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. Most of the recruits tended to be skilled workmen who were competitive shooters tending to be older than the average Union soldier, and these men also tended to be of the larger physical size. They were armed with heavy, custom target rifles and Sharps rifles during their service. 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 1861 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