Download or read book The Life of a Union Army Sharpshooter written by William G. Andrews and published by . This book was released on 2015-10-15 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John T. Farnham, a sharpshooter in the Union Army, wrote a substantial diary entry nearly every day during his three-year enlistment, sent over 50 long articles to his hometown newspaper, and mailed some 600 letters home. He described training, battles, skirmishes, encampments, furloughs, marches, hospital life, and clerkships at the Iron Brigade headquarters and the War Department. He met Lincoln and acquired a blood-stained cuff taken from his assassinated body. He befriended freed slaves, teaching them to read and write and built them a school. He campaigned for Lincoln's re-election. He subscribed to three newspapers and several magazines and devoured 22 books. He attended 23 plays and six concerts during his service. He was gregarious and popular, naming in his diaries 108 friends in the service and 156 at home. Frail and sickly, he died of tuberculosis four years after his discharge. He paints a detailed portrait of the lives of ordinary soldiers in the Union Army, their food, living conditions, relations among officers and men, ordeals, triumphs, and tragedies. Nominated for the Gilder Lehrman Prize
Download or read book The Life of a Union Army Sharpshooter written by William G. Andrews and published by Fonthill Media. This book was released on 2017-04-20 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Sharpshooters of the American Civil War 1861 65 written by Philip Katcher and published by Osprey Publishing. This book was released on 2002-10-18 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When the American Civil War (1861-1865) broke out, both Confederate and Union experts decided that specialized sharpshooter units should be formed. These highly trained marksmen served in a front-line role and, due to the technological developments of the 1850s, were equipped with weapons that could guarantee greater accuracy over increased range than traditional muskets. This title examines the recruitment, training, tactics and deployment of sharpshooters from both sides of the conflict. It also takes a close look at the specialized personal weaponry of the sharpshooter, the rifle and its accoutrements, as well as the sharpshooters' unique insignia and identification patches.
Download or read book Berdan s United States Sharpshooters in the Army of the Potomac 1861 1865 written by Charles Augustus Stevens and published by . This book was released on 1892 with total page 672 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Union Sharpshooter vs Confederate Sharpshooter written by Gary Yee and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-06-27 with total page 81 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the American Civil War, the Union and the Confederacy both fielded units of sharpshooters. Sometimes equipped with firearms no better than those of their infantry brethren, they fought in a manner reminiscent of Napoleonic-era light infantry. Siege warfare placed a premium on marksmanship and the sharpshooter became indispensable as they could drive artillerymen from their guns. They could also become expert scouts and, for the Confederacy, impressive raiders – one raid netted almost 250 prisoners. Initially, Union marksmen enjoyed the upper hand, but as the Confederates began raising and training their own sharpshooters, they proved themselves as worthy opponents. In this study, Gary Yee, an expert in firearms of the period, assesses the role played by sharpshooters in three bloody clashes at the height of the American Civil War – the battle of Fredericksburg, the siege of Vicksburg, and the siege of Battery Wagner.
Download or read book Jack Hinson s One Man War written by Tom McKenney and published by Pelican Publishing. This book was released on 2010-09-23 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The true story of one man's reluctant but relentless war against the invaders of his country.A quiet, wealthy plantation owner, Jack Hinson watched the start of the Civil War with disinterest. Opposed to secession and a friend to Union and Confederate commanders alike, he did not want a war. After Union soldiers seized and murdered his sons, placing their decapitated heads on the gateposts of his estate, Hinson could remain indifferent no longer. He commissioned a special rifle for long-range accuracy, he took to the woods, and he set out for revenge. This remarkable biography presents the story of Jack Hinson, a lone Confederate sniper who, at the age of 57, waged a personal war on Grant's army and navy. The result of 15 years of scholarship, this meticulously researched and beautifully written work is the only account of Hinson's life ever recorded and involves an unbelievable cast of characters, including the Earp brothers, Jesse James, and Nathan Bedford Forrest.
Download or read book The Second United States Sharpshooters in the Civil War written by Gerald L. Earley and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2009-04-22 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Second United States Sharpshooters was a hodgepodge regiment, composed of companies raised in several New England states. The regiment was trained for a specific mission and armed with specially ordered breech-loading target rifles. This book covers the origin, recruitment, training, and battle record of the regiment and features 32 photographs, four battlefield maps, and a regimental roster.
