The North-South Skirmish Association (N-SSA) held its 151st National Competition May 16-18, 2025, at Fort Shenandoah near Winchester, Va. Member units competed in live-fire matches with original or authentic reproduction Civil War period muskets, carbines, breech-loading rifles, revolvers, mortars and cannon. It is the largest Civil War shooting sports event of its kind.
It was a great national for Virginia units, winning the four major team matches. The 9th Virginia Cavalry won the musket team match with a time of 423.0 seconds for the five-event program. One hundred twenty nine teams participated in this N-SSA signature match of speed and accuracy. The 8th Virginia Infantry won the carbine team match. The 21st Virginia Infantry won with a narrow 9.7 second margin in the smoothbore musket team match, defeating 121 other four-member teams. The 21st Virginia Infantry also won another even narrower 3.7 second victory in the revolver match while besting 58 other teams.
The 2nd Maryland Artillery took the gold medals by almost a full minute in the breech loading rifle match. The 1st Regiment, Illinois Light Artillery won the Spencer team match and the Nansemond Guards defeated 30 other teams in the newly popular single-shot pistol match. In the artillery matches, the soggy main range conditions limited competition, but still brought out 30 guns to compete. The winners included the 1st Maryland Cavalry in the smoothbore class; McGregor’s 2nd Battery in the rifled class; Hardaway’s Alabama Battery won howitzer class and the 1st Maryland Cavalry won again in the rifled howitzer class.
The N-SSA is the country’s oldest and largest Civil War shooting sports organization with 3,000 individuals that make up its 200 member units. Each represents a particular unit or regiment and proudly wears the uniform they wore over 160 years ago. The 152nd National Competition is scheduled for October 3-5, 2025 at Fort Shenandoah, just north of Winchester, Va. For more information on the N-SSA, visit the organization’s website here.
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