At the age of 17, he was caught up in the political and emotional firestorm that led to the Civil War, and enlisted along with his younger brother, Blackwood, in a South Carolina militia unit besieging Fort Sumter. And quite a story it was.īorn across the river from Augusta at Hamburg, S.C., in 1843, young Berry Benson proved exceptionally competent in spelling and mathematics at school and was an avid hunter and fisherman. Years later, while researching the Civil War and its small arms, I came across the story of Berry Benson and his Enfield rifle. And then I left for Vietnam and my own war. At the time I didn’t know that soldier was Berry Benson or, indeed, even who Berry Benson was. Walker, supported the base of a tall column topped by a figure of a lone infantryman at rest, a rifle in his hands. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, along with lesser-known Georgians Thomas R. Statues of four Confederate generals, including the expected icons Robert E. It was an impressive sight, and even though I was a Yankee from New Jersey, I was drawn to it. I first saw the monument in downtown Augusta, Ga., in 1966, as a young second lieutenant at nearby Fort Gordon. At the war's end in 1865, he walked home with his two-band, London-made Enfield.

Benson was captured and escaped from two notorious Union prisons before returning to his unit. Please share our posts with your friends and family so they too can learn more about Southern Heritage and History.“The Gray Wall” by Don Troiani (1985) Private Collection/Bridgeman ImagesĬivil War sharpshooter Berry Benson fought in several major battles with Gen. One of them showed himself at the wrong moment, and was shot by a Rebel sharpshooter from 1390 yards, 14 th longest confirmed hit in history. In 1864 Union soldiers manning artillery were firing on the fort from nearby islands. The longest shot we know of during the war occurred in the same place it all started, at Ft. He made a rapid retreat to the White House. When he was inspecting fortifications near Washington DC, he came under fire from Confederate sharpshooters. McMahon explained that as the man went off, another “shrill whistle, closing with a dull, heavy stroke, interrupted our talk.” “The man rose and saluted and said good-naturedly, ‘General, I dodged a shell once, and if I hadn’t, it would have taken my head off. “The general touched him gently with his foot, and said, ‘Why, my man, I am ashamed of you, dodging that way…They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance.’ “A few seconds after, a man who had been separated from his regiment passed directly in front of the general, and at the same moment a sharp-shooter’s bullet passed with a long shrill whistle very close, and the soldier, who was then just in front of the general, dodged to the ground. Artillery was a favored target of sharpshooters. Union General Sedgwick was correcting placement of his troops near an artillery unit. A soldier who heard it was smart to take cover. Whitworth bullets were hexagonal, not round, and made a distinctive whistle as they sliced through the air.

It was slower to load but accurate to twice the distance. The British Whitworth was smuggled in by Confederates (see image below). Custom-made rifles used by both sides could reach to 1000 yards. Sharp’s rifles, used by the Federals, were deadly at 600–800 yards. To qualify, volunteers had to put ten shots in a circle of 10 inches from 200 yards.īerdan’s Sharpshooters wore green uniforms, like the reenactor above. The Civil War produced many fine shooters, and some made their way into sharpshooter units.Ĭhampion marksman Hiram Berdan of New York raised a Union sharpshooter unit.