Appreciate the info on weapons and the tip on tactics. Must have really been a treat in the reenactments with orders from the bugler! I checked out the CFS Press (http://www.cfspress.com/sharpshooters/articles.html)regarding Captain John D. Young, former commander of Scale's brigade sharpshooters in an article of 1878 describing formation, training, tactics, etc.,which was quite enlightening. In the same 11 page printout (yes, I had it printed) there is an article written by Fred L. Ray: "Shock Troops of the Confederacy: The Sharpshooter Battalions of the Army of Northern Virginia" which appeared in the July 2002 issue of America's Civil War magazine under a different title.

It described Captain James McKnight's regular army battery, part of George Getty's division outside of Middletown, Virginia as another rebel attack materialized out of the mist. He describes the battle but what caught my eye was:

"The Union junners' confusion is understandable--skirmishers were just not supposed to close with a strongly defended enemy position, much less assault it. These, however, were no ordinary skirmishers but the elite Corps of Sharpshooters of Ramseur's Division--the shock troops of the Confederacy. They were, as one former member put it,"the spike-head of Toledo steel" that led both the advance and retreat of the army. The sharpshooters were, in fact, not skirmishers in the normal sense but powerful combat units in their own right. As a tactical innovation, they were fifty years ahead of their time, presaging both the "open order" of the late nineteenth century and the German stosstruppen of WWI. Unfortunately this Southern corps d'elite has received only a passing mention from historians--certainly nothing like the credit they deserve."

Further in the article, describing Spotsylvania and the Confederate sharpshooters:

"The Rebels also introduced another unpleasant wrinkle--a small number of men in each battalion now carried the formidable Whitworth rifle. This state of the art weapon, some models of which sported telescopic sights, was said to be able to bring down a man at 1200 yards. As an added bonus, they were no heavier than a service musket. Commanders often gave the Whitworth sharpshooters (the term sniper did not come into us until after the Civil War) "roving commissions" on the battlefield, allowing them to pick targets of opportunity. Frequently they got their orders directly from division headquarters. One of them picked off Union General John Sedgwick at Spotsylvania (the unfortunate general's last words were "they couldn't hit an elephant at this distance")."

In the very next paragraph, which is on page 8 of 11 of the printout reads:

"The organic sharpshooter battalions gave the Confederates a degree of tactical flexibility that the Federals simply could not match. The bluecoats suffered from all the organizational problems that the Confederates had already identified, and although they did have their own excellent sharpshooters, these were separate units that had to be dispersed along the line when the army halted, then reconcentrated and moved separately when the battlefield shifted. The Federals tried attaching company-sized sharpshooter units to infantry regiments and brigades, but these were often misused as ordinary infantry by commanders who had no idea of their proper employment. Althogh some Union sharpshooter units like Berdan's carried the very effective breechloading Sharps, others struggled along with heavy civilian target rifles that greatly restricted their mobility. Every Confederate brigade, on the other hand, had a readily-available body of crack shots who were trained in skirmish tactics. All they need do was fall in. In the more or less continuous conflict of the Overland Campaign, they consistently outfought the Yankees at the skirmish line."

In Howerton's "Rapley's Sharpshooters" (my hat is off to you Bryan R. Howerton!!)he describes:

"Rapley's Sharpshooters underwent rigorous training, quite unusual for a typical Confederate unit, and became an efficient, professional, and deadly force. They needed to be, for they soon began a furious year of combat, unequaled in the Army of the West. The Sharpshooters were the army's "fire brigade", specializing in rear-guard actions, holding off superior Union forces while the Confederate army tried to maneuver through Mississippi. They were tenacious fighters and suffered correspondingly heavy casualties at Corinth, Hatchie Bridge, Big Black River, and Port Gibson."

My great, great, great uncle Leonard D. Spears was in all of those battles as they made their way to Vicksburg and the siege. I try to imagine what it must have been like to have your rear end chewed on constantly from Corinth to Port Gibson. When he was surrounded at Vicksburg I am sure he did his job when called to do it.