First Massachusetts Sharpshooter Company

United States Regiments & Batteries > Massachusetts

The First Massachusetts Sharpshooter Company was originally formed for Colonel Hiram Berdan’s sharpshooter regiments. The two companies of Massachusetts sharpshooters decided to retain their state affiliation when told that they would lose the state enlistment bounty by joining Berdan’s Federal regiments. The two companies of Massachusetts Sharpshooters were nominally independent, although each operated with a Massachusetts regiment. The 1st Company originally operated with the 15th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment.

The Company lost 3 officers and 21 enlisted men killed or mortally wounded and 15 enlisted men to disease during the Civil War. It is honored by a monument at Gettysburg

1861
September Organized at Lynn field and mustered in under the command of Captain John Saunders of Salem.
September 2 Left State for Washington, D.C., Attached to the 15th Massachusetts Infantry
October 21-24 Operations on the Potomac
October 21

Action at Ball’s Bluff

October – March At Harper’s Ferry and Bolivar Heights
1862
March 7 At Charlestown
March 10 At Berryville
March 13-15 Movement toward Winchester and return to Bolivar Heights
March Assigned to 1st Brigade, 2nd Division, 2nd Corps, Army of the Potomac
March 22-April 1

Peninsula Campaign

Moved to Fortress Monroe on the Virginia Peninsula.
April 5-May 4

Siege of Yorktown
May 31-June 1

Battle of Fair Oaks, Seven Pines
June 25-July 1

Seven days before Richmond
June 29

Peach Orchard and Savage Station
June 30

White Oak Swamp and Glendale
July 1

Malvern Hill
July 2 – August 15 At Harrison’s Landing
August 15-28 Movement to Alexandria
August 29-30 To Centreville
August 31-
September 1		 Cover Pope’s retreat
September 17

Battle of Antietam

Captain John Saunders was “shot through the heart” and killed along with nine enlisted men during the ambush of Sedgwick’s Division in the West Woods.

From Gorman’s brigade marker on the Antietam battlefield:

Gorman’s Brigade led the advance of Sedgwick’s Division in its assault upon the Confederate left. It passed through the East Woods, crossed the Cornfield and the open ground to the south, entered the West Woods and had reached this point, when its advance was checked by Jackson’s Command and the Artillery of Stuart’s Division posted on the high ground to the northwest. After a severe contest in which its ammunition was nearly exhausted, its left flank was turned by McLaws’ and Walker’s Divisions and the Brigade was forced to retire northward to the fields beyond D.R. Miller’s barn. The 34th New York was detached and occupied the woods immediately west of the Dunkard Church. This tablet marks the left center of the Brigade in its advance.
September 22 Moved to Harper’s Ferry
October 30-
November 20		 Movement to Falmouth, Va.
November 20 -December 9 On picket duty at Falmouth. At the end of this time the Company mustered only 18 men.
December 9 Captain William Plummer of Cambridge arrived with forty recruits and took command of the company.
December 12-15

Battle of Fredericksburg

The company provided counter fire against Confederate sharpshooters during the construction of the pontoon bridges and crossing of the Rappahannock on 11 and 12 December. It then took up positions below Marye’s Heights, targeting Confedderate artillerymen.
1863
January 20-24 “Mud March”
April 27-May 6

Chancellorsville Campaign
May 3

Maryes Heights, Second Battle of Fredericksburg
May 3-4

Salem Heights
May 4

Banks’ Ford
July 2-3

Battle of Gettysburg

The First Massachusetts Sharpshooter Company was commanded at Gettysburg by Captain William Plumer, a Harvard graduate and lawyer from Lexington. He had been wounded in June and rode in an ambulance to Gettysburg. The company brought 50 men to the field, losing two killed and six wounded.
September 13-17 Advance from the Rappahannock to the Rapidan
October 9-22

Bristoe Campaign
October 14

Bristoe Station
November 7-8 Advance to line of the Rappahannock
November 26-
December 2

Mine Run Campaign
November 27

Robertson’s Tavern or Locust Grove
1864
February 6-7 Morton’s Ford
February – May Picketing the Rapidan River
May-June

Campaign from the Rapidan to the James
May 5-7

Battle of the Wilderness
May 8

Laurel Hill
May 8-21

Battle of Spotsylvania Court House

May 10 Po River
May 12

Assault on the Salient at Spottsylvania Court House
May 23-26

North Anna River
May 26-28 Line of the Pamunkey
May 28-31 Totopotomoy
June 1-12

Cold Harbor
June 16-18

First Assault on Petersburg
June 16-July 12

Siege of Petersburg
June 22-23

Jerusalem Plank Road
July Attached to 19th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment
July 12 Left the front
September 6 The First Massachusetts Sharpshooter Company mustered out