"acw skirmishers" Topic

Was it usual for ACW units to put out a skirmish screen ahead of regiments and if so were these men specialists within a regiment or chosen randomly?

Soldiers are trained in how to form a skirmish line and are not specialist. It could be as many as required in a given situation.

The use of skirmishers would depend on the tactical situation. The amount of skirmishers deployed would vary as well. All companies were trained how to operate in skirmish order, although regimental commanders may have favored certain companies for light skirmishing. Skirmishers would also typically deploy in two lines: the first line being the skirmishers, the second line being the skirmish reserve. If an entire regiment was detailed to be the brigade skirmish screen, you might see 2 or 3 companies on the skirmish line, and a line reserve of 7 or 8 companies behind them.

Deploying skirmishers ahead of a regiment was standard practice. Theoretically, all ACW infantry were trained as skirmishers so there would not be 'specialist' skirmishers within a regiment. So the typical method would be to take one or two companies (probably the ones on the flanks so as not to create a gap in the line) and send them ahead as a skirmish line. The book tactics called for each skirmisher company to send out one platoon in open order and keep the other platoon as a formed reserve. Actual practice would vary depending on the circumstances. There are also times where an entire regiemnt might be deployed as skirmishers to screen the front of a brigade or division.

I'd recommend you read this book:
link

It describes the ANV, post-1862, method of taking a number of men [from memory 1 in 12] from each regiment, within a brigade, and combining them into an autonomous light battalion, commanded by a field officer. This formation would then operate independently in the function of skirmishers, scouts etc., for the brigade. This seemed to have a lot of similarity with the Napoleonic British use of combined light battalions at brigade level that Wellington had used throughout the Peninsular and 1815 campaigns.

The author points out that this was seen less in the Western Confederate forces, and the author also stresses that it wasn't the case in the Union forces. The Union had a number of specialist light battalions [1st and 2nd USSS, and others], but they never combined men from the regiments into light battalions at division or brigade.

The word sharpshooter, at the time was somewhat interchangeable with skirmisher – although the men were typically excellent shots, they were not employed as 'snipers', as we would perhaps consider a sharpshooter today.

From my reading it was not uncommon for a regiment to regularly use one of its flank companies to skirmish, although all companies were trained to do so. This was especially true in the early years of the war when smooth-bore armed units often had a single company equipped with rifles to be used as skirmishers. This was certainly the case with the union armies in the West.

Ligniere, The 1st and 2nd USSS used breach loading rifles and scopes and were not deployed as `regular` troops. Confederates used scopes and i would consider them in modern terms as snipers.
The men of the 1st and 2nd USSS had to prove that they were of a certain standard before they were admitted to the unit.

Hammerhead,
Some certainly used scopes – but the book I link to is not talking about 'sharpshooters/snipers' in the modern sense of the term – the ANV formed battalions by taking 1 in 12, or however many men it was, from the parent regiments within a brigade and combined them to form an independent battalion. They called these units 'sharpshooters' in some instances, much like the 1st US Sharpshooters, but their role was not to 'snipe' with scopes, but to act as scouts, skirmishers and shock troops ultimately.

Not much "sniper" work was done in the field at least not in modern terms.

The heavy target rifles that were used with scopes for that kind of work were far to delicate when compared with the Enfield, Springfield and other infantry rifles, they were precision instruments

When used from, or in areas behind, entrenched positions, they really came into their own.

That's not to say scopes were not used on other weapons but they had nowhere near the inherent accuracy of the Whitworth and other target pieces and the optics were always fragile.

The Confederates did indeed form Sharpshooter battalions but unlike the the 1st and 2nd USSS they didn't have access to the Sharps Rifle and were made up from soldiers who were just naturally good shots with their standard weapons.

It's worth mentioning that their Sharps were in fact sighted for a range a fair bit shorter than the standard rifled musket but the men could pretty much hit what they shot at, unlike most of those using standard weapons. In addition they of course had the advantages conferred by breach loading.

There were also other Union regiments who adopted or gained "Sharpeshooter" designation alongside their State titles but these too were generally conventionally armed and conducted the supercharged skirmishing role that both their Confederate counterparts and to be honest the USSS carried out most of the time.

Sorry I can't provide the names of these additional units on either side as I'm away from my books but there are plenty of folks on TMP who will know them off the top of their heads.

On thing I should mention is that like some other areas of Civil War the true employment and arms of some of these units is still a matter of debate.

It's also interesting to note that the British successfully used standard Enfield rifles in two man sniper teams, one shooter with no scope and one spotter with a telescope during the Crimean war but again this was in siege operations.

There is an interesting unit from Maine: The 1st Battalion Maine Sharpshooters.

The 1st Battalion Maine Sharpshooters was organized in Augusta, Maine October 27 through December 29, 1864.

Companies A and B left Maine for City Point, Virginia, November 12, 1864 and assigned to duty there until January 1865.

Company C was organized November 29, 1864 and moved to Galloupe's Island, Boston Harbor, then moved to City Point, Virginia, January 1-5, 1865.

Company D was organized December 2, 1864. Company E was organized November 28, 1864. Company F was organized December 29, 1864, all three moved to City Point, Virginia to joined the other companies. All were ordered to the Petersburg front and attached to 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, V Corps, Army of the Potomac, January to June 1865.

The 1st Battalion Maine Sharpshooters ceased to exist on June 21, 1865 when its members were transferred to the 20th Maine Infantry.

link

Good and solid service, but short-lived.