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biography Hiram Berdan was a New York inventor who came to
prominence in the time just before the beginning of the American
Civil War (1865). At the outbreak of the war, he was recruited
as an officer in the Army of the Potomac, part of the Union army
of the North. For fifteen years consecutively, prior to the
outbreak of war, Hiram Berdan had been recognised as the most
accomplished sharpshooter in the country. His inventions were
generally geared towards marksmanship or war machines, his most
famous being the repeating rifle.  When the war started Berdan
was the obvious choice to be the leader of a group of men whose
skills were to be honed towards long-range marksmanship. He
helped to create the United States Sharpshooters, and assisted
recruits in their training. Because of his innovative ideas, the
two regiments of sharpshooters were equipped with some of the
most advanced weaponry of the time, including telescopic lenses
for rifles. The sharpsh