Berdan’s Sharpshooters

Colonel Hiram Berdan’s 1st U.S. Sharpshooters fired from this rifle pit at Confederate troops across the Warwick River. Considered the nation’s best marksman, Berdan organized the regiment from hand-picked volunteers who could place ten consecutive shots in a 10-inch circle at 200 yards. The Sharpshooters wore green uniforms for camouflage, and some carried their own target rifles with telescopic sights. They served as skirmishers in the advance up the Virginia Peninsula and became adept snipers during the siege of the Warwick-Yorktown line. Lieutenant David F. Ritchie of the 1st New York Light Artillery wrote that “Our sharpshooters have become a terror to the enemy, though this lying in wait and picking off men singly is after all a barbarous method of warefare.” Confederate Major Robert Stiles likewise said, “The regular sharpshooters often seem to me little better than a human tiger lying in wait for blood.” After the Peninsula Campaign, Berdan’s Sharpshooters continued to serve with distinction until disbanding in February 1865 and were purported to have inflicted the most casualties of any Union regiment.

Newport News, Virginia · United States