Review - " Sharpshooting Rifles of the American Civil War: Colt, Sharps, Spencer, and Whitworth " by Martin Pegler

[Sharpshooting Rifles of the American Civil War: Colt, Sharps, Spencer, and Whitworth by Martin Pegler (Osprey Publishing, 2017). Softcover, photographs, artwork, illustrations, glossary, bibliography, index. 80 pages. ISBN:978-1-47281-591-0. $23]

The topic of American Civil War sharpshooting encompasses a fairly wide range of battlefield activities and a great variety of weapon types, from individual shooters firing from concealment with heavy, scoped target rifles (i.e. the period equivalent of the modern sniper) to entire maneuver units composed of either muzzleloader or breechloader-armed marksmen trained in open order battlefield formations and tactics. Even common infantrymen wielding standard rifles performed sharpshooting assignments on a great many battlefields (ex. during the Vicksburg siege, high-volume sharpshooting by Union infantry in the forward trenches played a vital role in shielding friendly units conducting sapping operations). Number 56 of the Weapon series from Osprey Publishing, Martin Pegler's Sharpshooting Rifles of the American Civil War, as its subtitle suggests, focuses on the Colt, Sharps, Spencer, and Whitworth shoulder arms (the first three predominantly in the hands of Union soldiers and the last primarily a Confederate weapon of choice).

Osprey titles that are part of a series generally adhere to a standardized format and page length, and the Weapon series has a three-section structure ("Development," "Use," and "Impact") designed to fit inside 80 richly illustrated pages. Balancing depth with popular appeal is something every Osprey series author must address, and Pegler manages the challenge quite well.

The volume begins with a brief introduction to American developments in rifled shoulder arms suitable for battlefield sharpshooting conditions, from the Colonial period up through the Civil War era. In addition to providing informative summaries of the strengths, weaknesses, and raw capabilities of select firearms—in particular the Colt revolving rifle, special-ordered "Berdan" double-set triggered Sharps rifle, Spencer repeating rifle, and imported muzzleloading Whitworth rifle—the book also highlights some of the heavy sporting rifles used during the conflict. High-resolution photographs of these weapons (along with many close-up images of key components) are inserted throughout. Though the book focuses on specialized military and adapted arms, it is recognized that, on a collective basis, most sharpshooting was performed by soldiers firing the more standard rifle-muskets of the period.

The Use section briefly covers some examples of specialized training (which was highly variable at the time) and discusses the range of tasks that sharpshooting individuals and units performed, examples of which include accurate, high-volume fire from units such as Berdan's US Sharpshooter regiments, extreme-range individual fire, officer targeting, anti-battery fire, and countersniping. While streamlining of topics and themes by necessity imposes a certain degree of simplification, the text is perhaps a bit too accepting of the first-shot kill capabilities of some of these weapons at extreme ranges under battlefield (versus ideal test-firing) conditions [see Scott Hippensteel's 2021 book Myths of the Civil War: The Fact, Fiction, and Science behind the Civil War’s Most-Told Stories for a different, much more skeptical perspective on three well-known Civil War sniping incidents]. Nevertheless, readers intrigued by that aspect of sharpshooting will likely find the book's section discussing the author's own test firing experiences, as both user and observer, to be of keen interest.

Finally, the book outlines the tactical and technical impact of Civil War sharpshooting weapons. The format obviously does not allow comprehensive discussion of tactically innovative practices (for example, the novel way in which sharpshooter battalions were integrated into conventional line formations in the Army of Northern Virginia, best documented in Fred Ray's 2006 book Shock Troops of the Confederacy, is only mentioned in passing), but the author correctly observes that sharpshooter weapons operated by soldiers deployed in open order formations did not transform battlefield tactics on a fundamental level until after the war. The ultimate technological impact of these Civil War weapons emerged from postwar institutional debates over what individual weapons system—single-shot breechloader versus repeating rifle—the army would employ on a standardized basis going forward, with the former winning out over the latter due to concerns over relative complexity, expense, ammunition expenditure, and field reliability.

Martin Pegler's Sharpshooting Rifles of the American Civil War is a solid reading option for those seeking an introductory-level survey of sharpshooter weapons, their tactical use, and their American military legacy.