VC Icon
VC Icon
A New England Mother’s Thoughts on Memorial Day: “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their … half-gaiters?” What?! "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes!" is more dramatic and poetic than "Don't fire until you see the whites of their half-gaiters!" But the latter is the historically accurate version.

A New England Mother’s Thoughts on Memorial Day: “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their … half-gaiters?” What?!

"Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes!" is more dramatic and poetic than "Don't fire until you see the whites of their half-gaiters!" But the latter is the historically accurate version.

The air was thick with gunpowder and fear as I crouched behind the rough earthen walls we’d scrambled to build atop Breed’s Hill in these last hours of June 17, 1775, and the British were coming — red coats glinting like blood in the summer sun. General Israel Putnam...