The Ghost Marksmen of the Civil War: The Whitworth Snipers During the American Civil War, a new and terrifying figure emerged on the battlefield: the long-range sniper. Before the 1860s, most rifles were inaccurate beyond a few hundred yards. Battles were fought with mass volleys, not precision shots. But that changed when the Confederacy acquired a small number of Whitworth rifles—British-made weapons unlike anything used before. Designed by Sir Joseph Whitworth, the rifle used a hexagonal-bore