Ken and Hayes, According to my research, you are both correct about Companies A,D, and I of the 40TH Ala. Inf. Regt. known as "Stone's Battallion of Alabama Sharpshooters" not being organized or utilized as a sharpshooter organization as such. As far as I can tell the "sharpshooter" description was more of a nickname than anything. The best information source of this organization that I have found is the excellent series of articles written after the war by Capt. Sprott of Co. A that were originally published in the newspaper "Our Southern Home" that has been recently compiled and published as "Cush : A Civil War Memoir" that you referenced. So far, I have not discovered any letters or diaries of any other men of these 3 companies that would shed any more light on this organization. As detailed as Capt. Sprott was,I could not imagine that they were ever used in any way other than how he described.

Regards, Henry