1st United States Sharpshooters (A, B, D, and H)

The monument to the 1st United States Sharpshooters (Companies A, B, D, and H) is located on Berdan Avenue, a small cul-de-sac located in Pitzer’s Woods off of West Confederate Avenue (the road the runs the length of Seminary Ridge).  The monument to Company F (Vermont) of the 1st U.S.S. is also located nearby as is a stone to the 3rd Maine Infantry.

On the afternoon of July 2, Third Corps commander Dan Sickles ordered the Sharpshooters and the 3rd Maine Infantry to scout these woods.  A brief fight occurred here between this Union detachment and Confederates from General Cadmus Wilcox’s command.

Companies A, B, D, and H of the 1st U.S.S. were recruited from the state of New York.  This is their main monument at Gettysburg.

1st United States Sharpshooters - Companies A, B, D, and H (New York)
Members of the 3rd Corps, 1st Division, 2nd Brigade

Commanded by Col. Hiram Berdan (1824-1893)

Engaged: 371; 6 killed, 37 wounded, 6 missing

Monument: A, B, D, and H Companies located along Berdan Avenue, Pitzer’s Woods

Company D, 2nd United States Sharpshooters

Company D of the 2nd U.S. Sharpshooters was raised from the state of Maine. It was mustered in November 2, 1861.

The monument is one of the most simple at Gettysburg. A faded granite block located along the Slyder Farm lane near the Bushman House marks the contribution of the Maine Sharpshooters at Gettysburg. The monument is simple and out-of-the way and thus missed by almost all visitors to Gettysburg.

(But not all. Many of the obscure monuments at Gettysburg feature flags showing someone else has recently visited them.)

2nd United States Sharpshooters - D (Maine)

3rd Corps, 1st Division, 2nd Brigade

Maj. Homer R. Stoughton (1836-1902)

Engaged: 200; 5 killed, 23 wounded, 15 missing

Monument: Bushman House

Company G, 1st United States Sharpshooters

Company G of the 1st U.S. Sharpshooters came from the state of Wisconsin. The monument is located along the Emmitsburg Road on the Third Corps line held on July 2, 1863. Featuring an excellent relief carving of a granite soldier crouching behind a rock, the monument boasts the unique red colored granite at the base that is found on all of Wisconsin’s monuments at Gettysburg.

Other companies in this unit are featured individually.

1st United States Sharpshooters - Company G (Wisconsin)

Members of the 3rd Corps, 1st Division, 2nd Brigade

Commanded by Col. Hiram Berdan (1824-1893)

Engaged: 371; 6 killed, 37 wounded, 6 missing

Monument: G Company located along Emmitsburg Road

E&H 2nd U.S. Sharpshooters

The monument to companies E & H of the 2nd United States Sharpshooters is located near the Slyder House at the base of Big Round Top.

The monument is accessible via the Slyder Farm lane (today a horse trail) off the Emmitsburg Road and Confederate Avenue. This is one of the monuments that you need to walk to get to at Gettysburg.

Companies E & H were both from Vermont. The monument is a plain granite structure. The main features on the front of the die are a pair of crossed rifles and the state seal. A granite scroll tells what the two companies did at Gettysburg.
But by far the real highlight of th is monument is the hornet’s nest.

Gettysburg is not famous like Shiloh for having the Hornet’s Nest, but this monument features a tree branch with a large wasp nest with angry granite hornets coming out.

This is symbolic of the hot spot that these companies found themselves in on the afternoon of July 2, 1863 when the Confederates advanced straight towards this position and on to Devil’s Den.

2nd United States Sharpshooters - E&H (Vermont)

3rd Corps, 1st Division, 2nd Brigade

Maj. Homer R. Stoughton (1836-1902)

Engaged: 200; 5 killed, 23 wounded, 15 missing

Monument: Slyder House (E&H only)

The Hornet’s Nest at Gettysburg

From my Civil War notes collection:

There really is not a Hornet’s Nest at Gettysburg. Likely you are thinking of Shiloh’s famous “Hornet’s Nest” and Sunken Road, but actually one of the monuments at Gettysburg does feature a hornet’s nest. The monument to Cos. E & H of the 2nd U.S. Sharpshooters has a carved hornet’s nest on the front. This monument is located at the Slyder Farm. Here, Cos. A, E, F, and H of the 2nd U.S. held off the 4th Alabama. The Slyder Farm is located in the vicinity of Plum Run along the Slyder Lane Trail. It will be a future feature of a monument study.