Download or read book The Shenandoah Sharpshooter written by Walt Ryan and published by . This book was released on 2014-12-18 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While the Civil War burns around him, a young man fights a battle of his own. It is strange how a man's best-made plans can change. Stephen Purcell's quiet, happy life changed in an instant of violence. Then he found himself on the run. But before he left the war-torn Shenandoah Valley, Purcell vowed to kill the man who changed it all . . . an evil man named Striker. With the best horse in the valley underneath him, Purcell headed west with only a knife and a sack of potatoes. The buckskin jacket he wore was the only reminder of his loved ones that were so horrifically taken from him. Early in his journey, Purcell's promise to a dying soldier gave him a weapon, a mission and some battle scars. To save himself and his horse, Purcell hid in the Blue Ridge Mountains. He did not know how he would do it, but he would kill Striker. Along Purcell's travels, his will would be tested, his life would be challenged, he would learn to trust again, and even find love. His knowledge of the telegraph became a valuable help to new friends and a crucial turning point for the Union army. A boy becomes a man on a hard road through Confederate lines. Will Purcell's path lead to destiny or blood? Discover what becomes of the man who finds himself known across the valley as a hardened shootist - a force to be reckoned with - the man they call The Shenandoah Sharpshooter.
Download or read book These Men Have Seen Hard Service written by Raymond J. Herek and published by Wayne State University Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 618 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These Men Have Seen Hard Service recounts the fascinating history of one outstanding Michigan regiment during the Civil War. A compelling political, social, ethnic, and military drama, this book examines the lives of the 1300 men of the First Michigan Sharpshooters for the first time, beginning with the regiment's inception and extending through post-war activities until the death of the last rifleman in 1946. Beyond presenting numerous anecdotes about the men and officers and their contributions during the war, Raymond Herek provides insight into the medical community of the time, the draft, other commands in the same division, the politics endemic in raising a regiment, and Michigan's Native American contingent. The extensive appendices will be of particular use to genealogists, Civil War enthusiasts, and historians, because they list the men in the regiment, and also battle and camp casualties.
Download or read book Berry Benson s Civil War Book written by Berry Benson and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 2011-07-01 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Confederate scout and sharpshooter Berry Greenwood Benson witnessed the first shot fired on Fort Sumter, retreated with Lee's Army to its surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, and missed little of the action in between. This memoir of his service is a remarkable narrative, filled with the minutiae of the soldier's life and paced by a continual succession of battlefield anecdotes. Three main stories emerge from Benson's account: his reconnaissance exploits, his experiences in battle, and his escape from prison. Though not yet eighteen years old when he left his home in Augusta, Georgia, to join the army, Benson was soon singled out for the abilities that would serve him well as a scout. Not only was he a crack shot, a natural leader, and a fierce Southern partisan, but he had a kind of restless energy and curiosity, loved to take risks, and was an instant and infallible judge of human nature. His recollections of scouting take readers within arm's reach of Union trenches and encampments. Benson recalls that while eavesdropping he never failed to be shocked by the Yankees' foul language; he had never heard that kind of talk in a Confederate camp! Benson's descriptions of the many battles in which he fought--including Cold Harbor, The Seven Days, Manassas, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania, and Petersburg--convey the desperation of a full frontal charge and the blind panic of a disorganized retreat. Yet in these accounts, Benson's own demeanor under fire is manifest in the coolly measured tone he employs. A natural writer, Benson captures the dark absurdities of war in such descriptions as those of hardened veterans delighting in the new shoes and other equipment they found on corpse-littered battlefields. His clothing often torn by bullets, Benson was also badly bruised a number of times by spent rounds. At one point, in May 1863, he was wounded seriously enough in the leg to be hospitalized, but he returned to the field before full recuperation. Benson was captured behind enemy lines in May 1864 while on a scouting mission for General Lee. Confined to Point Lookout Prison in Maryland, he escaped after only two days and swam the Potomac to get back into Virginia. Recaptured near Washington, D.C., he was briefly held in Old Capitol Prison, then sent to Elmira Prison in New York. There he joined a group of ten men who made the only successful tunnel escape in Elmira's history. After nearly six months in captivity or on the run, he rejoined his unit in Virginia. Even at Appomattox, Benson refused to surrender but stole off with his brother to North Carolina, where they planned to join General Johnston. Finding the roads choked with Union forces and surrendered Confederates, the brothers ultimately bore their unsurrendered rifles home to Augusta. Berry Benson first wrote his memoirs for his family and friends. Completed in 1878, they drew on his--and partially on his brother's--wartime diaries, as well as on letters that both brothers had written to family members during the war. The memoirs were first published in book form in 1962 but have long been unavailable. This edition, with a new foreword by the noted Civil War historian Herman Hattaway, will introduce this compelling story to a new generation of readers.
