A book review

Cudahy Wisconsin had a Civil War reenactment a few years ago, a perfect place to try a new impression, to share some fresh aspect of history with the public so myself and seven other chums went to the event as sharpshooters in Lee’s army. For the weekend we worked on distance recognition, skirmish drill, working in three man fire teams and other things the real sharpshooters practiced and perfected. One fellow even made a patch known to be worn by a member of McGowen’s sharpshooters. All we did was based on my reading of Shock Troops of the Confederacy: The Sharpshooter Battalions of the Army of Northern Virginia, by Fred Ray.

I’ve recently reread the book and found it as solid as before. I’m not going to pontificate on its fluid writing, excellent use of primary source materials and logical organization for other, more pedigreed, folks have done that on better sites than this. Instead I’ll share some of the information, as a teaser, that I found fascinating. This book really is an easy read for it is the three positives I mentioned above.

NOTE: I am a hungry student of Mahone’s brigade so some of the material is specific to that unit and was the basis of our reenacting impression at Cudahy.


STUFF I FOUND INTERESTING
After seeing the success the sharpshooters of Rodes, Wilcox and McGowen’s troops during the campaign of 1863, General Robert E. Lee announced in early 1864 every brigade was to develop a sharpshooter battalion. Taking 3-4 of the best men from each company General Mahone developed a battalion for each of his regiments: 6th, 12th, 16th, 41st and 61st Virginia Infantry regiments. Lt. Col. E.M. Field of the 12th Virginia led Mahone’s Sharpshooters, one company was led by Captain Broadbent who fell at the battle of the Crater “with, ‘12-15 bayonet wounds through his body’” (214). Mahone’s sharpshooters also had two men per company assigned to ambulance corps duty.

TRAINING
There was great emphasis place on estimating distances, ‘until every man could tell, almost to mathematical certainty, the distance to any given point…’(93).

General Wilcox offered orders for the “Corps of Sharpshooters, ‘reiterating the importance of correctly judging distances, requiring regular progress reports, and specifying that no ammunition was to be issued until some proficiency is made in range estimation’(94).

On April 19th target practice began. ‘Each soldier got 22 rounds and was allowed to fire from a rest. Of these 3 rounds at 100 yards on the first day, then 5 at 300 on the two successive days. Over the next three days 10 rounds at 600 and then long range shooting’(95).

The sharpshooters were drilled to proficiency in skirmish drill. Marion Fitzpatrick of the 45th Georgia offers, ‘We drill to ourselves and do the skirmishing when there is a fight…Skirmishing is a ticklish business at times, but I like to do it’(95).


ARMS
Whitworth rifles excluded, the Enfield was the favorite among Lee’s sharpshooters, two band then three bands. Firing a round at 850-900 feet per second, “The Enfield’s adjustable ladder rear site ha steps for 100, 200, 300 and 400 yards,” with a flip up site taking one from 900-1250 yards. Springfields were the next choice in sharpshooting pieces

FUNCTION
The sharpshooters were, as Fitzpatrick offered earlier, the skirmishers and pickets for their brigades often being on post, ‘for twenty four to forty eight hours without being relieved.’ He also offers, ‘one conciliation that is I will not have any other duty to do as the sharpshooters are exempt from all details except picket and drills’ (97).

1864 and 1865 saw sharpshooters in the heat of battle from Wilderness to the trenches of Petersburg. They led the attack and were the first to defend. Their attrition rate was severe as was their pride in being sharpshooters. They had an élan for they were volunteers and dedicated, the best men of their units. They were well drilled and highly skilled and on many occasion turned the tide of battle.