The 3-inch Ordnance Rifle was an important technological advancement in artillery leading to modern weaponry. It typifies the truism that the American Civil War was the last 18th century war and the first 20th century war. The 3-inch Ordnance Rifle was the epitome of muzzle-loading artillery of the American Civil War and remained the primary field gun in the U.S. inventory well into the 1880s when it finally gave way to steel, breech-loading artillery.