The Union army that won the Civil War wasn't a single thing. It was Iron Brigade westerners in black Hardee hats, New York Zouaves in red trousers and white turbans, Massachusetts USCT regiments led by Robert Gould Shaw, Maine lumbermen on Little Round Top, Irish immigrants charging across the Bloody Lane at Antietam, Pennsylvania farm boys at Cemetery Ridge. This collection brings together 1/30 scale W. Britain figures of the Federal generals, regimental commanders, color sergeants, and line infantry who fought from First Bull Run in July 1861 to the surrender at Appomattox in April 1865.

The named historical figures anchor the collection. General Ulysses S. Grant, who Lincoln finally chose to command all Union armies after every other general had failed him. Abraham Lincoln, whose Emancipation Proclamation transferred the South's labor force out of Confederate hands and opened the door for Black enlistment. General George G. Meade, who took command of the Army of the Potomac three days before Gettysburg and won. Brigadier General John Buford, whose dismounted cavalry held the ridge west of Gettysburg long enough for the infantry to arrive. General Winfield Scott Hancock, the corps commander who received Pickett's Charge at the angle. And Captain George Armstrong Custer, who broke Stuart's cavalry at East Cavalry Field while Pickett went forward.

The regimental clusters fill in the line. The Iron Brigade in their distinctive black hats — Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan men who held the Federal left at Gettysburg's first day and took 65% casualties before they broke. The 146th New York Zouaves in red trousers and white turbans, fighting at the Wheatfield and the Wilderness. The 54th Massachusetts, the first Black regiment recruited in the North, whose assault on Fort Wagner gave the United States its first Medal of Honor for a Black soldier. The Irish Brigade with their green standard. Berdan's Sharpshooters in green coats with telescopic rifles. Plus generic line infantry, cavalry, artillery, drummers, signalmen, and supporting figures from the W. Britain catalog.