Re: [DL] The Civil War again

[frempath2@netscape.net]

Berdan's Sharpshooters were the 1st and 2nd United States Sharp Shooters.  These were 2 regiments of 1000 men each.  Proposed by and recruited by Hiram Berdan as an elite, specialized unit.  The recruits were required to prove that they were marksmen through a tryout.  These elite men were some of the few men in either army who actually practiced shooting their weapons outside of combat.  Initially the govt. attempted to arm the units with Springfield muskets and colt revolving muskets.  These weapons were rejected and the units were armed with Sharps rifles built for those units.  Berdan actually had several colonels of other units arrested when they attempted to have their units armed with the rifles in storage for Berdan's units.  The rifles were quickly returned.  The uniform for the 1st and 2nd U.S.S.S. was meant to make the men hard to see.  A hunter green frock coat, trousers and forage hat.  Unlike other units, no brass was to be worn, the uniform buttons were black rubber made by the Goodyear Rubber Company.  The Sharp Shooters were usually used on a company level, dispached as flankers, covering the rear of a retreat, or the van of an advace.

For a really good site of the regulation union uniforms try:
http://www.qmmuseum.lee.army.mil/1866uniform/

These are colored, not colorized, photographic plates of the regulation uniforms at the end of the war.  Actual photos of a fellow modeling the regulation uniforms.  Click on "Miscellaneous Uniforms" and "Fatigue Uniform" or "Fatigue Uniform, Marching Order" to see what an average soldier would look like.

g'day
Kevin Jameson


A Methylated Spirit <hercubadger@yahoo.com> wrote:

>>          He was part of Berdan's Sharpshooters, a
>> regiment that paid for 
>> its own green uniforms and developed a reputation
>> big enough to be allowed 
>> to keep them.
>
>Would this formation be in any relationship to the
>"King's Rifle Regiments" common to the 1800's? I've
>been reading the Sharpe series and they were Green
>Jackets as well, for those with rifle rather than
>musket. 
>
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