Before the outbreak of the American Civil War, the United States government did not encourage any new developments in ordnance. Most ordnance experts in the U.S. Ordnance Department were older military officers who believed what worked during the Mexican–American War would work now and did not need improving. Inventors had to go through years of field experiments and political red tape just to get their ideas introduced. Most used their own money and could lose all their money trying to introduce a new idea.