"It appears that this battalion was a sharpshooter battalion in name only. Had it survived after the battle of Prairie Grove it probably would have become one in time."

There's no difference in the organization of what was called a "sharpshooter battalion" and a regular light infantry battalion. The term "battalion" implies that the unit was organized with fewer than the full ten companies required for a regiment. Tactically, these units were specialists in skirmishing and the duties currently performed by what we now call the recon or scout elements in the present-day infantry. "Sniping" -- at least in the manner we think of it today -- was not that much a part of it, as Civil War infantry didn't get much formal instruction in rifle marksmanship, other than that skirmishers were expected to deliver individual, aimed fire at targets of opportunity rather than the massed volleys of the infantry line of battle. Sharpshooters were equipped in the the same manner as infantry, with the standard rifle or rifle-musket; some were even armed for a time with smoothbores ;-)

Tom