Download or read book Sharpshooter written by David Madden and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A gripping and thought-provoking work that is unlike any Civil War novel previously written, Sharpshooter takes us into the mind of one of the war's veterans as he attempts, years after the conflict, to reconstruct his experiences and to find some measure of meaning in them. A child of the divided East Tennessee mountain region, Willis Carr left home at age thirteen to follow his father and brothers on a bridge-burning mission for the Union cause. Imprisoned at Knoxville, he agreed to join the Confederate army to avoid being hanged and became a sharpshooter serving under General Longstreet. He survived several major battles, including Gettysburg, and eventually found himself guarding prisoners at the infamous Andersonville stockade, where a former slave taught him to read. After the war, haunted by his memories, Carr writes down his story, revisits the battlefields, studies photographs and drawings, listens to other veterans as they tell their stories, and pores over memoirs and other books. Above all, he imbues whatever he hears, sees, and reads with his emotions, his imaginations, and his intellect. Yet, even as an old man nearing death, he still feels that he has somehow missed the war, that something essential about it has eluded him. Finally, in a searing moment of personal revelation, a particular memory, long suppressed, rises to the surface of Carr's consciousness and draws his long quest to a poignant close.
Download or read book The Sharpshooters written by Edward G. Longacre and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2017-01-01 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recruited as sharpshooters and clothed in distinctive uniforms with green trim, the hand-picked regiment of the Ninth New Jersey Volunteer Infantry was renowned and admired far and wide. The only New Jersey regiment to reenlist for the duration of the Civil War at the close of its initial three-year term, the Ninth saw action in forty-two battles and engagements across three states. Throughout the South, the regiment broke up enemy camps and supply depots, burned bridges, and destroyed railroad tracks to thwart Confederate movements. Members of the Ninth also suffered disease and starvation as POWs at the notorious Andersonville prison camp in Georgia. Recruited largely from socially conservative cities and villages in northern and central New Jersey, the Ninth Volunteer Infantry consisted of men with widely differing opinions about the Union and their enemy. Edward G. Longacre unearths these complicated political and social views, tracing the history of this esteemed regiment before, during, and after the war—from recruitment at Camp Olden to final operations in North Carolina.
Download or read book Diary of a Confederate Sharpshooter written by James Conrad Peters and published by . This book was released on 1997-01-01 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "James Conrad Peters had a unique military career in the Confederate Army. He served in the cavalry, artillery, and infantry without ever transferring from his original unit. After the unit's capture at Ft. Donelson along with their cannon, the unit was reorganized as a sharpshooter battalion of infantry. James' experiences through the war and his survival through two of the most horrible Union prison camps provide a lesson in courage, faith, and perseverance"--Preface.
Download or read book Sharpshooters written by Gary Yee and published by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. This book was released on 2018-12-15 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sharpshooters are much more than skilled marksmen. They must be stealthy and patient, willing to sit hidden in uncomfortable places for hours, and much more. This instructive volume highlights the different weapons, ammunitions, and other equipment favored by various sharpshooters, their benefits and shortcomings, and their development. Readers will also enjoy learning about the favored tactics and ruses used by these eagle-eyed warriors. A list of notable sharpshooters and snipers highlights their fascinating feats as well as the wars in which they participated and country affiliations. Tales of tremendous adventures will keep readers engrossed and eagerly flipping pages.
