(This post was last modified: 12-15-2017, 03:13 AM by Pete123.)
Then Battle for Gettysburg was critical. Union support for the war was wavering. If not for Gettysburg and some other victories, Lincoln may not have been re-elected in 1864. His opponent campaigned on on stopping the war, which may well have meant that slavery remained.
Here is a Springfield musket, which was the primary rifle for the Civil War, where they had to put the bullet in the muzzle and jam it down with a ram rod. They actually had the technology for repeating rifles, but the generals rejected them as they thought soldiers would waste ammunition.