Shock Troops of the Confederacy: The Sharpshooter Battalions of the Army of Northern Virginia

I recently had the pleasure of reading Fred L. Ray's new book, "Shock Troops of the Confederacy - The Sharpshooter Battalions of the Army of Northern Virginia". It offered a great deal of new information whereby the author outlines the changes that took place within the Confederate army that led to a new style of warfare, a warfare in which the intelligence, skill, and courage of the individual soldier became paramount. In a book that takes the reader on a journey of discovery, out between the battle lines, Fred successfully illustrates the factors that brought about these developments.Largely forgotten in the annals of time, the story of the Sharpshooters of the Confederacy begins with two Virginians, Robert Rodes and Eugene Blackford. Both men were from Lynchburg, Virginia, but through a quirk of fate, both entered Confederate service as members of the 5th Alabama Infantry Regiment. During the winter of 1862, Rodes and Blackford formulated a new military unit to serve the Confederacy that would change the course of the war and in doing so, change warfare itself. Invaluable lessons were learned by both men at the Battle of Boonsboro, also known as the Battle of South Mountain, where Rodes' Brigade successfully fought a delaying action against an entire Division of the Union army, thereby allowing General Lee to consolidate his army and fight the Battle Of Sharpsburg, or Antietam, three days later. These Confederate troops on South Mountain, primarily dispersed as a line of skirmishers, held off the advance of the Army of the Potomac by fighting from behind the rocky outcrops and the heavily wooded slopes as they slowly fell back. This single Brigade accomplished their objective and arguably saved the Army of Northern Virginia, however, they were mauled badly by the superior skirmish tactics of the Union forces. This became the impetus for change. Over the next few months, with the support of Robert E. Lee, General Rodes successfully organized and trained a Sharpshooter Battalion within his Brigade that would serve as a model for other units in the Confederacy.Fred Ray documents the accomplishments of the sharpshooting units of the Confederacy from their baptism under fire at the Battle of Chancellorsville, to the final days in the trenches of Petersburg and eventual surrender. The successes of the Sharpshooter Battalion during the "Overland Campaign "in early 1864, convinced General Lee to mandate that all Infantry Brigades would be required to form Sharpshooter units of their own. These men received special training that included long ranged target practice and soon were recognized as the elite troops of each Brigade. As the war dragged on, it was the Sharpshooter Battalions that became the primary fighting force of the Confederacy, especially in the Shenandoah Valley and around Petersburg. In fact, they were the ones that led the last attack of the war for the Army of Northern Virginia at Fort Steadman, on March 25, 1865.This is not just a cursory description of the various field actions, but rather an in depth study that takes the reader onto the battlefield where we hear the banter between the lines, rush forward in a hotly contested skirmish, and learn what it meant to serve on the front lines during the last years of the war. This understudied aspect of the war is deftly handled by the author and the reader comes away with a comprehension of how an undermanned, half starved, ragged band of men adapted to their new reality, modifying tactics, innovating and ultimately developing methods that would serve as a model for warfare into the following century.Insightful, detailed, and exciting are words that best describe "Shock Troops of the Confederacy". For those that are looking for a better understanding of the transition from Napoleonic tactics to the smaller, task orientated, combat units of the 20th century, this is a "must read". Well researched and referenced, this scholarly work is quite readable and should be added to the library of all Civil War enthusiasts.

The fascinating story of Lee's sharpshooters finally gets the excellent history that it deserves. A generous sprinkling of maps and illustrations complement a well researched, well written narrative.

