The Confederate commutation system put a soldier's uniform in his mother's hands. The Confederate Quartermaster Department, lacking the manufacturing capacity to clothe its own army, in 1861 adopted commutation: a soldier received an annual money payment in place of government-issued uniforms, and his family at home was expected to produce the clothing the army owed him — usually a jacket, shirt, trousers, and underclothing. The result was real variety. A Texas soldier might wear a jacket sewn by his mother from gray homespun; a Virginia soldier might wear one made by a Richmond seamstress from professional cloth. The figure in this set wears a typical plain nine-button frock coat — possibly home-made, possibly depot-issued, indistinguishable at a distance.

This W. Britain figure depicts a Confederate infantryman advancing in the regulation nine-button frock coat — the longer-skirted dress coat the U.S. Army had adopted in 1859 and the Confederate army copied. He wears the coat in gray-blue cloth, light blue trousers, the broad-brimmed slouch hat, with the cartridge box and brass-buckled belt at his waist. The rifle is leveled with bayonet fixed for either advance-into-fire or close-range engagement. The figure works as a regimental front figure in any Confederate advance diorama. Pair this figure with Confederate Soldier Advancing for a paired Confederate advance; with Confederate in Frock Coat Advancing with CautionConfederate in Frock Coat Advancing with Caution for the advance sequence; or with Confederate Corporal Urging Men Forward as the NCO leading the line.

Scale: 1/30 (60mm). Matte-painted metal. W. Britain model 31379. From the American Civil War range. Single foot figure, supplied painted and ready for display.