The men of the 2 nd Regiment managed to significantly slow the momentum of Law’s advance, taking a heavy toll on the Confederates with their rapid-fire, breech-loading weapons. On the field of battle, the results were apparent. Sharpshooters were essentially a 20 th century battle unit, fighting a 19 th century war. Professionally selected, trained and outfitted, fighting in a fire-and-maneuver tactical scheme, the U.S. Sharpshooters were markedly different from other sharpshooting detachments of the day. An engraving of a British army rifleman from the Napoleonic era. Sharpshooters were the brainchild of Colonel Hiram Berdan, and they performed superbly throughout the war. Undoubtedly patterned after the British Green Jackets of Napoleonic War fame, the U.S. To qualify for the regiments, volunteers had to pass a difficult shooting-test by forming a “string” of ten consecutive shots in a ten-inch-wide target from a distance of 200 yards. The Sharps was frighteningly accurate up to 600 yards, still deadly beyond. They could load and shoot the weapon from any position (prone, standing, or in a tree) at a rate-of-fire three-times that of any standard rifle. sharpshooters wielded the Sharps, 1859 breech-loading target rifle. Uniformed in dark green caps, coats, and pants, along with leather gaiters, featuring no shiny brass buttons, buckles or insignia, the sharpshooters were deliberately camouflaged for guerilla-style warfare, a mode of combat with which they had become expertly familiar. Army’s sharpshooter regiments had been raised for just this sort of action. Note the dark green tunic and pants was a departure from the standard blue battle-dress of Federal troops. Modern day re-enactors dressed in the uniforms of the U.S. Moving in groups of four, two laying down suppression fire while the other two withdrew to cover, the sharpshooters inflicted a heavy toll on the lead elements of Law’s advance. Yet they set to their task with deadly professionalism.
The sharpshooters had no hope of stopping Law’s advance they could only hope to slow it. But on they came, shouting and yelling their peculiar yell.” “As we took the matter very coolly,” said White, “many a brave Southron threw up his arms and fell. “Just in front of where I was, the land was open and, as they were mostly dressed in butternut colored clothes they had the appearance of a plowed field being closed in mass formation.”Īlthough outnumbered more than 10 to 1, the sharpshooters calmly took aim, then let loose a murderous volley. “They came yelling and firing and struggling over fences and through the timber,” White would later recall. Concealed behind a low stone wall, the rifleman took in the spectacle of the advancing enemy. Confederate troops advance on Little Round Top.
They were the 2 nd United States Sharpshooters, one of the most dangerous outfits of the American Civil War. These 204 Union troops represented the only Northern opposition between Law’s brigade and Little Round Top. Unseen to the Rebels, a loose line of Federal troops, about 900 yards long, was posted from the base of Big Round Top approximately a quarter mile to the south. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia could proceed, possibly as far as Washington, D.C.Īs the Confederate skirmishers moved forward in advance of the brigade, there seemed to be nothing between them and the summit. The Union line at Gettysburg would be smashed and Robert E. If the Confederates could secure that one rocky hill, the remainder of the Federal line could be enfiladed from the heights and rendered indefensible. Law’s objective was Little Round Top, a hill, then unoccupied, that dominated the Federal line.
JULY 2, 1863, 4 p.m.: The great Confederate turning movement at Gettysburg, which was meant to roll-up the Federal line from left-to-right, finally stepped-off, General Evander Law ’s Alabama brigade leading the way. Sharpshooters were essentially a 20th century battle unit, fighting a 19th century war.” A Union army marksman takes aim at the enemy in Winslow Homer’s 1863 painting ‘Sharpshooter.’ (Image source: WikiMedia Commons) “The U.S.
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