|
The 66th Illinois Veteran Volunteer Infantry Regiment (Western Sharpshooters)〔By late December 1863, 470 Sharpshooters had reenlisted, far above the 3/4 percentage required to allow the unit to be awarded the "Veteran" designation: Barker, With the Western Sharpshooters, p 170〕〔The Regiment was officially allowed to maintain the WSS name as part of their official Illinois name after a request from Col Burke to Gov Yates: Illinois State Archives, Illinois Adjutant General's Office Civil War Records, Records Group 301.18, Burke letter of Jan 8, 1863〕 originally known as Birge's Western Sharpshooters and later as the "Western Sharpshooters-14th Missouri Volunteers",〔Interestingly, during the units Missouri incarnation, state officials allowed the "Western Sharpshooters" name to predominate in the unit title, using the WSS-14th MO arrangement in orders, official correspondence and Commissions: MO State Archives, Records of the Adjt Gen, Records Group 133〕〔The Sharpshooters were never officially known by the WSS alone, they were mustered into Federal service as "Birge's WSS" and upon transfer to Missouri were informed that their new unit designation was: WSS-14th MO Vols〕 was a specialized regiment of infantry sharpshooters that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The regiment was intended, raised, and mustered into Federal service as the Western Theater counterpart to Army of the Potomac's 1st and 2nd United States Volunteer Sharpshooters ("Berdan's Sharpshooters"). == Independent service == "Birge's Western Sharpshooters" was a multi-state, Federal unit organized at St. Louis, Missouri and mustered into federal service on November 23, 1861. Initially two companies were raised in Ohio, three in Illinois, one in Michigan, and four were organized at St Louis' Benton Barracks of Missourians and detachments of volunteer candidates sent by recruiting officers from Iowa, Minnesota and other western states, thus forming a regiment that represented every state in the west, a pet scheme of General John C. Fremont. During the unit's existence it was re-designated first as the "Western Sharpshooters-14th Missouri Volunteers", and later re-designated again as the "66th Illinois Volunteer Infantry (Western Sharpshooters)". While federal and state authorities repeatedly changed the formal designation of the unit, the regiment was commonly referred to as the "Western Sharpshooters" (or simply "The Sharpshooters") for the duration of the war. After the war autographs by former members often included the appellation W.S.S. ''Companies of the Western Sharpshooters'' *"Welker's Company" (WSS's original Company A): Missouri men with some outstate members *Company A: "Boyd's Company", Missouri and outstate members *Company B: Missouri and outstate members *Company C: Illinois (Bureau and Logan Counties) and some Iowa men *Company D: Michigan *Company E: Illinois (Edgar County) *Company F: Missouri and outstate members *Company G: 1st Independent Company of Ohio Volunteer Sharpshooters (Reed's Sharpshooters) *Company H: 2nd Independent Company of Ohio Volunteer Sharpshooters (Dougherty's Sharpshooters) *Company I: Illinois (Lawrence County) *Company K: 3rd Independent Company of Ohio Volunteer Sharpshooters (Taylor's Sharpshooters) The regiment was envisioned as a specialized unit of marksmen and skirmishers, a Western Theater counterpart to Colonel Hiram Berdan's 1st and 2nd U.S. Sharpshooters (raised from multiple states under President Lincoln's patronage for service in the Eastern Theater). On August 28, 1861, Fremont authorized a St. Louis physician, John Ward Birge, to raise the regiment and muster recruits at Benton Barracks, St. Louis. As marksmen, Fremont intended that they should have a special uniform〔A veteran of the unit described the WSS' original uniform in the Feb 23, 1893 edition of the NATIONAL TRIBUNE newspaper. In addition to the "squirrel-tail" hat, the Western Sharpshooters were initially issued grey trousers with a green stripe down the seam, and the standard Federal frock coat, with rifleman's green piping in place of the standard sky blue of the infantry. Numerous other sources report that the Western Sharpshooters were issued non-standard equipage provided (per Birge's instruction) by gunmaker Horace Dimick. This included a shoulder bag, covered with bear fur, for rifle tools and sundries in place of a cartridge box, and a powder horn in place of a powder flask.