1st United States Sharpshooters The 1st United States Sharpshooters were an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War . Hiram C . Berdan of New York state created the Sharpshooters . Berdan began recruiting men for the first Sharpshooter regiment in 1861 . He recruited men from New York City and Albany and from the states of New Hampshire , Vermont , Michigan and Wisconsin . The volunteer recruits had to pass a rifle test in order to qualify to be a member of the Sharpshooters ; each man had to be able to place ten shots in a circle of in diameter from away . They were able to choose a rifle and position of their preference for the test . A man eligible to be a Sharpshooter had to possess a keen eye , steady hands and a great deal of training and skill with a rifle . In addition to that , for a man to be a Sharpshooter , it took cool nerves in order to be able to estimate carefully their target , determine the high trajectory needed and to take in consideration the effect that any current wind may have . The first regiment of volunteers began service in late November 1861 . During their service they fought in every Eastern battle up until autumn of 1864 . During their tour , the Sharpshooters were noted for efficient service in the battles of Yorktown , Gettysburg , Vicksburg , Chattanooga , Atlanta , Spotsylvania and Petersburg . During battle , the mission of the Sharpshooter was to kill enemy targets from a far distance . The first United States Sharpshooter regiment consisted of the following commanding officers ( listed by company ) : During the Civil War , regiments were usually composed of companies all from the same state . On the other hand , due to the strict qualifications and special skills in order to become a member of the Sharpshooters , each regiment was assembled of companies from various different Union states . Below is a list of each company in the first regiment , their origin and date of establishment . Founder . Hiram C . Berdan was the founder of the Sharpshooters . Berdan was born in the town of Phelps , New York , on September 6 , 1824 . Not only was Berdan a military officer in the Civil War and creator of the Sharpshooters regiment , he was also an American mechanical engineer and creative inventor . Some of Berdan ' s inventions included the Berdan rifle ( a repeating rifle ) and the Berdan center fire primer , a range finder torpedo boat for evading torpedo nets during and after the Civil War . Berdan also developed the first commercial gold amalgamation machine to separate gold from ore . Berdan was also known for being an amateur champion marksman in the United States . Berdan ' s interest in rifles and shooting led him to the idea of creating a regiment full of men who all had notable shooting skills : the Sharpshooters . On November 30 , 1861 , Berdan was named colonel of both the first and second Sharpshooter regiments . After serving for a couple of years , Berdan resigned his position as colonel on November 30 , 1864 , in order to return to his life as a mechanical engineer and inventor . Berdan died on March 31 , 1893 , and was buried in the Arlington National Cemetery . Weapons . The men of the Sharpshooters regiment were armed with various types of rifles , including the Sharps rifle , the Whitworth rifle , sporting arms , and various other custom - made privately owned target weapons . Some of these rifles weighed up to because they contained the first breed of telescope sights . At first , many of the Sharpshooter riflemen used their own weapons , but this began leading to problems when it came to ammunition supply . As a result , Berdan made a request to receive issuance of Sharps rifles to his men . Christian Sharps invented the Sharps rifle in 1848 in Hartford , Connecticut . It was a single shot percussion lock breech loader that could be fired eight to ten times per minute ( three times the rate of the Springfield rifle ) , weighed about , was in length with a barrel and fired cartridges with a . 52 caliber conical ball . The Sharps rifle was accurate up to , so the typical Sharpshooter was able to put twenty bullets in a pattern from away . Berdan chose the Sharps rifle mainly because of its fast breech loading and outstanding accuracy from long - range distances . Unfortunately , though , Lieutenant General Winfield Scott denied Berdan ' s request because he feared the issuance of Sharps rifles would lead to a waste of ammunition . Lt . General Scott insisted that Berdan ' s men use a standard Springfield rifle . Berdan was not at all satisfied with Scott ' s ruling , so he took his request for Sharps rifles directly to President Abraham Lincoln . After Lincoln watched Berdan perform a demonstration of the Sharps rifle ' s extreme speed and accuracy he was so impressed that he ordered them to be immediately issued to both Sharpshooter regiments . Nevertheless , many of the men still continued to use their own rifles , no matter how heavy and bulky they were , probably because that is what they had training and experience with . Uniform . The most notable aspect of the Berdan Sharpshooter uniform is the green color , rather than the standard Union blue . They were one of only a few regiments that went outside the typical Potomac Army ' s uniform . The green uniform gave the sharpshooters the clear advantage of camouflage , but also sometimes was a disadvantage because they were easy to distinguish against the rest of the Union soldiers for enemy Confederate targets to spot them . Sharpshooters were high - priority kills amongst the Confederate army , because they had such high skills and good salvageable equipment . Sharpshooters used more guerrilla warfare battle tactics than the rest of the Union infantry . Along with the green uniform , a soldier was to have no brass on any of their buttons . Their shoes were standard Union issue , but their pants were made of green wool just like the frock coats , with a pair of gaiters . Furthermore , Sharpshooter knapsacks were a Prussian - style fur sack fitted over a wooden frame , as opposed to the usual tarred canvas . Service . The 1st U . S . Sharpshooters was raised as follows : The 1st and 2nd U . S . Sharpshooters were consolidated on December 31 , 1864 . Total strength and casualties . Ten of the regiment ' s officers and 143 enlisted men were killed in action or mortally wounded and 1 officer and 128 enlisted men died of disease , for a total of 282 casualties .