1st Michigan Volunteer Sharpshooter Regiment at Camp Douglas Prison Camp.

[major bill]

The 1st Michigan Volunteer Sharpshooter Regiment was formed to be a sharpshooter regiment and did attempt to recruit men who were good shots. Instead of being sent to a place where thier shooting skills could be put to use they were sent to Camp Douglas Prison Camp. I wonder what the thought process was for sending them there. Does anyone know why the went there?

 

[lupaglupa]

I think anybody who has been in the military would just laugh, shake their heads, say "typical" and call it a SNAFU

 

[Kurt G]

The 1st Michigan Volunteer Sharpshooter Regiment was formed to be a sharpshooter regiment and did attempt to recruit men who were good shots. Instead of being sent to a place where thier shooting skills could be put to use they were sent to Camp Douglas Prison Camp. I wonder what the thought process was for sending them there. Does anyone know why the went there?

The regiment had trouble recruiting to full strength. There was also a problem with discipline and desertion and it was only able to send 7 companies to Camp Douglas initially. It's possible that these issues may have played a part in their assignment . 6 companies were previously sent to Indiana to confront Morgan but didn't see much action. It wasn't until the Overland Campaign that the regiment began to distinguish itself .

 

[ucvrelics]

We basically had the same problem in Iraq in the early days of 1st Desert Storm. Commanders didn't know what to do with them as it was mostly armour. In the Iraq Freedom mess they figured it out pretty quick when the US ground troops started falling due to enemy snipers, The US commanders had an epiphany hence American Sniper.

On the CW side my favorite quote. Gen Sedgwick. "They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance."