Fellow Sharpshooters;

In 2002, my comrades and I stopped at Falmouth, Virginia. Armed with Wyman Whites memoir and the photo of the Company F, 2nd USSS guard detail, I negotiated traffic while Brian, Dan and Phil rubbernecked between the photo and passing historic homes. I took a side street that dropped to meet the Rappahannock. Spotting a brown, two story warehouse nestled against the bridge abutment, we discovered it served as the guard house where Wyman White was lodged for insubordination. Ascending Gordon Road we spotted a white, two story clapboard house with the same door, shutters and window trim as the photo. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the Co. F house. The clock was ticking and we had miles to travel to reach the Valley for the Recon 2 event, so we reluctantly turned south.

Fortunately, since our visit, Falmouth has made great strides towards preserving and remembering their historic structures. Here is the link on Historical Markers in Falmouth, Virginia: https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=36873

The tablet that marks the site of the O’Bannon/Co. F house was made possible by Company C 2nd USSS: http://www.berdansharpshooters.com/usssbb/viewtopic.php?f=79&t=157

In the Spring of 1863, a collodion artist arrived with his “what is it” wagon at Stoneman’s Switch to make CDV’s of the Third Corps troops camped there. Among his customers were a number of U. S. Sharp Shooters. What makes this series of images so captivating, (and helps establish a timeline when they were taken), is the addition of fresh pine limbs as part of the backdrop.

Brian White has presented a series of the Falmouth/Pine Tree images on Civil War Talk website that provides a in-depth description of history of when and where the images were taken, as well as the Sharpshooters who appear in them. Here is the link: https://civilwartalk.com/threads/2nd-u-s-sharpshooters-at-falmouth.147663/

Bill Skillman
Berdan Sharpshooters Survivors Association