Booknotes: Thunderbolt to the Rebels

New Arrival:

• Thunderbolt to the Rebels: The United States Sharpshooters in the Civil War by Darin Wipperman (Stackpole Bks, 2025).

A number of units of varying size that served in the Army of the Potomac had the word "sharpshooters" in their name, but the two raised by Hiram Berdan, the 1st United States Sharpshooters regiment and the 2nd United States Sharpshooters almost regiment (it had eight companies), clearly have garnered the highest level of popular recognition and attention in the Civil War literature. A new study of the 2nd USSS at Gettysburg was published just a few months ago. Acknowledging the hefty nature of existing coverage, Thunderbolt to the Rebels: The United States Sharpshooters in the Civil War author Darin Wipperman nevertheless aims to offer readers a fresh slant on the topic, his research revealing that "much new could be told about their field service" (pg. xii).

From the description: "Sharpshooters were the elite of the Union army. Clad in green uniforms and equipped with the era’s latest rifles and scopes, they took up positions out in front of the infantry, where they targeted Confederate officers or skirmished with enemy soldiers. However they were used, sharpshooters formed an important presence on battlefields throughout the Civil War, and yet most accounts have tended to focus on their distinctive uniforms and cutting-edge equipment rather than on their combat performance. Thunderbolt to the Rebels tells the story of these Civil War deadeyes on battlefields from Antietam to Gettysburg and beyond."

Per the author, his book, based on primary sources, "focuses on the two regiments' very difficult thirty-four months of combat operations starting with the 1st USSS at Yorktown in April 1862" (pg. xii). Supported by eight maps, the text explores USSS participation in the Peninsula, Second Manassas, Antietam, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Overland, and Petersburg campaigns. The main narrative ends with final disbandment of the 2nd USSS in February 1865, an act that frustrated many members who understandably wanted to the witness the conclusion of the war with their unit intact.

As it was with cavalry service, fighting as a USSS was harder and more dangerous than many suppose. More from the description: "During the first year of the Civil War, Hiram Berdan proposed the creation of a unit of marksmen armed with Sharps rifles, and thus were born the 1st and 2nd U.S. Sharpshooters. Drawn heavily from the Upper Midwest and New England, as well as Pennsylvania, the soldiers had to pass a marksmanship test to join: 10 shots in a 10-inch-diameter circle from 200 yards. They were issued green uniforms for better camouflage, which also helped Confederate riflemen target them. The job of a sharpshooter was dangerous and demanding – much of it out in front of the army, much of it alone – but they made a difference on the battlefield." Even though Wipperman's own accounting of total sharpshooter deaths is a bit lower than Fox's, it remains that "one in five Sharpshooters would not survive their war experience" (pg. xiii).

In the end Wipperman finds that, while the units played a noteworthy part in the Army of the Potomac's campaigns, it was also the case that the "Sharpshooters' war experience failed to fulfill the expectations created for the marksmen" (pg. 267). As recapitulated in the conclusion, reasons behind that included unrealistic expectations, devastating disease, fickle or absent bureaucratic support, common misplacement on the battlefield, and less than stellar leadership. Brief sketches of the post-war lives of a representative group of Sharpshooters, presumably drawn for those who contributed firsthand source material to the project, are also included, as is an appendix exploring names and numbers of those members who died during the war.