In this thought provoking book, the author starts out with a brief history of light troops followed by the history of the skirmishers of the Army of North Virginia. Although the Union side began the war with more and better light troops, they allowed them atrophy while the Confederates who faced them, learned from them. Innovation in the ANV tended to originate in Ewell's old division, commanded by Rodes. When the war began, the standard system was for each regiment to have one or two light companies sent forward as skirmishers. This had flaws. It was difficult to coordinate between all the companies, with Rodes' bad experience at South Mountain clearly showing the potential result. Soon, he formed for his brigade a special sharpshooter battalion to cover the front, and by the beginning of 1864 this was standard in every brigade in Lee's army. Because Lee's army was decentralized, innovation of this sort was encouraged and could spread. To enter a sharpshooter battalion, high standards of bravery and marksmanship had to be met so that the units did not become a collection of misfits. The men fought as light infantry, not as snipers in the modern sense, and used the best weapons available, including captured repeating rifles. The psychological effect on enemy infantry could be great, knowing that someone who was aimed at would likely be hit. The author's battle descriptions are quite useful. He shows how at Gettysburg Iverson's sharpshooter battalion got diverted into the low ground to face the Union XI Corps, which was threatening the division's flank, but with Iverson's brigade not protected properly, disaster resulted. At North Anna Confederate sharpshooters successfully screened the entrenchments, hiding them from view and allowing the Union army to unknowingly enter a trap. Most of the book covers the Overland Campaign and the '64 Valley and Petersburg campaigns, by which time new assault tactics were being developed to capture enemy pickets or assault earthworks. This, the author argues, shows a link to later infantry tactics developed by the German stormtroopers in World War I.. Unlike many other Civil War historians, the author is broad minded in looking at the broader tactical context - looking to events abroad both before and after the Civil War. The Franco-Prussian War, however, is given little attention. The author's interpretation of the use of Prussian columns differs with Nosworthy's, who believes that skirmishers were the main effort, with the company columns merely supporting them. So the author may over-emphasize the Boer War as a result. This is a minor flaw only; the book gives a good discussion of weapons and their accuracy and flaws as well as a good treatment of range estimation training. The book fills a void and should be a treasured volume to anyone interested in Civil War tactics.

It does an excellent job covering Confederate sharpshooters in the ANV and the Western theater too. What I didn't expect, is that this book includes a wealth of information of Federal sharpshooters and light infantry. Really a good size chunk of the books is about Union troops, and it was a nice surprise. So this book would be a great investment for anybody interested in sharpshooters.

Fred Ray's "Shock Troops of the Confederacy, as the subtitle indicates, is primarily focused upon the "sharpshooter battalions" of the Army of Northern Virginia (in a Civil War context, "sharpshooter" was usually more akin to "skirmisher" than "sniper", although these specialized battalions also used innovative open order assault techniques, especially late in the war), but does not neglect their closest Union counterparts nor the sharpshooter battalions in Confederate armies in the West. Remarkably little has been published about such organizations in the past, so Fred Ray's book offers a unique study of the evolution of Civil War infantry tactics, revealing a more complex, sophisticated approach to the battlefield than is usually understood.

I wrote Mr. Ray in 2018 about this great book and he replied with an e-mail that he's wanting to do another volume about this subject because he's learned a lot more information since this edition. Can't wait !

A fascinating and brilliantly written book that deserves better recognition. The evolution of fast manoeuvre and fire battlefield tactics from the first glimmer of light infantry in the 18th Century to the extended order and rifles of the last half of the 19th Century is one that has been attempted before but never fully told, often wandering off into strategy, grand strategy and politics. There is a vacuum, especially in British military writing, that extends from the archaic quasi-Napoleonic treatment of the Crimean War to a complete failure to explain the battlefield of August 1914 (despite the Centenary). The cross-fertilisation of military theory and battlefield practice from Europe to America and back again has never received the examination it deserves. Here is a book that tackles that, as well as delving in great detail into the fascinating and little known subject matter of its title. Very highly recommended not just to Civil War buffs but to anyone seriously interested in battlefield tactics from 1850 to 1914.

“Shock Troops of the Confederacy: The Sharpshooter Battalions of the Army of Northern Virginia” is an excellent and very, very interesting read. Fred Ray explains in great detail both the advances in warfare tactics, tasks, and uses of light infantry made by the CSA and US forces. This is a truly outstanding piece of work highlighting an area and style of warfare not often mentioned in Civil War literature.A must buy for any Civil War buff!

great to read about a subject that has seldom been alluded to.

Base documentaire importante, ce livre traite d'un sujet méconnu et difficile car il y a assez peu de traces et d'organisationsBeau livre