On the morning of July 1, 1863, John Reynolds's I Corps relieved John Buford's cavalry west of Gettysburg and committed the Iron Brigade — the only all-Western brigade in the Army of the Potomac, made up of veterans from Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan — into the trees of Herbst Woods on McPherson's Ridge. The 24th Michigan was on the brigade's left flank. The regiment had been organized in Detroit in August 1862, joined the Iron Brigade in October, and was the brigade's newest unit — the veteran regiments had not been welcoming, and the Michigan men had not yet earned their Black Hats in serious combat. Gettysburg ended that question. Colonel Henry A. Morrow took the 24th Michigan into the woods with 496 officers and men. The Confederate brigade that hit them later that afternoon — Pettigrew's North Carolinians, anchored by the 26th N.C. Infantry, the largest regiment in the Army of Northern Virginia — was equally fresh and equally determined. The two regiments slugged it out at close range for nearly three hours. The 24th Michigan lost nine successive color bearers to enemy fire. Morrow took a head wound but stayed on the line until the brigade was finally pushed back through Gettysburg town to Cemetery Hill. When the regiment was counted that evening, 397 of the 496 men who had gone into Herbst Woods that morning were dead, wounded, or missing — an 80 percent casualty rate in a single day's fight. The 26th North Carolina opposite them had lost 84 percent. The two regiments produced the highest casualty totals of any pair of opposing regiments in the war.

The W. Britain figure depicts Morrow in the regulation field uniform of a Union infantry colonel: dark blue frock coat with the two rows of buttons, the regulation belt with the cast officer's buckle, and the Model 1850 staff and field officer's sword drawn and held point-down at his right side. The forage cap is the standard pattern — Morrow chose this over the famous Hardee hat his enlisted men were already wearing, which earned the Iron Brigade its "Black Hats" nickname across the Army of the Potomac. He was a Detroit lawyer by profession before the war and a judge of the Recorder's Court — Morrow brought a courtroom calm to command rather than a martial one. Pair this figure with Brig. Gen. John Buford, whose dismounted cavalry held McPherson's Ridge through the morning so the Iron Brigade could be brought into the woods behind them; with Color Sergeant Abel Peck, his own regiment's color bearer killed early in the same fight — the first of the 24th Michigan's nine successive losses of the colors that day; or with Lt. Gen. A.P. Hill, the Confederate III Corps commander whose Heth and Pender divisions attacked the Iron Brigade on McPherson's Ridge.

Scale: 1/30 (60mm). Matte-painted metal. W. Britain model 31243. From the American Civil War range. Single foot figure, supplied painted and ready for display.