BERDAN’S UNITED STATES SHARPSHOOTERS
IN THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC
1861-1865
BY CAPTAIN C. A. STEVENS
MINT CONDITION
This is a brand new, unread, pristine condition book.
Sample book shown. Your book is brand new and still in the original shrink wrap.
New, Bright, Sharp, Clean, Illustrated, Solidly-Bound Book
Excellent Civil War Unit History of Berdan's Sharpshooters
Illustrated with Sketches, Photos and Portraits
Complete with Unit Rosters
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN 1892, THIS IS A HANDSOME, 1984 REPRINT PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS OF MORNINGSIDE BOOKSHOP
This is a comprehensive unit history of the Army’s two elite regiments of Sharpshooters, as seen partly through the eyes of a regimental member and partly through the eyes of others in the unit. Captain Stevens served as a First Lieutenant in the innovative regiment.
Led by Colonel Hiram Berdan, Lt. Colonel William Ripley, and Major George G. Hastings, the 1st U.S. Sharpshooters served in most of the major and many minor battles fought by the Army of the Potomac from Big Bethel to Hatcher’s Run, after which the unit was mustered out. The unusual nature of the sharpshooter’s mission and the regiment’s storied performance on several battle fields - notably Gettysburg where they worked well into the Confederate lines along Seminary Ridge - makes for absorbing read.
They were an elite organization. Their distinctive green uniforms, their breech-loading Sharps Rifles, and their manner of employment on the battlefield as sharpshooters and skirmishers set them apart from the rank and file of the Union army infantry. They were all crack marksmen.
The author tries to follow the course of both regiments throughout their three years with the Army of the Potomac. In addition to the camps, marches, and battles, he constantly intersperses his story with colorful anecdotes about members of the regiments, their playful pranks, their everyday habits in camp, what they carried in their knapsacks, the fact that two men per company were issued climbers to get themselves into trees more easily, etc. Throughout, he weaves a good overview of the course of the war and each campaign and battle. It is loaded with first person accounts.
Also written is a foreword by Stuart Vogt with an interesting personality profile of Hiram Berdan that reveals some unknown quirks of the colonel’s unusual character. Vogt also compiled an excellent working index to the book that gives all of the references to uniforms, weapons, accoutrements, and the like, as well as names and places.
Vogt also included as new material is a complete roster of both regiments.
THIS BOOK IS IN MINT CONDITION
This book is a brand new, unread, and in pristine condition. Sample book is shown; your book is brand new and comes in the original, publisher's shrink wrap. The book is in mint condition with no shortcomings. My photos don't do it justice. Sample book is shown; your book is brand new and comes in the original, publisher's shrink wrap. The book is clean, bright, sharp, and solidly bound. There isn’t a mark in the book. The book is bound in the Berdan’s unit green covers with brightly embossed gold lettering and the image of a sharpshooter on the cover. An excellent unit history of these two unique regiments of sharpshooters.
