The 1st United States Sharpshooters were an

infantry Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and mar ...

regiment A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, service and/or a specialisation. In Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of front-line soldiers, recruited or conscript ...

that served in the

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...

during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...

. During battle, the mission of the

sharpshooter A sharpshooter is one who is highly proficient at firing firearms or other projectile weapons accurately. Military units composed of sharpshooters were important factors in 19th-century combat. Along with " marksman" and "expert", "sharpshooter" ...

was to kill enemy targets of importance (''i.e''., officers, NCOs, and artillery crews) from long range. The first

of volunteers began service in late November 1861. During their service, they fought in every Eastern battle up until autumn of 1864. During their tour, the Sharpshooters were noted for efficient service in the battles of Yorktown, Gettysburg, Vicksburg,

Chattanooga Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia, it also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,7 ...

, Spotsylvania and Petersburg. The 1st and 2nd U.S. Sharpshooters were consolidated on December 31, 1864.

Founder

Hiram C. Berdan was the founder of the Sharpshooters. Berdan was born in the town of

Phelps, New York Phelps is a town in Ontario County, New York, United States. The population was 6,637 at the 2020 census. The Town of Phelps contains a village called Phelps. Both are north of Geneva. History The town was part of the Phelps and Gorham Purchas ...

, on September 6, 1824. Not only was Berdan a military officer in the Civil War and creator of the Sharpshooters regiment, he was also an American mechanical engineer and creative inventor. Some of Berdan's inventions included the Berdan rifle (a repeating rifle) and the Berdan center fire primer, a range finder torpedo boat for evading torpedo nets during and after the Civil War. Berdan also developed the first commercial gold amalgamation machine to separate gold from ore. Berdan was also known for being an amateur champion

marksman A marksman is a person who is skilled in precision shooting using projectile weapons (in modern days most commonly an accurized scoped long gun such as designated marksman rifle or a sniper rifle) to shoot at high-value targets at longer-than- ...

in the United States. Berdan's interest in rifles and shooting led him to the idea of creating a regiment full of men who all had notable shooting skills: the Sharpshooters. On November 30, 1861, Berdan was named colonel of both the first and second Sharpshooter regiments. After serving for three years, Berdan resigned his position as colonel on November 30, 1864, in order to return to his life as a mechanical engineer and inventor. Berdan died on March 31, 1893, and was buried in the

Arlington National Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery is one of two national cemeteries run by the United States Army. Nearly 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington, Virginia. There are about 30 funerals conducted on weekdays and 7 held on Sa ...

Raising the regiment

During the Civil War, regiments were usually composed of companies all from the same state. On the other hand, due to the strict qualifications and special skills in order to become a member of the Sharpshooters, each regiment was assembled of companies from various different Union states. Below is a list of each company in the first regiment, their origin and date of establishment. *Companies "A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, K" *Companies "A", "D" and "H" were organized at

New York City, New York New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

in September 1861. *Company "B" was organized at

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York Cit ...

in September 1861. *Company "C" in

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and t ...

on August 21, 1861. *Company "E" in

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

on September 9, 1861. *Company "F" in

Vermont Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provin ...

on September 13, 1861 * Company "G" in

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

on September 23, 1861. *Company "I" in

on March 4, 1862. *Company "K" in

on March 30, 1862.

Company commanders

The first United States Sharpshooter regiment consisted of the following commanding officers (listed by company): *Company A- Captain Casper Trepp, New York *Company B- Captain Stephen Martin, New York *Company C- Captain Benjamin Duesler, Michigan *Company D- Captain George S. Tuckerman, New York *Company E- Captain Amos B. Jones, New Hampshire *Company F- Captain Edmund Weston, Vermont * Company G-Captain Edward Drew, Wisconsin *Company H- Captain George G. Hastings, New York *Company I- Captain A. M. Willet, Michigan *Company K- Captain S. J. Mather, Michigan

Selection of recruits

Hiram C. Berdan of

New York state New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. sta ...

created the Sharpshooters. Berdan began recruiting men for the first Sharpshooter regiment in 1861. He recruited men from

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and Albany and from the states of

and

. The volunteer recruits had to pass a

marksmanship A marksman is a person who is skilled in precision shooting using projectile weapons (in modern days most commonly an accurized scoped long gun such as designated marksman rifle or a sniper rifle) to shoot at high-value targets at longer-th ...

test in order to qualify to be a member of the Sharpshooters; each man had to be able to place ten shots in a circle of in diameter from away. The shots were to be accurate enough so that the average distance of them all would be 5 inches (127 mm) or less from the center of the target. They used a piece of string to measure from the center point to each bullet hole. The accumulated distance for all the shots on this string could measure no more that 50 inches (127 cm) long. They were allowed to choose a rifle and position of their preference for the test. A man eligible to be a Sharpshooter had to possess a keen eye, steady hands and a great deal of training and skill with a rifle. In addition to that, for a man to be a Sharpshooter, it took cool nerves in order to be able to estimate their target carefully, determine the high

trajectory A trajectory or flight path is the path that an object with mass in motion follows through space as a function of time. In classical mechanics, a trajectory is defined by Hamiltonian mechanics via canonical coordinates; hence, a complete tr ...

needed and to take in consideration the effect that any current wind may have.

Weapons

The men of the Sharpshooters regiment were armed with various types of rifles, including the

Sharps rifle Sharps rifles are a series of large-bore, single-shot, falling-block, breech-loading rifles, beginning with a design by Christian Sharps in 1848 and ceasing production in 1881. They were renowned for long-range accuracy. By 1874 the rifle wa ...

, the

Whitworth rifle The Whitworth rifle was an English-made percussion rifle used in the latter half of the 19th century. A single-shot muzzleloader with excellent long-range accuracy for its era, especially when used with a telescopic sight, the Whitworth rifle ...

