Confederate volunteer companies elected their own officers. The system was a holdover from American militia tradition: when a regiment was raised, each company's enlisted men voted by ballot for their captain and two lieutenants from among themselves. The man with the most popularity won the captaincy. Election produced charismatic officers; it did not always produce competent ones. Confederate regiments arrived in their first engagements with company commanders who had been elected for being well-liked rather than militarily prepared. The Confederate Congress modified the system in 1862 — after Shiloh and the Seven Days had shown the problem — by requiring officer commissions to be approved by examining boards. The change came late.

This W. Britain figure depicts a Confederate infantry company officer in regulation field dress — gray frock coat with the staff officer's gold-laced sleeve braid, light blue trousers, the slouch hat with gold cord. The arms folded across the chest and the sword grounded at his side catch him in a moment of composed authority — before an action, during an inspection, or watching his company form up. He wears the cast brass officer's buckle and the leather sword belt of a Confederate field officer. The figure is the command centerpiece of any Confederate company-level diorama. Pair this figure with Confederate Infantry Officer Marching for a command-and-march pair; with Lt. Gen. James Longstreet as the corps commander above him; or with Texas Brigade Standing Firing for the company line he commands.

Scale: 1/30 (60mm). Matte-painted metal. W. Britain model 31265. From the American Civil War range. Single foot figure, supplied painted and ready for display.