On 9 July 1755, a column of British regulars under General Edward Braddock marched in close European order toward Fort Duquesne, near the forks of the Ohio. Short of the fort they were met by a smaller force of Compagnies Franches de la Marine, Canadian militia, and Indigenous allies who fought from cover in the forest the way the British would not. The ambush became a slaughter; Braddock was killed and his army broke. It was the kind of war the marines of New France had learned to wage — mobile, irregular, fought from behind the trees — and for two decades it let a thin French garrison hold a continent against far larger enemies.

W. Britain shows the marine in the "make ready" — the musket brought up vertical as he prepares to load and present. He wears the Compagnies Franches uniform: the greyish-white justaucorps with blue cuffs and lining, blue waistcoat, white breeches and gaiters, and the black tricorne, with a cartridge box on a buff belt. He forms a fort garrison or firing line with the standing Compagnie Franche marine beside him, the Compagnies Franches Officer directing the volley, and the drummer beating the call to arms.

W. Britain model 47041. 54mm scale, gloss-finished metal. Single foot figure on a plain rectangular base. Boxed.