Federal soldiers writing home about Confederate prisoners and corpses kept reaching for the same comparison: the Confederate uniform, viewed up close, was the color of dust. Confederate cloth came from domestic Southern mills using domestic vegetable dyes — and the result was a uniform color that drifted, depending on the dye batch and the time the cloth had spent in the sun, from gray to grayish-tan to dark tan to oatmeal. After a campaign season's worth of dust, sweat, and exposure, the distinctions blurred further. A Confederate regiment in column might display a half-dozen shades of nominally identical "uniform" cloth. The figure in this set wears one of the tan-end variations — what Federal soldiers called the color of dust.

This W. Britain figure depicts a Confederate infantryman in a single-breasted nine-button frock coat — the one in this set is the tan or oatmeal variant of Confederate cloth, paired with light gray trousers, a tan slouch hat, the cartridge box and brass-buckled belt at his waist. The rifle is held forward in firing-ready position with bayonet fixed, the hand near the breech as he completes the loading sequence. He works as a regimental front figure in any Confederate advance or firing line diorama.

Scale: 1/30 (60mm). Matte-painted metal. W. Britain model 31366. From the American Civil War range. Single foot figure, supplied painted and ready for display.