Wyman White, Company F, 2nd U. S. Sharpshooters, described entering Falmouth after they passed the scene of the previous night’s initial cavalry fight. They were witnessing the horrors of war for the first time and the memories would be indelible. White would rise to first or orderly sergeant of his company and would write his highly perceptive memoirs after World War I: “…we marched past the barricade and place of the charge and I shall never forget the shock and the feelings of the sight of the dead and wounded men as they lay there in the dust of the road in their own life’s blood. One of the wounded lay there with his bowels protruding from a saber wound, still alive and conscious. These were terrible scenes for me and they were sickening. I pulled my cap down over my eyes for I had seen enough and it seemed that the sights like this would be almost unendurable to soldiers in battle.” Charles Teasdale, Company E, 84th New York Infantry (14th “Brooklyn” NYSM), reported the same scene in virtually identical words.

The picture is of Sharpshooter reenactors who were among the first units to participate in Falmouth’s annual “Yankees in Falmouth….and some Confederates too” living history event.  Notice their green uniforms.