Southern officers foolish enough to present themselves in the open also made inviting targets. On one occasion General Porter sent for some of Berdan’s men because the general wanted a Confederate officer on a distant earthwork “killed or driven away from some engineering he was pursuing.” A sharpshooter was assigned to see what he could do. Once the target was pointed out to him, the marksman found a good position, took careful aim and fired. He missed. Adjusting his range, he tried two more shots, missing both times. Guessing that he was firing too low, the marksman increased the angle and discharged his weapon. This time his target fell— reportedly more than 1,000 yards off.

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Word of the sharpshooters’ achievements spread, and soon officers all along the line were clamoring for assistance from Berdan’s men. On April 19, Companies A and C, under Major Casper Trepp, were sent to Brig. Gen. William F. Smith’s division, on the left, to deal with some enemy artillery hampering work efforts there. “They have fine fun, being only 250 yards from the Rebels,” noted an envious sharpshooter left behind. “Old ‘Californy’ is in his glory.”

Aside from the larger detachments sent to other units, individual groups of sharpshooters were also deployed to help man picket outposts. A New Jersey soldier wrote, “On each of our posts was stationed one of Berdan’s sharp shooters, who were always on the look out for game, and woe to the rebel who put himself in their way….” Accounts of the sharpshooters’ exploits soon began circulating within the Union camps. “The Sharpshooters have a great name down here now,” boasted one of Berdan’s men to his parents. Through their efforts on the picket line and in silencing the enemy artillery, another proud marksman boasted, “Our regiment won great laurels…and thousands of wonderful stories are told.”

With Berdan’s men causing so many problems, Southern sharpshooters were assigned to handle the menace. Before long, opposing groups of marksmen were dueling each other, and Berdan’s men quickly gained respect for their counterparts. “Soon after we reached Yorktown, we discovered the rebels had Sharp Shooters also,” wrote one 1st U.S.S.S. officer, “and I will give them the credit of having as good shots as I ever saw, and some better than I want to see again.”

On one occasion a detachment of eight sharpshooters drew the attention of a particularly talented Southern marksman. Along the top of their rifle pit, some of Berdan’s men had placed a log and boards with four 3-inch diameter holes for firing. Opposite their position, a Confederate with a telescopic rifle began shooting through each of the openings until a U.S.S.S. sergeant was killed. Berdan’s troops at this location were armed with Colt revolving rifles, which were no match for an enemy with a telescopic rifle.

Frustrated by the situation, Lieutenant J. Smith Brown ran the gantlet of fire to reach a nearby artillery battery. He pointed out the location of the menace to members of Captain Thaddeus Mott’s 3rd New York Artillery battery, and the cannoneers responded. Carefully sighting their piece, they sent a shell toward the sharpshooter’s position that “exploded in his pit, sand bags, timber, gun and man were only a mass of ruins.” Brown noted that this tactic seemed “hardly fair,” but such was war. After that incident Berdan’s men sent back for some comrades carrying target rifles and scopes; four marksmen came up and manned the pit to make sure they would not be outgunned again.

Sharpshooters on both sides earned special respect from their opponents and also engaged in a unique type of competition. One of Berdan’s men recalled that when he peered out of his trench, a ball “flattened the corner of my cap down on my head.” Seeing the man fall to the ground, the enemy marksman thought he had a kill. When the Southerner called out, the Union soldier informed his adversary of the miss, “so that he would not mark down any more Yankees than he was entitled to.”

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