"With the invention of black powder before the Civil War, gun smoke created huge, billowing clouds of smoke through which it was virtually impossible to see. However, black powder gives off very little smoke when ignited, greatly reducing the amount of smoke hanging over the battle field."

John, both the above statements canot be true. Since black powder does give off huge white clouds of smoke, I suggest the second sentence is in error. It cannot refer to smokeless powder, which was not perfected until the late 1800s, well after the war. Stan