, sporting arms, and various other custom-made privately owned target weapons. Some of these rifles weighed up to because they contained the first breed of telescope sights. At first, many of the Sharpshooter riflemen used their own weapons, but this led to problems when it came to

ammunition Ammunition (informally ammo) is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. Ammunition is both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines) and the component parts of other weap ...

supply. As a result, Berdan made a request to receive issuance of Sharps rifles to his men. Christian Sharps invented the Sharps rifle in 1848 in

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

. It was a single shot

percussion lock The percussion cap or percussion primer, introduced in the early 1820s, is a type of single-use percussion ignition device for muzzle loader firearm locks enabling them to fire reliably in any weather condition. This crucial invention gave rise ...

breech loader A breechloader is a firearm in which the user loads the ammunition (cartridge or shell) via the rear (breech) end of its barrel, as opposed to a muzzleloader, which loads ammunition via the front ( muzzle). Modern firearms are generally breech ...

that could be fired eight to ten times per minute (three times the rate of the

Springfield rifle The term Springfield rifle may refer to any one of several types of small arms produced by the Springfield Armory in Springfield, Massachusetts, for the United States armed forces. In modern usage, the term "Springfield rifle" most commonly ref ...

), weighed about , was in length with a barrel and fired cartridges with a .52 caliber conical ball. The Sharps rifle was accurate up to , so the typical Sharpshooter was able to put twenty bullets in a pattern from away. The first Sharps rifle in the regiment was purchased by Private Truman "California Joe" Head while the regiment was at the camp of instruction outside Washington, D.C. during the winter of 1861-1862. Berdan chose the Sharps rifle mainly because of its fast breech loading and outstanding accuracy from long-range distances. Unfortunately, though, Lieutenant General

Winfield Scott Winfield Scott (June 13, 1786May 29, 1866) was an American military commander and political candidate. He served as a general in the United States Army from 1814 to 1861, taking part in the War of 1812, the Mexican–American War, the early s ...

denied Berdan's request because he feared the issuance of Sharps rifles would lead to a waste of ammunition. Lt. General Scott insisted that Berdan's men use a standard Springfield rifle. Berdan was not at all satisfied with Scott's ruling, so he took his request for Sharps rifles directly to President

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

. After Lincoln watched Berdan perform a demonstration of the Sharps rifle's extreme speed and accuracy he was so impressed that he ordered them to be immediately issued to both Sharpshooter regiments. Nevertheless, many of the men still continued to use their own rifles, no matter how heavy and bulky they were, probably because that is what they had training and experience with. The sharpshooters were finally issued their Sharps rifles on May 8, 1862.

Uniform

Allegheny County Soldiers Memorial - IMG 1545

The most notable aspect of the Berdan Sharpshooter uniform is the green color, rather than the standard Union blue. They were one of only a few regiments that went outside the typical Potomac Army's uniform. The green uniform gave the sharpshooters the clear advantage of

camouflage Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the ...

, but also sometimes was a disadvantage because they were easy to distinguish against the rest of the Union soldiers for Confederate marksmen to spot and target. Sharpshooters were high-priority kills amongst the Confederate army, because they had such high skills and good salvageable equipment. Sharpshooters used more

guerrilla warfare Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or Irregular military, irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, Raid (military), raids ...

battle tactics than the rest of the Union infantry. Along with the green uniform, a soldier was to have no

brass Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other with ...

on any of their buttons. Their shoes were standard Union issue, but their pants were made of green wool just like the frock coats, with a pair of

gaiters Gaiters are garments worn over the shoe and bottom of the pant or trouser leg, and used primarily as personal protective equipment; similar garments used primarily for display are spats. Originally, gaiters were made of leather or canvas. T ...

. Furthermore, Sharpshooter knapsacks were a Prussian-style fur sack fitted over a wooden frame, as opposed to the usual tarred canvas. However, as the war went on the men were not reissued this clothing and many of the men received standard federal clothing making it harder for rebel troops to notice their elite capabilities. By the Gettysburg campaign most of the men were wearing modified blue uniforms.

Total strength and casualties

Ten of the regiment's officers and 143 enlisted men were killed in action or mortally wounded and 1 officer and 128 enlisted men died of disease, for a total of 282 casualties.

Lieutenant Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

William Y. W. Ripley William Young Warren Ripley (December 31, 1832 – December 16, 1905) was a Union Army officer from Vermont in the American Civil War. He received the Medal of Honor for heroism at the Battle of Malvern Hill. Early life William Y. W. Ripley wa ...

was wounded and later received the

Medal of Honor The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest military decoration and is awarded to recognize American soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, guardians and coast guardsmen who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor. ...

for his heroism as second in command of the 1st U.S. Sharpshooters at the

Battle of Malvern Hill The Battle of Malvern Hill, also known as the Battle of Poindexter's Farm, was fought on July 1, 1862, between the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, led by Gen. Robert E. Lee, and the Union Army of the Potomac under Maj. Gen. George B. Mc ...

.Military Times, hall of Valor
Medal of Honor Citation, William Y. W. Ripley
, retrieved February 3, 2014

Notes

References

The Civil War Archive
*Sid Sidlo

The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable, 2008
Berdan's Sharpshooters
reenactors
Guide to the Caspar Trepp Papers, 1858-1863“Sharpshooters Made a Grand Record This Day” - Timothy J. Orr

External links

The Correspondence of Benjamin Shreve Calef
at Dartmouth College Library {{DEFAULTSORT:1st United States Sharpshooters United States Volunteer Civil War units and formations Sharpshooter units and formations of the American Civil War 1861 establishments in the United States Military units and formations established in 1861 Military units and formations disestablished in 1864