Civl War Birge's Named Sharpshooters Ladder Badge

Named Birge's Sharpshooters Ladder Badge named to C.C. Lawrence and is in excellent condition Cook C. Lawrence Residence Havana, MI; 30 years old. Enlisted on 8/26/1862 at Detroit, MI as a Priv. On 9/1/1862, he mustered into "D" Co. US Volunteers Birge's SharpShooters. He was Mustered Out on 6/2/1865 He was listed as: Joined Regiment 9/5/1862 Corinth, MS Intra-regimental company transfers2/25/1864 From company D to company H After the war, he lived in Madison. WI.The 66th Illinois Veteran Volunteer Infantry Regiment (Western Sharpshooters) originally known as Birge's Western Sharpshooters and later as the "Western Sharpshooters-14th Missouri Volunteers", 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 out state members Company A: "Boyd's Company", Missouri and out state members Company B: Missouri and out state members Company C: Illinois (Bureau and Logan Counties) and some Iowa men Company D: Michigan "Michigan Boys”, recruited around the state but the majority came from Battle Creek, Michigan and the greater Calhoun County, Michigan area. Company E: Illinois (Edgar County) Company F: Missouri and out state 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. "To Col J. W. Birge, St. Louis: Sir, you are hereby authorized to raise a regiment of Riflemen to be under your command and to serve for three years or during the war, unless sooner discharged in accordance with the late act of Congress. The men of your Regiment must have produced satisfactory evidence of their ability to hit a target at two hundred yards no three shots to measure more than ten inches. Your Regiment will rendezvous in this city to which place transportation will be furnished to all recruits and subsistence on their arrival. Recruiting officers will be provided with transportation when traveling in connection with their duties. You will report the progress of your organization to the Head Quarters[,] which will be complete in six weeks" — J.C. Fremont, Maj Gen Commanding, As marksmen, Fremont intended that they should have a special uniform 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) gun makers 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