While the 1st and 2nd Regiments of United States Sharpshooters, commonly known as Berdan's Sharpshooters, are probably the best known marksmen of the civil war, they were not the only men to carry the title of Sharp Shooter.
Shortly after Berdan formed his regiments of Sharpshooters, the individual states began to form their own companies of Sharpshooters, largely to keep control of the men from their states rather than lose them to Berdan. Among these were a company of Illinois sharpshooters, a company of New York sharpshooters, a company of pennsylvania sharpshooters, two companies of Massachutts sharpshooters, two companies of Minnesota sharpshooters, two companies of Missouri sharpshooters, three companies of New Hampshire sharpshooters, some five companies of Michigan volunteer sharpshooters, six company regiment of Maine sharpahoorers, and ten companies of Ohio Sharpshooters. Basic information about these can be found at http://www.civilwararchive.com and several have been written about in published books.
The Confederate army also had their share of sharpshooters, though unfortunately they are less well documented as many of the records have been lost or destroyed. This is an unfortunate side-affect of being the villainized side of the civil war.
The most commonly sited example of a confederate sharpshooters is the famous photograph of a dead soldier in the Devil's Den. This photo, however, was almost certainly staged. The practice of staging war-time photos was common and it is sometimes possible to find the same dead soldiers posed in different ways.
Among the better known cases of a confederate sharpshooters was the case of a black sharpshooters who took out several excellent targets before he was was himself the victim of well-placed rifle shot. This black man was said to be one of the best shots in the nation.
Confederate Sharpshooters of the Army of Northern Virginia have been recently written about in the book "Shock troops of the Confederacy" by Fred L. Ray.
 Oregon Military Museum |
 Washington Civil War Association |
 Northwest Civil War Council |
 Contact Us |