The Continental's ability to stand and receive a British charge was Baron von Steuben's gift to the army. The Prussian veteran arrived at Valley Forge in February 1778 with letters from Franklin and Beaumarchais, took the army's worst-drilled regiments in hand, and wrote out a simplified manual of arms in French overnight for translation to the men. He drilled them through the spring on the parade ground beyond Mount Joy, working with a model company of one hundred men whom the rest of the army watched and then copied. The fruit came at Monmouth Court House on June 28, 1778, where Continental brigades — re-formed by Washington after Charles Lee's misordered retreat — stood up to a British counter-attack in the worst heat of the season and held their ground until evening. Steuben's Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States, printed in 1779, became the first American military manual and stayed in service through the War of 1812.

This W. Britain figure shows a Continental holding the line in the position of "make ready" — musket carried across the body with the butt at the right hip and the lock plate to the front, bayonet fixed and angled forward over the left shoulder, eyes scanning across the line of approach. The order is the 1779 regulation with New England red facings: dark blue regimental coat with red collar, lapels, cuffs, and turnbacks, red waistcoat under the coat, white cross-belts supporting the cartridge box and bayonet scabbard, buff breeches with white gaiters, black tricorne pulled low. He holds the ground the Charging No.2 figure is running across and that the standing firing figure shoots over — the three together form the action set of a Continental firing line in 1779 order. Across the field he matches the receiving posture of the British 43rd Foot defending trained on the same Frederick-derived drill.

Model: 16051 / W. Britain 1/30 (60mm) / matte finish / 1 piece set