〕 based on "hunter's dress" and be armed with highly accurate Plains Rifles (handmade half-stock long rifles), provided by the famed St. Louis firearms firm of Horace (H.E.) Dimick of St. Louis (a competitor of the Hawken Brothers, also of St. Louis). While the majority of the special uniform envisioned by Fremont did not survive long beyond his removal (except for an extraordinary sugar loaf hat decorated with three squirrel tails), Dimick fulfilled his contract, providing over 1,000 long rifles, although he had to scour regional (and even east coast) gunmakers to fulfill the enormous order for handmade weapons in the time allotted. The Western Sharpshooters found the "Dimick Rifle" (as the unit called them, although Dimick's gunsmiths built only about 150) to be lethally accurate and declared themselves "well pleased" with the Plains Rifles. Fremont's scheme was partially squelched by Major General Halleck when he relieved Fremont in November 1862, ending additional recruitment. General Halleck returned a tenth company of Missouri sharpshooters under Captain John Welker (which had initially been recruited by Birge, but detached on MG Fremont's orders for his southwestern expedition, and subsequently operated as an independent company),〔This story of this episode is complex. While Welker's company was on campaign it was "discovered" that they had not been properly sworn, and so (possibly at the suggestion of Captain John Holman, commander of an independent company of sharpshooters accompanying Fremont), Birge's men were sworn in as "Company B" of "Holman's Battalion of Sharpshooters" with Holman as the "battalion's" Major. This gave Holman command authority over Welker who had previously been his co-equal. It also gave Holman a free company of picked men, and their Dimick rifles. This arrangement fell apart shortly afterward when Fremont was relieved and Brigadier General Samuel Curtis, noting that-in the words of historian Victor Paul-"two companies do not make a battalion" disapproved Holman's promotion to Major,and Welker was "ordered to consider himself the Captain of an independent company" of sharpshooters. The inclusion of Welker's company was thus the return, of men-and arms-to Birge's regiment where they had originated. Paul, Victor, (1997) ''Roster Study of the Sharpshooters of the Army of the Tennessee'', Washington, MO, Obscure Place Publishing, p 95〕 bringing Birge's Western Sharpshooters up to full strength of ten companies. Immediately afterward, Halleck ordered the partially equipped and trained sharpshooters into the field in guerrilla racked central and northern Missouri. On December 12, 1861, Colonel John W. Birge, of St. Louis, marched them from Benton Barracks to Centralia, in Northern Missouri. The regiment was then deployed in small detachments to fight bands of the secessionist Missouri State Guard and guerrillas attacking the strategically vital North Missouri Rail Road and other targets of interest to the Federal government. On December 28, 1861, five companies of Birge's Sharpshooters and five companies of cavalry fought a mixed force of Missouri State Guard and secessionist volunteers at the small, but strategically important Battle of Mount Zion Church. On February 4, 1862, the sharpshooters were first shipped by railroad to St. Louis and then by steamboat to Fort Henry, where they eventually arrived on the 9th, just too late to take part in its capture. (Note: As they passed through St. Louis, Maj. Gen. Halleck ordered Company A (Welker's Company) stripped out of the regiment and reassigned to the newly forming 26th Missouri Volunteer Infantry Regiment, temporarily reducing the regiment to nine companies〔Supplement to the Official Records of the Union and Confederate armies. ; Part II-Record of Events - Volume 12, Serial No 24, p. 687.〕). At Fort Henry, the Sharpshooters joined Colonel Lauman's brigade of General C.F. Smith's division and marched with them to Fort Donelson. In Grant's army they served at the Battle of Fort Donelson and the Battle of Shiloh. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「66th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|