like subs but they are really warships. During the battle of the ironclad ships the Monitor was the ship on top. It sunk the Merrimack was hit and it was not able to go anywhere eles. It never seen another battle after that.

Topozone Map: Crampton's Gap on the bottom half of page
Tunners Gap on the top of the page.
The blue lines indecate the Union Army and the red lines indecate the
Confederate Army.

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