Letters From A Sharpshooter

The Second United States Sharpshooters was a hodgepodge regiment, composed of companies raised in several New England states. The regiment was trained for a specific mission and armed with specially ordered breech-loading target rifles. This book covers the origin, recruitment, training, and battle record of the regiment and features 32 photographs, four battlefield maps, and a regimental roster.

Following the success of Out of Nowhere: A History of the Military Sniper, sniper expert Martin Pegler gives us an in-depth study of the emergence of American rifleman, sharpshooter and sniper, examining the evolution of the rifle in America from the earliest firearms of the 15th century to the highly accurate sniping rifles of the 21st century. Pegler analyses the technological development of the rifle, sighting systems and ammunition and uses contemporary accounts to describe how the use of the rifle during the Revolutionary War, Civil War and the conflicts of the 20th and 21st centuries have impacted on US military history. This detailed account concludes with a study of the American sniper in modern warfare, including Afghanistan and the ongoing conflict in Iraq, providing an overview of the march of weapons technology, as well as an unusual insight into the lives and the motives of the men who used them.

William Rhadamanthus Montgomery (1839-1906) was present at some of the most memorable battles of the Civil War. Among them were Chickahominy, Seven Pines, Malvern Hill, Manassas, Sharpsburg, Fredricksburg, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, and Cold Harbor. Wounded seven or eight times, Montgomery remained in service throughout the entire war. After the war, he returned to Marietta where he lived out the rest of his days. The diary and the letters contained herein is a testament to his time as a soldier during the Civil War. But as the diary and letters indicate, the war was not the end all of his life. His loyalty for the South was surpassed only by his loyalty for and to his family.

Alan Nolan's 1961 Iron Brigade, the classic study of Brigadier General John Gibbon's Black Hat Brigade composed of the 19th Indiana, the 2nd, 6th, and 7th Wisconsin and the 24th Michigan, drew public attention to the superior unit during the Civil War Centennial. Since then, much has been written about Gibbon's Iron Brigade but nothing has published on the original Iron Brigade from which Gibbon's brigade inherited it name. In The Original Iron Brigade, author Thomas Reed discusses the history of the 1st Brigade,1st Division, 1st Corps, Army of the Potomac, composed of three New York two year regiments, the 22nd, 34th, and 30th New York Infantry, the 14th Brooklyn Militia (84th New York Infantry) and the 2nd United States Sharpshooters. The brigade's story begins with the 14th Brooklyn's role during the First Battle of Manassas in 1861 and ends with the disbanding of the brigade in June 1863. Based on original unpublished diaries and letters of the men of the brigade, this book describes how the Original Iron Brigade earned its name by its hard marching during the spring of 1862. The brigade attacked Stonewall Jackson's troops along the unfinished railroad line during the Second Battle of Manassas, stormed Turner's Gap during the Battle of South Mountain, and attacked Stonewall Jackson's men again at the Dunker Church in the Battle of Antietam.

James McPherson’s classic book For Cause & Comrades explained “why men fought in the Civil War”—and spurred countless other historians to ask and attempt to answer the same question. But few have explored why men did not fight. That’s the question Paul Taylor answers in this groundbreaking Civil War history that examines the reasons why at least 60 percent of service-eligible men in the North chose not to serve and why, to some extent, their communities allowed them to do so. Did these other men not feel the same patriotic impulses as their fellow citizens who rushed to the enlistment office? Did they not believe in the sanctity of the Union? Was freeing men held in chains under chattel slavery not a righteous moral crusade? And why did some soldiers come to regret their enlistment and try to leave the military? ’Tis Not Our War answers these questions by focusing on the thoughts, opinions, and beliefs of average civilians and soldiers. Taylor digs deep into primary sources—newspapers, diaries, letters, archival manuscripts, military reports, and published memoirs—to paint a vivid and richly complex portrait of men who questioned military service in the Civil War and to show that the North was never as unified in support of the war as portrayed in much of America’s collective memory. This book adds to our understanding of the Civil War and the men who fought—and did not fight—in it.

The letters home to his family by Gerald Goodlake, a young officer in the Coldstream Guards, make remarkable reading. They vividly describe the ill-preparedness of the British Army and the dire conditions experienced by all ranks in the Crimea. Goodlake's views on senior officers were frank to say the least! Most important, Goodlake's initiative and courage in organising and leading what were 'Special Forces' were rewarded by the award of one of the first Victoria Crosses. Goodlake served in the Crimea from early 1854 to the end two years later.