After Gettysburg, Union ordnance officers gathered and inspected roughly thirty-seven thousand muskets from the field. About twenty-four thousand — nearly two-thirds — still had at least one round in the barrel. Six thousand had three to ten loads stacked inside, one on top of the other. One musket had twenty-three. The men carrying those weapons had gone through the loading drill in the noise and smoke and never actually fired — sometimes because the cap misfired, sometimes because they forgot to cap, sometimes because they panicked. The loading drill was muscle memory; firing required a separate act of will.

The eight-figure set captures both halves of the firing-line cycle: four men standing in the aim position with muskets leveled, four in various stages of the nine-step loading drill — handling cartridge, biting cartridge open, charging the powder, ramming the round home. Mixed dress throughout — gray shell jackets, butternut frock coats, brown work jackets, sky-blue captured Federal trousers next to tan butternut, slouch hats and kepis. Stage the firing line opposite the matching Union Infantry Firing and Loading set for the classic two-side musketry exchange, or place it behind the Confederate Infantry Charging as the supporting line covering the advance.

Tradition of London model 0906. 54mm scale (approximately 1/30), white metal, hand-painted in gloss enamel. Eight-piece set: four Confederate infantry standing firing and four in various loading positions, on classic painted bases. Supplied in the Tradition Classic Red Box. Allow 2–3 weeks delivery.