Sharp Shooter - History - U.S. Civil War (1861-1865) - Confederate Army

Confederate Army

On the Confederate side, sharpshooter units functioned as light infantry. Their duties included skirmishing and reconnaisance. Robert E. Rodes, a colonel and later major general of the 5th Alabama Infantry Regiment, was a leader in the development of sharpshooter units. The Confederate Army made more widespread use of sharpshooters than Federal forces, often having semi-permanent detachments at the regimental level and battalions of various size attached to larger formations. Dedicated sharpshooter units included: (Pindall's) 9th Battalion Missouri Sharpshooters; the 1st & 2nd Battalions Georgia Sharpshooters; and the sharpshooter battalions of the Army of Northern Virginia.

Confederate sharpshooters were often less well equipped than Federal counterparts, often using the Enfield Rifled Musket or (the more uncommon) hexagonal bore British Whitworth rifles, rather than breech loading Berdan Sharps rifles. In his memoirs, Louis Leon detailed his service as a sharpshooter in the Fifty-Third North Carolina Regiment during the Civil War. As a sharpshooter, he volunteered as a skirmisher, served on picket duty, and engaged in considerable shooting practice. Of his company's original twelve sharpshooters, only he and one other were still alive after Gettysburg. As related by the regiment's commanding officer, Col. James Morehead, in a rare one-on-one encounter Pvt. Leon killed a Union sharpshooter, whom the Confederates identified as a Native American from Canada.