Английская Википедия:1st Company Massachusetts Sharpshooters

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Шаблон:Infobox military unit

Файл:1st Co. Andrew Sharp Shooters on Round Top Avenue - Mumper & Co., photo. artists, Baltimore St., Gettysburg, Pa. LCCN2017660648.jpg
Monument to the 1st Massachusetts Sharpshooters at Gettysburg

The 1st Company Massachusetts Sharpshooters was a sharpshooter unit in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

Service

The 1st Company Massachusetts Sharpshooters was organized in Lynn, Massachusetts and mustered in for three years service on September 2, 1861.Шаблон:Sfnp The company was originally recruited for Colonel Hiram Berdan's sharpshooter regiments. When the men were informed that they would lose their enlistment bounty, they declined to join Berdan's regiments and instead remained independent.Шаблон:Sfnp Most of the recruits tended to be skilled workmen who were competitive shooters tending to be older than the average Union soldier, and these men also tended to be of the larger physical size.Шаблон:Sfnp They were armed with heavy, custom target rifles and Sharps rifles during their service.Шаблон:Sfnmp

The company was attached to 3rd Brigade, 2nd Division, II Corps, Army of the Potomac, but nominally operated with the 15th Massachusetts Infantry to July 1864, and with the 19th Massachusetts Infantry to September 1864.Шаблон:Sfnp

The 1st Company Massachusetts Sharpshooters mustered out September 6, 1864.

Detailed service

1861

  • Left Massachusetts for Washington, D.C., September 2.
  • Picket and outpost duty on the Upper Potomac River from Conrad's Ferry to Harrison's Island until October 20.
  • Operations on the Potomac River October 21–24.
  • Battle of Ball's Bluff October 21.
  • At Harpers Ferry and Bolivar Heights until March 7, 1862.

1862

1863

Шаблон:NoteTag

1864

Casualties

The company lost a total of 39 men during service; 3 officers and 21 enlisted men killed or mortally wounded, 15 enlisted men due to disease.

Commanders

  • Captain John Saunders - killed in action at the Battle of Antietam
  • Captain William Plumer

Armament

Файл:Sharps 1852 Verschluss offen.JPG
Sharps Model 1852 "Slanting Breech" Carbine, open for loading, two primer-tapes
Файл:Berdan Sharps rifle.jpg
Sharps rifle in .50-70 Government.

Throughout their service, the company was armed with custom, muzzle-loading target rifles equipped with telescopic sights running the length of the barrel. The larger than average physical size of the unit members proved an asset in carrying these weapons.Шаблон:Sfnp These target rifles were a mix of heavy bench rifles and lighter out of hand rifles. Hawkins and Morgan James were among the manufacturers of these rifles.

Starting at Antietam, they also carried Sharps riflesШаблон:Sfnp in the field firing over the iron sights.Шаблон:Sfnp The Sharps Rifle was produced by the Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Company in Hartford, Connecticut.Шаблон:Sfnmp The Sharps made a superior sniper weapon of greater accuracy than the more commonly issued muzzle-loading rifled muskets. This was due mainly to the higher rate of fire of the breech loading mechanism and superior quality of manufacture, as well as the ease of which it could be reloaded from a kneeling or prone position.Шаблон:Sfnp

See also

Шаблон:Portal

Notes/References

Footnotes Шаблон:NoteFoot

Citations Шаблон:Reflist

References Шаблон:Refbegin

Шаблон:Refend


Further Reading

External links