1st Company Massachusetts Sharpshooters

The 1st Company Massachusetts Sharpshooters was a sharpshooter unit in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

Service

The 1st Company Massachusetts Sharpshooters was organized in Lynn, Massachusetts and mustered in for three years service on September 2, 1861. The company was originally recruited for Colonel Hiram Berdan's sharpshooter regiments. When the men were informed that they would lose their enlistment bounty, they declined to join Berdan's regiments and instead remained independent.

The company was attached to 3rd Brigade, 2nd Division, II Corps, Army of the Potomac, but nominally operated with the 15th Massachusetts Infantry to July 1864, and with the 19th Massachusetts Infantry to September 1864.

The 1st Company Massachusetts Sharpshooters mustered out September 6, 1864.

Detailed service

Left Massachusetts for Washington, D.C., September 2. Picket and outpost duty on the Upper Potomac River from Conrad's Ferry to Harrison's Island until October 20. Operations on the Potomac River October 21-24. Battle of Ball's Bluff October 21. At Harpers Ferry and Bolivar Heights until March 7, 1862. At Charlestown until March 10. At Berryville until March 13. Movement toward Winchester and return to Bolivar Heights March 13-15. Moved to Fortress Monroe March 22-April 1. Siege of Yorktown April 5-May 4. Battle of Fair Oaks, Seven Pines, May 31-June 1. Seven Days before Richmond June 25-July 1. Peach Orchard and Savage Station June 29. White Oak Swamp and Glendale June 30. Malvern Hill July 1. At Harrison's Landing until August 15. Movement to Alexandria August 15-28, and to Centreville August 29-30. Cover Pope's retreat August 31-September 1. Battle of Antietam, September 16-17. Moved to Harpers Ferry September 22 and duty there until October 30. Movement to Falmouth, Va., October 30-November 20. Battle of Fredericksburg December 12-15. "Mud March" January 20-24, 1863. Chancellorsville Campaign April 27-May 6. Maryes Heights, Fredericksburg, May 3. Salem Heights May 3-4. Banks' Ford May 4. Battle of Gettysburg, July 2-4. Advance from the Rappahannock to the Rapidan September 13-17. Bristoe Campaign October 9-22. Bristoe Station October 14. Advance to line of the Rappahannock November 7-8. Mine Run Campaign November 26-December 2. Robertson's Tavern or Locust Grove November 27. Morton's Ford February 6-7, 1864. Picketing Rapidan River until May 1864. Campaign from the Rapidan to the James May-June. Battles of the Wilderness May 5-7. Laurel Hill May 8. Spotsylvania May 8-12. Po River May 10. Spotsylvania Court House May 12-21. Assault on the Salient at Spotsylvania Court House May 12. North Anna River May 23-26. Line of the Pamunkey May 26-28. Totopotomoy May 28-31. Cold Harbor June 1-12. Before Petersburg June 16-18. Siege of Petersburg June 16-July 12. Jerusalem Plank Road June 22-23. Demonstration north of the James River July 27-29. Deep Bottom July 27-28. Strawberry Plains, Deep Bottom, August 14-18. Ream's Station August 25.

Casualties

The company lost a total of 39 enlisted men during service; 3 officers and 21 enlisted men killed or mortally wounded, 15 enlisted men due to disease.

Commanders

• Captain John Saunders - killed in action at the Battle of Antietam
• Captain William Plumer

See also

• 15th Massachusetts Infantry
• 19th Massachusetts Infantry
• List of Massachusetts Civil War units
• Massachusetts in the American Civil War

References

• Dyer, Frederick H. A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion (Des Moines, IA: Dyer Pub. Co.), 1908.
• Ellis, Alden C. Jr. The Massachusetts Andrew Sharpshooters: A Civil War History and Roster (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc.), 2012. ISBN 0-7864-6489-5

Attribution

• This article contains text from a text now in the public domain: Dyer, Frederick H. (1908). A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion. Des Moines, IA: Dyer Publishing Co.

External links

• 1st Company Massachusetts Sharpshooters monument at Gettysburg