Company F, 1st United States Sharpshooters

Today’s monument is the marker to company F, 1st United States Sharpshooters.

Each of the different companies of the two sharpshooter regiments has a monument in a different location at Gettysburg.  F company of the 1st U.S.S. was from the state of Vermont.

The monument to F company is situated in Pitzer’s woods off Berdan Avenue.  Berdan Avenue is located off of West Confederate Avenue and is a small cul-de-sac.  This marks the location where the company helped to check Longstreet’s march towards the Union left.

The monument consists of a white marble column topped by an eagle with spread wings.  The inscription denotes Company F’s service at Gettysburg.  This monument shows some age, but is one of the more striking at Gettysburg because of its bright white color.

1st United States Sharpshooters - Company F (Vermont)
Members of the 3rd Corps, 1st Division, 2nd Brigade

Commanded by Col. Hiram Berdan (1824-1893)

Engaged: 371; 6 killed, 37 wounded, 6 missing

Monument: F Company located along Berdan Avenue, Pitzer’s Woods

the sharpshooter

The Civil War was the first American war where the aftermath of battles was photographed. For Christmas, I got a book on “Early Photography at Gettysburg.” It was written by William Frassanito, an expert on Civil War photography. The book is really fascinating. I started flipping through it last night at 9:30 and before I looked up and knew it, it was after 11:00.

Its good to sometimes stop and reflect upon the photographs from the Civil War. I’m guilty, I know, of sometimes getting too caught up in study of the tactics. To look at the photographs of the dead, however, is to know the true, terrible human cost of the Civil War.

The photograph from Gettysburg that’s always struck me is <a href=”http://memory.loc.gov/service/pnp/cwpb/04300/04337v.jpg”>this one</a>. There’s a lot of photos from Gettysburg of the dead. Most are truly horrible to look at. They depict bodies killed four or five days before that had been left exposed to the elements of summer in south-central Pennsylvania. The bodies are bloated, grotesque. Most show the soldiers laid out in long rows awaiting quick burial. Almost all but a couple pictures show the Confederate dead. The soldiers seen will be buried as quickly as possible by their enemies; not only have they given their lives for their country, they also have given up their identities.

Anyway, you’ve probably seen the sharpshooter photograph somewhere. Its a very famous photograph. Maybe it was even in your history book in school. I think this photo is so powerful because it is so different than most of the other death studies. While the scenes showing long lines of men awaiting burial are powerful, there also is a certain anonymity to the pictures — the features of the individual soldiers are bloated beyond recognigiton. But the sharpshooter is different. His face is a bit swollen, but he looks as if he has just recently fallen. He is obviously young — perhaps barely old enough to shave. Frassanito discovered that the photographer, Alexander Gardner, actually moved this soldier about 70 yards and placed him in this position as a sharpshooter.

I’ve often wondered about this sharpshooter. Who was he? What state was he from (I imagine from where he was killed that he was either a Georgian or a Texan)? Did he die right away? I wonder about this because for the book, Frassanito actually interviewed a coronor to establish exactly when Gardner took his death study photos. Gardner himself dated his pictures as July 6 and 7. The coronor surmised the pictures were taken about five days after death due to the decomposition of the bodies. That is in line with when Gardner was on the battlefield; these men were killed in fighting that occurred on the night of July 2, 1863. But the book mentions that the coronor thought the sharpshooter picture was taken probably only two days after death. Indeed, if you compare him to the photos taken at say, Sharpsburg, only two days or so after the battle, the sharpshooter looks more like those bodies. So I wonder if he suffered horribly for days on the battlefield before meeting his end. Perhaps caught between the lines, no one could help him.

To quote Shakespeare, “There are few die well that die in battle.”

The poor Sharpshooter. Almost certainly he was buried without a name attached to him. What was his name? Did anyone see him fall and tell his parents or family of his fate? Did he have a wife? Did he have brothers or sisters? Why did he choose to fight? I wonder if somewhere in the South, his family was able to identify him through the picture.