Sharpshooters of the American Civil War, 1861–65

The Civil War sharpshooter is a curious beast, an interim link between the Napoleonic rifleman and the WWI sniper. As most soldiers, early supply problems solved, carried rifled and no longer smoothbore guns, this distinction from the Napoleonic Wars was eliminated. ACW sharpshooters served as light infantry fighting in skirmishing order, sometimes specially trained or equipped with better weapons. Even Berdan's sharpshooters who carried superior weapons acted in a light infantry capacity - confirmed by the surprising Gettysburg statistic that the sharpshooters suffered nearly an equal number of casualties as their Confederate firefight opponents.

This booklet should in fairness have been labeled Berdan's sharpshooters as its Union show more portion mostly deals with that unit (4 of the eight color plates show the famous men in green) and the Confederate portion combines jumbled accounts of units sharing the sharpshooter moniker. The topic of Civil War snipers with their telescopic rifles is only briefly treated (not surprising, given the paucity of sources) but given the booklet's title would have merited further discussion.

In one sentence, the author repeats the canard that the ACW sharpshooters were ancestors to the German WWI stormtroopers - apart from the fact that Europe tended to ignore the lessons from beyond the Pond, the storm troopers were heavy infantry (armed with grenades, flame throwers and a kitchen sink) seeking close combat not light troops fighting from a distance. show less