The Most Lethal Fighting Unit of the Civil War

 

At approximately 4:00 PM, July 2, 1863, the Confederate turning movement at Gettysburg, meant to roll-up the Federal line from left-to-right, finally stepped-off, General Evander Law’s Alabama brigade leading the way. Longstreet’s entire division was to deliver the blow, the assault performed in left echelon, one brigade going-in after the other. Law’s objective was Little Round Top, a rocky hill, then unoccupied, that dominated the Federal line. If the Confederates could secure that hill, the remainder of the Federal line could be enfiladed from the heights and rendered indefensible – game over.

As the Confederate skirmishers initially moved forward, there appeared no force between them and their objective, but this was misleading. Unseen to the Rebels, the Federals had posted a thin skirmish line from the base of Big Round Top (approximately ¼ mile south of Little Round Top) running west about 900 yards. Very loosely strung, these 204 veterans represented the only Federal opposition between Law’s brigade and Little Round Top. Fortunately for the Federal cause that day, this unit was the 2nd United States Sharpshooters, one-half of the most lethal detachment of the American Civil War.

Waiting behind a stone fence, Wyman White, one of the U.S. sharpshooters later recalled: “They came yelling and firing and struggling over fences and through the timber. Just in front of where I was, the land was open, and, as they were mostly dressed in butternut colored clothes, they had the appearance of a plowed field being closed in mass formation.” Although outnumbered more than 10 to 1, the Sharpshooters calmly took aim and began firing. “As we took the matter very coolly,” said White, “many a brave Southron threw up his arms and fell. But on they came, shouting and yelling their peculiar yell.” The Sharpshooters had no hope of stopping Law’s advance, of course, only slowing it, and they went about this with deadly professionalism. Moving in groups of four, two shooters laying down suppression fire while the other two withdrew to cover, the Sharpshooters began taking a heavy toll on the lead elements of Law’s advance.