Sharpshooter



From: Andy King (jcksnghst@windstream.net)
Date: Wed, Aug 31, 2016
Subject: Sharpshooter
To: hk.edgerton@gmail.com

As one might suspect, Berdan’s men were coveted targets for the enemy. On one occasion when a member of the 1st U.S.S.S. was killed in an advanced rifle pit, some Confederates managed to get to
his body. After confiscating his extremely accurate weapon, they left the Yankees a note indicating that they hoped to get more of these guns in the future. That same incident also made the
Southern papers, which boasted that a “McClellan Sharpshooter had been picked off by a Kentucky hunter.”

While they were in front of Yorktown, Berdan’s men talked about one particular Confederate marksman more than any other—a black sharpshooter. It seems he occupied a hollow tree more than 1,000 yards in front of their line. Apparently armed with
a telescopic rifle, he kept the pickets pinned down with effective fire.

http://www.historynet.com/killers-in-green-coats.htm

Andy King-C&H Farms