The difference between aimed fire and volley fire on the Civil War battlefield was deliberate. Volley fire was the regulation — a company or regiment firing as one, on command, into a general area where the enemy was — and it produced the dense smoke and continuous noise of close-range combat. Aimed fire was something different. A soldier who picked his target and fired only when he had a clear sight could engage individual enemies at two hundred yards or more with the rifled musket. Many Confederate regiments, especially those with prewar hunting backgrounds (Mississippi, Texas, the upper South), preferred aimed fire over volley fire when their officers permitted it. The kneeling position with rifle leveled was the standard aimed-fire posture.

This W. Britain figure depicts a Confederate infantryman in the regulation kneeling-fire position — right knee on the ground, left knee raised to support the left elbow, rifle musket leveled at his shoulder for an aimed shot. He wears the late-war Confederate kit: gray shell jacket, light blue trousers, broad-brimmed slouch hat, the cartridge box on his belt, knapsack with rolled blanket on his back. The figure works as the front rank of any two-rank Confederate firing line, or as a single aimed-fire figure in a skirmish-line diorama. Pair this figure with Texas Brigade Standing Firing for a two-rank firing pair; with Confederate Corporal Urging Men Forward as the NCO directing the fire; or with 1st Texas Flagbearer for the regimental colors.

Scale: 1/30 (60mm). Matte-painted metal. W. Britain model 31267. From the American Civil War range. Single foot figure, supplied painted and ready for display.