sharpshooters

Sharpshooters are skilled marksmen, also known as Jägers and tirailleurs. The term is often synonymous with sniper, but in the American civil war referred specifically to sharpshooter regiments raised by both sides. In 1861 Col Hiram Berdan raised the 1st US Sharpshooters, and a second regiment followed shortly afterwards. Originally issued with the unreliable Colt revolving rifle, the sharpshooters soon received the deadly Sharps breech-loaders. They often reported direct to a division, tended to fight as skirmishers, not in the line of battle, and wore the regulation infantry uniform, but in dark green cloth. The regiments withered in 1864 as enlistment terms expired, and eventually disappeared in February 1865. The Confederacy also raised sharpshooters, but simply as state regiments which generally took their place in the line with others, and were not used to full advantage.

In England the 3rd County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters) was originally raised from volunteers in 1899 to fight in South Africa. The regiment's title is preserved within a squadron of the Royal Yeomanry, part of the Territorial Army.

— Andrew Haughton/Richard Holmes