Ramming the cartridge home was the slowest single step in the musket loading sequence and the most prone to error. After biting the cartridge open, priming the pan, and pouring the rest of the powder and ball down the barrel, the soldier had to draw the ramrod from under the musket, reverse it, push the cartridge firmly to the breech, withdraw the ramrod, and return it to its place — and do all of that without dropping the ramrod, losing his place, or letting another man's elbow knock him as he worked. A misseated cartridge could fire weakly, fire poorly, or fail to fire at all. A soldier whose ramrod was caught in the wadding when he tried to withdraw it had a useless musket until he could free it. The Continental Line trained the ramming step harder than any of the others because the consequences of getting it wrong were the worst.

This figure shows a Continental Line soldier in the standing ramming position — left hand on the musket holding it vertical, right hand pulled up high to draw the ramrod free before reversing it to push the next cartridge home. He wears the standard late-Continental uniform: blue coat with red facings, cuffs and lapels, white waistcoat and cross-belts, white breeches, the tricorne worn brim-up. The pose captures the slowest beat of the loading cycle — the moment when the soldier is most vulnerable, unable to fire, his weapon committed to the reload. He pairs with a kneeling firing soldier (the first rank firing while this one reloads), the Continental Line NCO (directing the rotation), and a basic Continental Line soldier — together composing a complete firing-line rotation.

1/30 scale (60mm), matte-painted, single figure boxed. Catalog number 16032. As with the rest of the W. Britain modern range, the painting is photographic-quality detail intended to read well in dioramas and display cases.