The Irish Brigade's most famous fight was Marye's Heights at Fredericksburg on December 13, 1862. The Federal II Corps was ordered to assault a stone wall at the base of the heights — held by Cobb's Georgia brigade, itself composed largely of Irish-American immigrants — in a series of frontal charges that became the day's most futile slaughter. The Irish Brigade went forward with their regimental Green Flags conspicuous above the dark blue line. They reached a fence line about fifty yards from the stone wall, could go no farther under the close-range musketry, and lay down to return fire. By the time they withdrew that evening they had lost 545 men in roughly half an hour — Irish-Americans on both sides of a stone wall.

This W. Britain figure depicts an Irish Brigade soldier in the regulation kneeling-fire position — right knee on the ground, left knee raised to support the left elbow, rifle musket leveled and steady. He wears the standard Federal infantry kit: dark blue blouse, light blue trousers, dark forage cap, the rolled blanket and canteen across his chest, the cartridge box on his belt. The kneeling firer is the front rank of any two-rank firing line and pairs naturally with the brigade's standing firing figures for a complete diorama. Pair this figure with Irish Brigade Standing Firing No.1, the standing rear-rank companion; with Irish Brigade Kneeling Ramming for the loading-then-firing pair; or with Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock, the II Corps commander under whom the Irish Brigade served from Antietam through the Overland Campaign.

Scale: 1/30 (60mm). Matte-painted metal. W. Britain model 31347. From the American Civil War range. Single foot figure, supplied painted and ready for display.