Understood, and agree. I was not suggesting that the prewar Essex vol militia unit calling themselves the Essex Sharp Shooters would have met the standards of the mid/late war expert marksmen. My only point was the suggestion that "sharp shooters" was originally written as two words and, over time, came to be written as one. Whether that happened within the span of the war years or later, I have no idea, but I have noted "correction" by copyists of a later generation. (Note how, even now, some are retaining "web site" as two words, while others are writing "website," which I suspect will prevail.)