Download or read book Sharpshooting Rifles of the American Civil War written by Martin Pegler and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-08-24 with total page 81 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the outset of the American Civil War, the Union Army's sharpshooters were initially equipped with the M1855 Colt revolving rifle, but it was prone to malfunction. Instead, the North's sharpshooters preferred the Sharps rifle, an innovative breech-loading weapon capable of firing up to ten shots per minute – more than three times the rate of fire offered by the standard-issue Springfield .58-caliber rifled musket. Other Union sharpshooters were equipped with the standard-issue Springfield rifled musket or the .56-56-caliber Spencer Repeating Rifle. Conversely, the Confederacy favoured the Pattern 1853 Enfield rifled musket for its sharpshooters and also imported from Britain the Whitworth Rifle, a .45-caliber, single-shot, muzzle-loading weapon distinguished by its use of a twisted hexagonal barrel. Featuring specially commissioned artwork, this is the engrossing story of the innovative rifles that saw combat in the hands of sharpshooters on both sides during the Civil War.
Download or read book No Word of Them First Battalion New York Sharpshooters 1862 1865 written by John Bennett and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2008-03-01 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first Battalion of New York State Sharpshooters, Companies 6-10 were neither independent units nor part of Hiram Berdan's United States Sharp Shooters. Company 7 went directly to Suffolk, Va. and joined the 112th New York Infantry Regiment, and the rest of the above mentioned companies initially went to Baltimore and then Washingrton, D.C. and joined the U.S. Army of the Potomac. Companies 9 and 10 were consolidated. In 1864 Companies 6, 7-9 rejoined Company 7 and the 112th New York Infantry Regiment. All of them fought in the Battle of Cold Harbor May 31-June 12, 1864.
Download or read book That Devil Forrest written by John A. Wyeth and published by Ravenio Books. This book was released on 2016-05-30 with total page 770 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the last two years of the Civil War I was a private soldier in a regiment of Alabama cavalry which had formerly served under Forrest. Four companies of this regiment had formed a portion of the famous battalion which had distinguished itself in the engagement at Fort Donelson, and, refusing to surrender, had marched out with him through the gap in General Grant’s lines. Although I was at no time directly under General Forrest, I was impressed by the enthusiastic devotion to him of these veterans, who had followed his banner for the first year of the war, and who seemed never to tire in speaking of his kind treatment of them, his sympathetic nature as a man, his great personal daring, and especially of his wonderful achievements as a commander. Of these achievements I was at that time not altogether ignorant. His escape from Fort Donelson; the desperate charge which saved Beauregard’s army from Sherman’s vigorous pursuit after Shiloh, in which he was severely wounded; the capture of Murfreesborough with its entire garrison of infantry and artillery, with his small brigade of cavalry without cannon; the charge on and capture of Coburn’s infantry at Thompson’s station; the capture of the garrison at Brentwood; and the relentless pursuit of Streight’s raiders, which ended in the surrender of these gallant Union soldiers to Forrest with less than one-half of their number, had already attracted wide attention and had made him famous. The knowledge of these facts, together with a personal association with the men who had felt the influence of his immediate leadership, naturally interested me in his career, which I closely followed to the end of the great struggle. When the general government, with wise forethought, began to collect and to place at the disposal of its citizens the official reports and correspondence, and all the reliable literature of the war, I undertook, in the light of these and other authentic papers, a closer analysis of his military record. The further my investigations proceeded, the more I became convinced that while Forrest was justly acknowledged to be one of the most famous fighters and leaders of mounted infantry or cavalry which the war produced on either side, he was more than this, and that a careful and unbiased statement of his achievements would place him in history not only as one of the most remarkable and romantic personalities of the Civil War, but as one of the ablest soldiers of the world. While I had hoped, as year after year slipped by since peace was declared, that some one abler than I would undertake the task of placing in readable shape the story of his life, I had determined if this were not done before I should pass into the “sere and yellow leaf” to pay this tribute to his memory myself. It has been a work of years to gather up from every available source the matter relating to this history—his early days, his civil and private life, and the accurate facts of his military record. In 1894, I wrote a condensed sketch, had it printed in single column upon the margin of wide sheets of paper, leaving a large blank space, and these I mailed to every surviving officer or soldier of his command whose address I could obtain, and to others personally acquainted with Forrest before or after the war. All were requested to return the sheet with corrections, and to add everything of interest, for the accuracy of which the sender could vouch. I also caused the publication of this sketch in various newspapers of wide circulation in the section of the South from which his troops were chiefly drawn, and asked as well for private letters of information. As a result of these efforts a great mass of material came into my possession, and an interest was aroused which encouraged me in the laborious task of sifting the reliable from the unreliable, and of making presentable to the reader the matter which was worthy of credence.
