Woodford is one of the few brigadiers in the Army of Northern Virginia to raise his own sharpshooter battalion and create it as an independent unit. Men were permanently transferred out of their original unit and permanently placed on its muster roll.

I got my clue about it from an obscure little book I bought at Chimborazo. In Care of Yellow River introduced me to Pvt. Eli Pinson Landers of the 16th Georgia. He mentioned in one undated letter home that a sharp shooter battalion was created with Col. Nathan Hutchins as its commander. Research at the National Archives revealed that the unit was created in 1863 as the Third Georgia Battalion Sharp Shooters. It was the only Georgia state battalion that was not created under Pemberton and unlike the other three battalions, the only one to serve in the Army of Northern Virginia (the other three served in the AoT). The 3rd Georgia was five company strong (250 men and officers on paper).